Let’s play a little game – forget this weekend’s emphatic
result and assume for the sake of this exercise that Tottenham Hotspur, a team
who once again have the stingiest defense in the league, have been defeated only
once in the league, and sit in fifth place in the league, only three points below
fourth, are not OK. Let’s accept the case that the team’s underlying numbers
are just “meh” and that they trail the top tier clubs in terms of creating good
goal scoring chances. For the sake of argument let’s also throw out the team’s
injuries as the key source of the “problems” they’ve faced in the first 13
games of the season. The biggest clubs in England have re-loaded after
Leicester City’s fairy-tale title win a season ago and poor, cash strapped
Tottenham are once again lagging behind. So, what can they do? How do they go
up a gear from a decent, well-drilled battering ram into a truly elite big-chance
creating title/top 4 contender again? How do they “solve” Christian Eriksen and
Mousa Dembélé, two ridiculously talented players who, according to some Spurs
fans, are playing badly enough to warrant losing their spots in the lineup? How
do they mature tactically despite Mauricio Pochettino, a manager who excels at
creating team spirit but struggles with tactics and in-game adjustments? Here
are three simple fixes that might help kick-start things:
