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There's no question that Tottenham Hotspur could use another goal-scorer in 2026 when the next transfer windows open up. This past summer, they signed Randal Kolo Muani on loan from PSG to go with the permanent signing of left winger Mathys Tel and the completely new addition of a true star right winger in Mohammed Kudus.

But Spurs are still struggling on the attacking end, even with Kudus looking like one of the signings of the season. Kolo Muani has been unable to debut owing to a "dead leg", while last season's starting striker Dominic Solanke has been out for a prolonged period of time with an injury. And Richarlison is struggling again after a nice few games to start the 2025/26 season.

Tottenham could have signed a permanent solution at striker last summer, and one of the most attractive options was free agent Jonathan David, who was widely seen as one of the best free transfers on the market after a few 15-goal seasons in Lille and his development into one of Europe's better all-around strikers.

David has been decent in Serie A, but his performances in the Champions League for Juventus have been atrocious. He dropped another true stinker in a draw to Villarreal, as the goals from the Biancneri came from a center back and a winger, rather than anything David did up top.

Bigger wages than goal output?

On his new contract with Juventus, David is making a little over 11 million euros per season, which would make him the highest-paid player on Tottenham, even above Cristian Romero and Xavi Simons. There should be no question that Romero and Simons are way, way better players than David. They are true world-class players, whereas David has been good for Lille but is certainly not world-class.

The other aspect to this is that Juve wanted to sign Kolo Muani and largely focused on David because PSG were not giving them RKM. Tottenham, meanwhile, likely chopped David off their transfer wishlist entirely because of concerns of blowing their money on his wages, and while Spurs can be criticized for being too cheap at times, they are very smart to not fall for the "free" part of the free agent moniker and saddle themselves with a bad contract in the process.

David will do better for Juve going forward, but it's clear that for the wages, he's not a great option at striker and is debatably better than any of Spurs options when everyone is healthy. Tottenham should be looking at long-term striker options, but, in the end, they were right for passing up on the Canadian international.

When Tottenham Hotspur made the decision to part ways with Ange Postecoglou after they won the Europa League title for the first time in more than 40 years, the move certainly wasn't popular amongst some sections of the Spurs fanbase.

While most of the criticism had to do with the way in which Daniel Levy went about the change - delaying a move that he seemed to have his heart set on anyway - there were plenty of fans who carried a grudge against Thomas Frank due to their affinity for Postecoglou.

It didn't take long for Big Ange to a get a new coaching job, and he's clearly not endearing himself to Nottingham Forest fans under Evangelos Marinakis - an owner whom Premier League supporters, including Tottenham's, have little love for, especially after the Morgan Gibbs-White transfer ordeal.

Well, as it turns out, Tottenham fans couldn't be more happy with the fact that Big Ange is coaching Forest, or with the fact that Spurs fired him and replaced him with Thomas Frank. Not only are Spurs getting better results in the Premier League and playing competitive football in the Champions League under Frank, but Postecoglou is doing the same old garbage with his new team.

Ange Postecoglou runs players into the dirt

Nottingham Forest fans are enraged at how Postecoglou is running his players ragged, especially star center backs Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic. And that was highlighted by the injury Murillo suffered on Thursday night in a 3-2 loss to Danish side FC Midtjylland.

Murillo is one of Forest's most important players, and Postecoglou negligently rushed him back against the better judgment of everyone. Fans can't believe Postecoglou pushed him to play against Midtjylland and were unsurprised to see him immediately reinjured in the first half of the match, dooming Forest to an utter defensive meltdown.

It's the exact scene Tottenham supporters witnessed at their club over the past two seasons under Big Ange, who seemed to use his players with reckless abandon, especially star center backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero. The two had recurring injuries and were burned out badly by the Postecoglou "system".

Even now, the lasting legacy of Postecoglou's brutal approach has lived on with significant injuries to Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke, and James Maddison, who have all been out for months. Postecoglou is already doing the same exact thing within weeks of his appointment at Nottingham Forest, and his Murillo mistake is only further reassurance to Spurs supporters that the right thing happened this summer.

