How to Fix "Broken" Spurs

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:

Kyle Walker, and Why Spurs Are So Weird About Injuries

If Kyle Walker was an NFL running back or a Major League outfielder we would know by now the exact nature of his “lower-abdomen” injury, as well as the likely time frame for his recovery. We would expect weekly, if not daily updates on the injury, his rehab and even the names of the doctors he has been consulting. In the NFL especially there are strict, although inconsistently enforced, rules governing how teams must inform the public of the status of their injured players. Such is the level of scrutiny in North American sports when it comes to medical issues.

Contrast that to Tottenham Hotspur, where players often disappear for weeks on end and managers have to dance around the fact that they don’t know where their injured players are or when they will return. Official team releases usually refer to general areas of the body when describing injuries instead of using specific medical terms, and rarely identify the exact tests or procedures players have undergone. They use words like, “scans” or “surgical procedures” whereas Americans consider more sophisticated terms like, “MRI” and  “Microfracture surgery” basic parts of their everyday sports vocabulary. English fans aren’t stupid (on the whole), so why the dumbing down of basic medical information? Tottenham are particularly weird when it comes to communicating about player injuries. They tend to play down reports of a player being out long-term before eventually admitting it when it becomes overtly obvious. But perhaps other English Premier League teams are better about it.

It’s fair to question why teams should be expected, or forced, to release specific medical information about their players in the first place. After all, opposing teams can use the information to their advantage, so being vague or nebulous when it comes to injuries is a good way to keep them guessing. Bill Belichick, Head Coach of the New England Patriots, specializes in this sort of obfuscation. But he is something of an outlaw, and a continuing pain in the ass to league officials.

The real answer here is likely pretty simple. Two billion dollar industries in North America depend on precise, accurate information about the status of players: gambling and fantasy sports. Also, the sports media machine here asks specific medical questions and expects specific medical answers. While the gambling industry is clearly huge in England, it either has its own inside sources for medical information or doesn’t yet use its influence to demand more openness from teams. Fantasy soccer is growing in popularity, but pales in comparison to the monolith that is fantasy football in North America. I imagine Brits won’t be seeing a sitcom based around fantasy Premier League on ITV anytime soon.

In regard to Walker’s injury, it does seem likely that it began as a fairly minor issue that he attempted to heal through rest and rehab. At some point recently he and the club clearly decided that it wasn’t working and that surgery would be required to resolve the issue. Does that sound overly vague? Sorry, but I’m going to need more information.