One yr into the Ange Postecoglou period and again in Europe, Tottenham head into the brand new season determined to lastly finish their trophy drought. There have been indications final time period that they’re on the right track, so what’s going to 2024-25 convey?
Can Spurs Shore Up the Defence With out Drastic Adjustments in Personnel?
Everyone seems to be just about universally agreed that supervisor Ange Postecoglou ought to be proud of final season’s again 4 and goalkeeper.
In Cristian Romero, they’ve one of many world’s greatest centre-backs and one of many squad’s leaders, and Pedro Porro has excelled since his change to right-back beneath Postecoglou. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, left-back Future Udogie, and centre-back Micky van de Ven had been wonderful of their debut season at Spurs, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to counsel they need to all enhance additional with time on the membership.
Radu Dragusin and Archie Grey will each put stress on the beginning gamers, however no person is anticipating both to nail down an everyday beginning spot. With out splashing enormous cash, it’s possible that Spurs play subsequent season with precisely the identical again 5 as final.
However whereas each supervisor and followers appear to be content material with these gamers, Spurs’ defensive performances final season left quite a bit to be desired. There’s little doubt that the workforce must be far more defensively sound if they’re to attain their lofty targets beneath the Australian.
Spurs conceded 61 targets in 38 video games, placing them in mid-table within the Premier League, with the identical document as Thirteenth-placed Fulham and three targets worse than eight-placed Manchester United and Tenth-placed Crystal Palace (58 targets conceded).
However in addition they had the seventh-worst document within the league for anticipated targets conceded (64.6), forward solely of the three relegated sides, West Ham, Man Utd and Wolves, suggesting they had been too open and allowed their opponents far too many possibilities.
On high of that, Spurs additionally allowed their opponents high-quality possibilities, with the typical xG worth of every shot they confronted the second-highest of all Premier League groups at 0.13 xG per shot.
There must be a giant enchancment subsequent season, and there are just a few key areas that the gamers have to work on if there’s to be no change in personnel. No workforce conceded extra pictures following a person error within the Premier League final season than Spurs (24), whereas in addition they conceded eight targets from penalties, a lot of which appeared extremely avoidable.
Solely Newcastle (45), Luton (42) and Man Utd (41) conceded extra pictures from counter-attacks than them (39), and set-pieces had been additionally a difficulty (extra on them to comply with), with solely three groups conceding the next proportion of their targets from set-piece conditions than Tottenham (26%).
This isn’t an issue solely for the defenders – the central midfielders want to guard the defence higher, the forwards have to press extra successfully to assist stop fast transitions, and everybody must take extra care to keep away from errors – however there are clearly some apparent areas for the first-choice defenders to deal with. In the event that they don’t present some actual enchancment early on subsequent season, it could be that Postecoglou has to rethink his beginning lineup.
Can Solanke Exchange Kane?
Quick reply: no.
There’s no changing Harry Kane. There’s no participant on the planet – notably one Spurs might afford – who might do what Kane did in north London.
However this model of Spurs aren’t on the lookout for a direct alternative for his or her document goalscorer. Postecoglou doesn’t ask his centre-forward to drop deep and hyperlink play as a lot as peak Kane did for Tottenham. So the truth that document signing Dominic Solanke can’t do every thing Kane does isn’t an enormous drawback.
What Spurs do want from their new striker, although, is targets.
Final season, solely captain and star ahead Son Heung-min scored persistently, and he didn’t submit Kane-replacing numbers, racking up 17 Premier League targets. Richarlison was their second-highest scorer, however 9 of his 11 targets got here in an eight-game purple patch from December by way of to early February.
Given the 27-year-old Brazilian has by no means scored greater than 13 league targets in a marketing campaign and outdoors of that scorching streak final season, has simply three targets in 47 Premier League appearances for Spurs, there isn’t a substantial amount of hope that he can ever be the centre-forward Tottenham want. Therefore the signing of Solanke.
On the proof of final season, Solanke is a extra dependable goalscorer – or a minimum of he has the potential to be – and that may take a little bit of the burden off Son. He’s additionally a superb and environment friendly presser, which makes him much more suited to enjoying Postecoglou’s soccer, main the Premier League in 2023-24 for pressures (1,242), pressures within the ultimate third (703) and pressures within the ultimate third leading to a turnover (142).
Spurs bought used to having two constant objective threats of their workforce whereas Kane and Son had been on the membership and so they might do with having two subsequent season.
Can Others Chip in With a Few Extra Objectives?
Spurs didn’t wrestle for targets final season, with their complete of 74 their second-highest in any Premier League season (after the 86 they scored in 2016-17). They shared the targets across the workforce, with 16 totally different gamers scoring; solely Newcastle (20), Brentford (18), Man Utd, (17), Fulham (17) had extra totally different goalscorers.
However a lot of their scorers will most likely really feel they might have contributed just a few extra.
Dejan Kulusevski was their third-highest scorer after Son and Richarlison, scoring eight targets, however he had an inconsistent season, and it’s also value noting that three of his targets had been scored in opposition to one of many worst groups in Premier League historical past in Sheffield United. After that, subsequent in Spurs’ scorers listing, degree on 5 targets with Brennan Johnson, was centre-back Romero. Postecoglou will need a larger contribution throughout the board.
Johnson is the obvious participant who ought to hope to do higher subsequent season. He underperformed his xG for 2023-24 by 5.6 (5 targets from 10.6 xG), the second-worst efficiency in entrance of objective of all Premier League gamers after Dominic Calvert-Lewin (-6.4).
In the meantime, the central midfielders might want to add just a few extra targets. James Maddison (4), Pape Sarr (3), Rodrigo Bentancur (1) and Yves Bissouma (0) ought to all do higher on that entrance subsequent time period.
With 15 targets scored by defenders in 2023-24, that’s one a part of the workforce that Postecoglou can’t actually ask any extra of, a minimum of. These numbers could show tough to duplicate subsequent season, which might put much more stress on the midfielders to attain just a few extra targets.
Will the Europa League be the Spotlight of the Season?
Often, followers of groups like Tottenham deem the Europa League an unwelcome distraction and an pointless pressure on the squad. Having spent a lot of the final decade enjoying Champions League soccer, some followers suppose Spurs are above Europe’s second competitors.
However final season, Spurs weren’t in Europe in any respect and bought knocked out of each home cup competitions early on. It meant they performed simply 41 matches all season – fewer than each different workforce within the Premier League. That in flip meant that when accidents and suspensions got here alongside – and there have been a good few of them – or when Postecoglou turned to his bench, he had undercooked choices who had been missing match sharpness accessible to him.
It was presupposed to be a bonus that Spurs didn’t have European soccer to cope with, however there have been loads of fringe gamers who might have accomplished with extra sport time beneath their belts after they had been wanted within the workforce.
This season, with a lot hope surrounding newly signed youngsters Archie Grey and Lucas Bergvall in addition to Will Lankshear, Jamie Donley, Alfie Devine and 16-year-old Mikey Moore, the Europa League’s early levels might show the proper breeding floor.
One other facet of getting one other competitors to play in – largely, a minimum of to start out with, in opposition to lesser opposition – is that the video games provide an opportunity to play gamers into type. Postecoglou tried to just do that with just a few key gamers final season, however had to make use of up helpful Premier League sport time to offer them the possibility to achieve match health. Gamers getting back from damage needed to go straight again into top-flight motion, too.
Oh, and there’s the truth that this represents a contest that Tottenham might – and actually ought to – be attempting to win. Yeah, we mentioned it.
Can Vicario Overcome His Set-Piece Issues?
The sight of Vicario helplessly interesting to the referee for a foul because the opposition run off to have fun a objective turned all too acquainted final season.
A weak point at set-pieces was pounced upon by a string of groups to devastating impact, notably within the second half of the season.
The strategy was painfully easy: all groups wanted to do was put a participant in entrance of Vicario and cross the ball into the six-yard field. The Italian flapped unconvincingly at so many excessive balls that almost everybody determined to focus on him.
Solely 5 groups conceded extra corners in Premier League video games final season than Spurs (236) – a stat that in itself ought to be a priority given Spurs spend the vast majority of their video games in possession – however solely two groups’ opponents put in additional crosses from corners than Tottenham’s (210), and so they additionally confronted extra inswingers (143) than each different workforce within the league. In the meantime, solely 5 groups – final season’s high 4 and Brighton – confronted fewer brief corners than them (26). Everybody appeared to get the ball within the field from corners when enjoying Spurs, and so they had been profitable when doing so, too.
No workforce conceded extra targets from pictures instantly from a crossed nook than Spurs (six), whereas the pictures they confronted from the primary contact after a nook had been value extra anticipated targets (4.9 xG) than another workforce within the league.
It isn’t all on Vicario, after all. Many individuals watching couldn’t imagine that Postecoglou continued to depart the opponent who had been instructed to distract Vicario and get in his method free to take action for just a few video games earlier than finally asking a defender to mark them. Lots extra have additionally questioned the knowledge of Postecoglou’s insistence that he has no want for a devoted set-piece coach, regardless of Spurs conceding 14 targets from set-pieces – 26% of their complete, the fourth-highest within the league. And their xG in opposition to from set-pieces was the third-highest within the league (15.2) behind solely Man Utd (16.8) and Burnley (15.4).
In addition to higher organisation all spherical, their defenders arguably want to indicate extra nous, too; a nastier and extra ruthless aspect. Ben White brought about Vicario all method of issues at corners in Arsenal’s north London derby victory on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April, however what he did wasn’t notably intelligent or inventive. Even so, it’s laborious to think about most of the Spurs gamers doing one thing like interfering with the fastening on an opposition goalkeeper’s glove at a nook simply to place him off.
It’s not as if that was the one distinction between the groups, and we’re not suggesting that if White hadn’t accomplished that then Spurs would have gotten a end result, nevertheless it wouldn’t harm if the gamers had been smarter about defending their goalkeeper.
At first, although, Vicario should work on his command of his penalty space and the way he offers with crosses when he doesn’t get a free run on the ball. Spurs can’t afford to crumble in key moments at set-pieces subsequent season if they’re to problem for the highest 4 and main honours.
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