Tottenham Hotspur will face newly promoted Leeds United on Saturday afternoon, and even though Spurs are fourth in the Premier League table and have made real strides under Thomas Frank in his first six matches at the helm, they are at serious risk of an upset defeat.

There are a couple of historical reasons why Spurs supporters should be worried about more dropped points on Saturday, beyond the fact that they've drawn their last three non-League Cup fixtures against lowly Wolves, Bodo Glimt, and Brighton.

Tottenham have a bad track record against newly promoted Premier League teams, and Leeds have proven to be tough nuts to crack, especially at home. They aren't losing in their own grounds, and, right now, they are actually 12th in the Premier League table and outperforming expectations with more wins than European sides Newcastle, Aston Villa, and Nottingham Forest to this early point in the season.

There's also another wrinkle that makes things interesting for Tottenham but in a bad way. Tottenham haven't won their last seven matches going into an international break, and any Spurs fan will tell you that this team has a rough time going into the breaks.

Thomas Frank must pass this test, too

Now, most of these losses were in the Ange Postecoglou era, and Big Ange had Tottenham toiling away in 17th in the Premier League; they were disastrous on weekends but champions of the mid-week. But even Thomas Frank and Spurs broke up some great performances with their worst of the season against Bournemouth before the September international break.

So without a signature win of late and faced against a stingy, defensive smaller side that is playing better than expected, Tottenham have a tough task on the road. This matchup against Leeds is going to be more difficult than it looks on paper, and even the most optimistic of Spurs fans have to call this a big test for Frank.

Tottenham Hotspur are on the verge of extending veteran center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, and if you asked Spurs supporters how they would feel about this move roughly six months ago, the majority would probably be all for it. But now, Spurs fans are starting to wonder if keeping Bentancur around for a few more years makes sense at all.

Lately, Bentancur has been earning criticism from fans, and they are absolutely right - and quite sharp at picking out the problem here. Bentancur, especially in juxtaposition to Archie Gray, is playing a lot less positive. He holds onto the ball, he's not really creating anything meaningful, and he plays scared against any sort of pressure.

For a few seasons, Bentancur has been a serviceable player for Tottenham, and when their midfield was at its worst, he was practically a gift from above and was one of the few players who could reliably string some passes together and give Spurs some semblance of a feel of a real midfield under the Wild West that was Ange Postecoglou's reign.

But now that Tottenham are no longer a 17th-placed side in a Premier League with three historically bad promoted teams, Bentancur no longer looks like a savior, but, rather, a mediocre footballer who is, quite frankly, a liability against certain sides.

Rodrigo Bentancur is not a net positive

Juventus fans will see all of these opinions from Tottenham fans about Bentancur and simply chuckle to themselves, because during that bleak 2020/21 Serie A season under Andrea Pirlo when the Bianconeri first lost their hegemony of the venerable Scudetto, the young Uruguayan's stock plummeted.

That's the problem with Bentancur. He's not bad technically, he has experience, and he works hard enough defensively. It's just that he never stands out in any particular area, and he's not got the bravery or the chops to drive the ball forward to the team. He is a net zero, which is good for a team that needs to avoid getting totally run over, but it's useless for a team that wants to start competing at the elite level of European football, which is what clubs like Juventus and Tottenham aim for.

Tottenham are rapidly outgrowing players like Bentancur. The best thing to do is to thank them for their service to the club, politely acknowledge their positive contributions, but also be mindful that their ceiling is capped and that Spurs have to move on to grow as a club. Keeping Bentancur around is stagnation, and while there are a lot of bad things we can say about how Juve are managed, at least they weren't willing to settle for that with Bentancur.

There's no question that new Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank has been a considerable upgrade to this early point in the season - not just above Ange Postecoglou but above any of the managers that have been in charge since Mauricio Pochettino fell off.

Spurs fans are debating about the team's quality after three straight draws (not counting Doncaster in the League Cup), whereas, a year ago, three straight losses in the Premier League would have been the norm. Frank, though, is still learning about his new team, and he's also learning about what it means to coach Tottenham.

