Okay. We’ve gone through the squad. We’ve looked at who should be an integral part of the squad next season, who could find greener pastures elsewhere, and who needs further development; so how does that all fit together?
Now that we’ve assessed Spurs’ current player cadre, it’s time to shift from the individual to the strategic. How do the players fit into Frank’s tactics? What does the squad depth look like in key positions? And where do the Spurs front office need to invest going forward?
Before we get started, it may pay to familiarize yourself with the prior pieces in this series, which we will be referencing a fair amount:
The Goalkeepers
The Center Backs
The Fullbacks
The Midfield
The Wingers
The Strikers
Right, let’s jump in.
Frank’s Tactics
Before we look at the squad in totality, it’s important to briefly look at how Thomas Frank uses his squad. Though he is typically quite flexible with his formations, there is a pattern to that flexibility, as well as some core principles as to how he likes his teams to play. I’ll be doing a more in-depth write-up on the latter, but here’s the Cliff’s Notes.
Firstly, it’s my belief that Frank will set up his side largely in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. Frank used the 4-3-3 almost exclusively in Brentford’s Championship promotion campaign, before largely switching to either a three- or five-at-the-back structure in Brentford’s first season in the Premiership. As time has gone on, and Brentford have improved and become more of a Premier League staple, Frank has relied more and more once again on a back four. When he does utilize a back three / five, it tends to be almost exclusively when he wants his sides to operate more defensively against a team he perceives to be stronger.
Last season, Frank’s most used formation was a 4-2-3-1, with a 4-3-3 used a chunk as well. The key difference between these two tends to be the midfield structure in buildup, with the 4-2-3-1 utilizing more of a double pivot, but the 4-3-3 making use of either a single pivot, or a slightly more conservative structure where the midfield three operate in more of a pendulum fashion, with the two players sitting deeper dependent on the side of the pitch from which the play is originating.
A couple of other principles to note:
Frank likes his sides to build from deep
With that said, he is not afraid to play direct, either over the center backs or through the channels
He likes to often switch play, requiring some ambitious passing at times from deep
He likes his wingers to often start wide and high, but make runs into the channels
He also likes to utilize crosses, especially from the half-spaces, with his tactics in attack often engineered to allow players to deliver from those positions - whether that be the wingers, attacking midfielders, or fullbacks
Keep that in mind as we look at the squad.
Here’s our starting point after I have brutalized Spurs’ squad. I’ll lay out in more detail further down as to what this looks like in terms of depth at each position, but there’s a couple of takeaways from this overview.
Firstly, Spurs’ depth isn’t terrible! That is, if they make the requisite investments. I’ve mentioned through this series what I view as vitally important moves to make, with a new CM, winger, and defender the priorities, in that order. I mentioned above that Frank often likes quick switches of play from deep, regularly utilizing the passing range of one of his midfielders to create space for his forwards. The problem here is that Spurs don’t really have any deep long passers. The closest options are Lucas Bergvall, who is still extremely raw on the ball, and Rodrigo Bentancur, who is more of a jack-of-all-trades type than somebody especially known for their passing.
The winger situation becomes a little more intriguing now that Spurs have locked in Mathys Tel, who I think will be excellent under Thomas Frank. It does make the many links to wingers in the media interesting as well, with my thinking Spurs are more likely to sell to buy. That’s why I have an asterisk next to Son, Johnson, and Odobert. I’d assessed Johnson as a sell if the right offer came in, but if it didn’t, and Sonny opted to head elsewhere (which is starting to sound more and more like a plausible option), then that frees up a slot. Alternatively, Odobert could go out on loan to get more minutes under his belt and to continue his development. There’s a player there, but he’s still very raw.
It still seems clear as well that Spurs need an extra defender. For me, I saw enough evidence last season that Ben Davies is now in physical decline, and if we are going into the season with him as our fourth center back / main left-sided backup, I think Spurs will have problems. We know Micky van de Ven has a pretty sordid injury history (even before coming to Spurs) and so we need somebody reliable in that spot; even better if they can also cover at left back.
The other signings I have suggested are in midfield. I think there could be a lot of utility in adding another attacking midfielder, particularly one that could deputize out wide. Lastly, if Spurs moved on both Bentancur and Bissouma, there would be a need for a second central midfielder to round things out. If the club are confident in Sarr and Bergvall to cover that second central role, then it’s possible they could look for a younger, high-upside option.