With all due respect to Brentford and the underdog story Frank so beautifully wrote with the local rivals, they aren't Spurs. The expectations at a club that belongs in the Champions League every year are way different, and, thus, Frank has to adjust his own outlook accordingly.

An early issue that has hampered Frank, particularly in recent matches, is taking a too negative approach against inferior competition. Tottenham should be beating Brighton, Wolves, and Bodo Glimt. They should be beating Wolves and Bodo Glimt handily, and, last season, they literally knocked Bodo Glimt out of the Europa League semifinals without breaking too much of a sweat.

Tottenham need to be more fearless

This season, Spurs couldn't beat any of them and relied on late heroics to get a point in all three cases. They started the game very slowly and lethargically against both the Seagulls and their Champions League foes on Tuesday night, and that's in large part because Frank set up his midfield and entire squad to play it safe.

Tottenham need their manager to project more confidence and select lineups that enable the team to play more fearlessly against teams when they have much better players than the opposition. There's no question that with their budget and with players of Spurs star quality, they should be owning Wolves and Bodo Glimt, even when they don't start the stars like Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons.

Frank didn't show fear as Brentford manager in leading players like Mikel Damsgaard, Kevin Schade, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, and Ivan Toney to career attacking seasons. He can, therefore, do even more with Simons, Kudus, and even Richarlison and Brennan freaking Johnson.

A club like Tottenham is only leaving valuable points on the table in the Premier League title race and Champions League place battle when they don't set their team up for attacking success against smaller sids that are, naturally, going to play to counter and make goals very difficult. You'll always make mistakes against any opponent; the key, as Hansi Flick has shown us, to beating smaller opponents is to simply outscore them via superiority.

Thomas Frank's had a few howlers in the manager's chair over the past couple of weeks, but he silver lining about three straight draws is that Tottenham Hotspur and their beloved manager can learn an awful lot from these mistakes and the unsuccessful iterations of experimentation that have gone on during these games.

Tottenham already knew coming into the 2025/26 season that new signing Mohammed Kudus from "rivals" West Ham United would be pivotal to their success under Frank, and Kudus has immediately been one of the best signings in European football and a clear focal point of the attack.

Whenever possible, Spurs have gotten Kudus involved, and he has made the right wing his home. But because of his dominance on the right side, Tottenham have found it hard to get Brennan Johnson involved. The previous right winger, who led Spurs in goals last season, actually got a chance to spread his wings on the left side of the attack against Bournemouth, but he was a total failure in that position.

So, naturally, Frank decided to do the opposite. With Spurs searching for a goal in the second half against Wolves, he brought on the Europa League Final hero Johnson as a substitute in the 62nd minute. But in order to accommodate Johnson, Frank shipped out Kudus to the left wing, and the result was predictably disastrous.

Thomas Frank saw what we already knew

Now, you'd expect Frank to have known, as a successful Premier League manager, that Kudus and the left wing don't mix. West Ham already went there and tried that last season, and Kudus was horrible on the left. Johnson isn't much better, but the drop off between Kudus on the right and left is much bigger than Johnson from the right to the left, simply because Kudus is so much more effective at baseline in his preferred position.

Frank learned something important by experimenting and seeing it for himself. Kudus isn't an option on the left wing, and in case he had any illusions about solving his post-Son Heung-min problem on the left by starting him there and then bringing in Johnson as a starting right winger, then that was all mooted in mere minutes vs. Wolves.

Tottenham Hotspur have so many young players breaking through in the 2025/26 season, and after adding Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus to the mix this summer transfer window, it's difficult to find minutes for everyone.

Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, Brennan Johnson, Archie Gray, Mathys Tel, and Wilson Odobert are a handful of young players fighting for regular minutes around the main stars of the team, and all of them have the potential to be key players and among the best in their positions in the Premier League if all goes well with their developments.

But it's not just the outfield players worth keeping an eye on. Tottenham fans have been increasingly banging the table for young Antonin Kinsky to get some starts, as the 22-year-old Czech shot-stopper has impressed whenever he's been given starts in cup games for Spurs.

Kinsky's latest solid result was a clean sheet against Doncaster, and while that's not necessarily the biggest test, the composure he brings to the table is highly impressive, along with the raw skills he has.

Guglielmo Vicario is good, not great

Tottenham starter Guglielmo Vicario is someone with a lot of raw ability in terms of reflexes and shot-stopping, but Spurs fans have grown increasingly discontented with his mistakes. He drops the ball a lot, his handling overall is poor, he flails at crosses, and his distribution and security on the ball are both below what you'd expect from an otherwise good goalkeeper.

Vicario is a good goalkeeper, and his issues are often exaggerated. But even though he's prevented 1.8 more goals than expected above an average goalkeeper this season in the Premier League, his average of 0.30 goals prevented per 90 in league play would be erased by an overlay of his negative 0.40 goals above expected allowed in the Champions League.

Tottenham do need to play Kinsky more often, but it's not just about Vicario. At 28, Vicario can still be a good goalkeeper for Spurs over the next five years, but at 22, Kinsky is someone who can potentially be world-class for a decade. If he's playing this well in limited minutes at 22, then imagine what Kinsky could do with regular time and what he could become when he is in his prime at 28.

Vicario is good, but he's too flawed to be great. Because he's not a world-class goalkeeper, he's not so good that Tottenham can't afford to play Kinsky, too, and see what they have in Kinsky. Because there's a legitimate chance that Kinsky ends up being even better than Vicario, and while that's not really a slight on Vicario, Tottenham do owe Kinsky - and the club itself - a real chance to see if the Czech international can be the guy long-term. And sometimes, long-term isn't as far away as people think.

Tottenham Hotspur have obviously been boosted significantly by the summer addition of Portuguese midfielder Joao Palhinha, whose loan signing from Bayern Munich has been one of the most inspired moves of the entire Premier League summer transfer window.

The thing is, Palhinha hasn't been the only big breakout for Spurs this season in the middle of the park, and it's very easy to forget, but Senegalese international Pape Matar Sarr was equally brilliant for club and country to start the 2025/26 campaign.

Sarr was a bit of a forgotten figure under Ange Postecoglou last season, but he looked like a man revived under Thomas Frank during the highly successful initial games for Spurs. He was covering an absurd amount of ground and even showing more verve and technical quality on the attacking end than in the previous campaign.

Frank seems to have made Sarr less of a focus in recent weeks, though. He didn't get into the team against Brighton when they drew 2-2, and he only played 12 minutes for Spurs to close the fortunate 1-1 draw with Wolves, and, in fact, he was on the pitch to assist the game-tying goal.

Tottenham have been better with him

With the caveat that Sarr wasn't exactly great in his 68 minutes against Bodo Glimt, it does seem like Tottenham's best games have come with Sarr as a starter while, besides Bodo Glimt and Bournemouth in which the entire team was dreadful, some of the more disappointing outings have been without him.

Regardless, Sarr has passed the eye test this season with flying colors as a dynamic ball-winner and progessor. He's certainly been superior to Rodrigo Bentancur in the middle of the park, and beyond Palhinha, he's probably been Spurs best midfielder, showing more consistency than the young Lucas Bergvall (and we don't quite have enough of a sample size on Xavi Simons, given all the minutes wasted away with him on the left wing).

Sarr, by the way, scored in the win over West Ham, and after watching the quality of the goals he scored for Senegal in important moments in the last international break, there's more attacking firepower for Frank to harness with Sarr than Ange Postecoglou and even the fans likely thought. He's more than a box-to-box maven who defends and progresses at a high level.

Spurs best midfield involves some combination of Palhinha, Bergvall, and Sarr behind Simons in the 10 position. Going forward, Sarr has to be a regular for Tottenham, and if there's a way Spurs can start all four without shoehorning Simons into a left wing role, then that would be ideal for Tottenham. Sarr has been too immense, as Wolves can attest, to leave to rot on the bench.

Most of the time, positive analysis is the best way to go. Who is Tottenham Hotspur's best center back partnership? Well, that's obviously Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven. Who is the best option on the left wing? Which midfield is the best for Thomas Frank to use in the big games and which is the best against teams that park the bus?