So what does the depth look like in each position?
I’ve broken down the team by position, and then assigned players to each. I’ve then split the positions into a few groupings: the First XI, key backups, rotation options (players who are either First XI or backups in a different position but could cover here as well), and youth. One thing to note is that rather than splitting the central midfielders into a #6 and #8, I have split them into “passer” and “runner” roles - quite similar to the #6 and #8, but not as how you may have thought of them under Ange Postecoglou.
You can see that if the aforementioned player signings are made, things are actually looking pretty healthy! Arguably striker is the position of least depth; but all of Son, Tel, Kulusevski, and Johnson (if Son heads away instead) can cover there in a pinch. That’s without taking into account the fact that Frank doesn’t necessarily need a target-man type striker for his “system” to work, happily using forwards who can either run in behind (like Tel and Johnson), or drop deep and facilitate for the wingers (Kulusevski).
It does as well indicate that if Spurs sign another defender, time could be limited for Archie Gray. It could be the case that Spurs opt to send him on a loan to get more regular playing time - I would be willing to bet a number of lower-level Prem teams or Championship sides would be more than happy to take him on.
We can take a little bit more of a detailed look at depth by laying it out in numbers comparing the coming season to 2024/25:
In these numbers, I have included each player only once (so removing the rotation options, and just assigning a player to each position), with the “+” numbers indicating where the player is a youth player, or “break glass in case of emergency” option.
Starting with the keepers, you can see there is a drop-off - but that’s not a bad thing in this case. At the end of last season, Forster was never going to see the pitch, and Austin had been supplanted by Kinsky coming in. The emergency option there was Alfie Whiteman, who was never going to play. It is very, very unlikely that Spurs end up requiring a fourth keeper.
The center back numbers in my proposed squad have stayed the same; with Dragusin heading out, and a new defender heading in. The fullback numbers are down one, but only due to losing Reguilon, who again, was only an emergency case who barely saw the pitch.
In midfield, the central midfield options have stayed steady, with an extra youth option in the shape of Alfie Devine being added to the numbers; likewise at the #10 - though I have shuffled some players around in that particular case. I had Kulusevski at the #10 last season, but have shifted him to the wing this season with a new #10 coming in (that’s not to say he won’t play at the #10, just that’s where I have him contributing depth for this exercise).
That leaves us with the forward line. We are one number down there, but remember that Timo Werner was all but banished from the squad in the second half of 24/25, and that Mikey Moore is likely to be much more of a squad contributor this season. There’s also the possibility that Spurs could add another young option (like I mentioned above) or that there’s somebody from the academy the club has its eye on to make up numbers if required.
What about homegrown numbers?
Ah yes - that old chestnut. For the sake of brevity, I won’t go into the rules in detail - rather I’ll be doing a repeat of last year’s piece at some point as the squad starts to move closer towards its final shape (and for now, you can check that out here). The long and short of it is that Spurs are fine when it comes to Premier League homegrown players; but UEFA rules are more restrictive, so that means some tough decisions as to the Champions League squad:
In a nutshell, Spurs have too many players. There is a 25-player limit, with eight of those needing to be association or club-trained (with a maximum of four of those being association-trained). That leaves 17 slots for List A Non-homegrown players, with this proposed squad being two players over that limit.
There’s only really one thing Spurs can do about that (as it is unfortunately not a possibility to use a time machine to make Lucas Bergvall into a List A club-trained player) - and that is to not register players. There’s one obvious name there in the form of Ben Davies (which would then allow the likes of Solanke to shift across to an association-trained spot). Another could be Dejan Kulusevski, depending on the severity of his injury - if he is expected to be out for a significant chunk of the first half of the season, he could be left off the squad list (and then just registered in January, potentially in place of someone else).
And that’s the squad, and the series! We’ve gone through the team with a fine-toothed comb, followed by a sledgehammer (much like the readers have come for my kneecaps in the comments) and this is the end result.
There have been some tough calls, and some easy ones; however, one thing is painfully clear to me, and that is that this squad needs some serious (painful) rebuilding if Spurs are to compete in both the Champions League, and the Premier League this coming season - especially as the sides around Spurs continue to strengthen themselves.
What do you think? Is this a squad Thomas Frank could work with? Where do you see the key areas of investment? Am I just a crazy person yelling at clouds? Feel free to give your thoughts in the comments.