But sometimes, it's good to go the opposite direction - albeit doing this more sparingly and without running the risk of exaggeration. That is to say, sometimes it's useful to think about the "worst" case and discuss why that is and how to avoid it.

Against Bodo Glimt, I couldn't help but think to myself that Tottenham stumbled upon the worst possible attacking partnership, and it's one they've used before this season. In order to spell Mohammed Kudus some rest, Tottenham gave him the night off against Bodo Glimt (or so they thought...he came in for the final 30 minutes anyway).

In his place, Spurs started Brennan Johnson again on the right wing, and while he was the team's leading goal-scorer last season in the Premier League, there's a reason why Tottenham look so much better in 2025/26 with Kudus on the right wing.

A bad night for Tottenham vs. Bodo Glimt

Johnson and striker Richarlison were beyond belief in the attack. They were horrendous. Tottenham were fortunate to have gotten a point against Bodo Glimt, because these two looked in no way, shape, or form capable of creating anything meaningful beyond that late own goal.

Richarlison's hot start to the 2025/26 campaign seems like a thing of the past, as this was his latest dud of a performance up top with no other alternative available due to injuries to Randal Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke. The Brazilian international did nothing statistically meaningful besides one shot on target and one foul drawn.

Honestly, Johnson was even worse. He didn't even draw a foul or muster a shot on target, and as the adage goes, if he isn't scoring goals for Tottenham, he isn't helping the team. Even in his favored position on the right wing, Johnson was a total nonfactor, and it's so hard to build as a unit at the Champions League level when you have a winger who is doing that little.

Neither Richarlison nor Johnson mesh well. They are on the opposite wavelength. Johnson is a poacher who can't create for the striker, while Richarlison is someone who needs a player to play off of, like a Kudus. Frank has to take what we saw against Bodo Glimt seriously and realize that Johnson and Richarlison cannot start together as the main threats up top because neither will score or create as a pair.

Tottenham Hotspur are now winless in their last three games after just eking out a draw against Bodo Glimt in the Champions League, days after they suffered another last-minute draw to an inferior opponent in Wolves in the Premier League.

Now, there's nothing disastrous about drawing three matches in a row. Technically, that's the continuation of an undefeated streak for Tottenham, and it's a much better "slump" than what would have qualified as a slump under Ange Postecoglou last season when Spurs finished 17th in the Premier League.

That being said, the standard is now higher at Tottenham under Thomas Frank, which is a good thing. And so there's going to be more of a focus on improvement and what Frank can do to keep making Tottenham better and better.

One recent change he's been experimenting with that needs to be stopped is the usage of young Lucas Bergvall as a No. 10. There's been some rhetoric about Bergvall being converted into an attacking playmaker from a box-to-box midfielder, and it's evident after these recent games that this would be a mistake.

Lucas Bergvall isn't a No. 10

To wit, Tottenham started Bergvall as an attacking midfielder against Wolves, and he was terrible. It was, in conjunction with his performance against Brighton in a more advanced role, his worst start of the season. Bergvall was ineffective at playmaking in both of these Premier League encounters, failing to register a single key pass.

What's worse for Tottenham is that against Wolves, Bergvall wasn't even able to impact the game as a ball-winner or progressor either in this role. Sometimes, managers outsmart themselves by saying, "Hey, I have a great young midfielder, why don't I just play him closer to the goal and we'll score more!"

That's overly simplistic, because the entire team scores less when you take a great athlete on both ends of the pitch away from an area where they can impact the game defensively and offensively in terms of covering ground. Bergvall hasn't been able to exert his full influence in a more advanced role, and he honestly doesn't have the same creation or technical quality to thrive as a pure 10 like a Xavi Simons or James Maddison.

Bergvall is good at creating chances, but he's better at carrying the ball and winning duels. He's able to do so much more for Tottenham in a deeper, box-to-box role where he can cover half the pitch, rather than being stuck second-guessing himself and often on the periphery of the game when he's further ahead.