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Why Tottenham Didn’t Address Two Key Positions This Summer

By Alexander Balano

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Did Tottenham need backups at striker and defensive midfield?

Two main positions that were regularly talked about during the summer transfer window and even now, a month and a half after the transfer deadline day on September 1st has passed, were signing a striker and a defensive midfielder.

For obvious reasons, a striker and defensive midfielder being signed would provide cover for both Harry Kane and Eric Dier who are two of Mauricio Pochettino’s best players at their respective positions and would need rest once in a while throughout this season. But are these actually the two positions that Tottenham Hotspur will target once the January winter transfer window opens?

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This isn’t a trick question, rather it’s more about letting everyone understand that manager Mauricio Pochettino, Head of Recruitment, Paul Mitchell, and chairman Daniel Levy have a different transfer strategy than other teams in the Premier League and are willing to stick to their plan regardless of what may happen.

Look at it this way, Tottenham spent £53.5 million on just five players:

Kevin Wimmer – center-back (£4.3 million)
Kieran Trippier – right-back (£3.5 million)
Toby Alderweireld – center-back, defensive midfielder (£11.5 million)
Clinton N’Jie – striker, right winger (£12.2 million)
Heung-Min Son – striker, attacking midfielder (£22 million)

View image | gettyimages.com

With the sales of Benjamin Stambouli, Étienne Capoue, Roberto Soldado and the release of Emmanuel Adebayor, two defensive midfielders and two strikers are gone. While Heung-Min Son and Clinton N’Jie can play the striker position, Pochettino is playing Son as his central attacking midfielder and N’Jie as a super sub who comes into the second half and plays as a right winger.

They’re basically playing out of position and the team is still relying on Harry Kane up top by himself. Also because none of the players signed were a defensive midfielder — Toby Alderweireld can play the position but he’s needed at center-back instead — this would mean that Tottenham needs to find a partner up top for Harry Kane and at defensive midfielder too. Eric Dier has done a marvelous job but he can’t start 40-50+ games every season.

However the key question isn’t should Tottenham find reinforcements at striker and defensive midfield, but will they? Money isn’t an issue, remember the club just spent under £54 million on five players. Adding a striker and defensive midfielder are atop the team’s main needs, but it might not be the positions that they’ll target first, or at all this winter.

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Tottenham elected to stand pat and decided to fill both key areas with in-house players during the team’s pre-season tour.

Nacer Chadli played as a striker against AC Milan in the 2015 Audi Cup. Shaq Coulthirst was brought along for a match against MLS All-stars.

Chadli has yet to play as a striker since pre-season during a one game experiment, and Coulthirst is out on loan until November 1st, but this was another example of Mauricio Pochettino trying different things. The results might not have been spectacular or as effective as the team thought, but it must have been good enough for Tottenham to not go out and sign a striker this past summer.

At defensive midfield, Nabil Bentaleb was the starter last season, and before he got injured, Eric Dier had already taken over his spot during all of Spurs’ pre-season games. Once again, Pochettino is experimenting to see which players could help out at these two key positions without spending any money and using it elsewhere to improve the team. Heung-Min Son and Clinton N’Jie are fine additions, but they weren’t signed to help start over Harry Kane at striker. They were brought in to play alongside him as the attacking midfielder (Son) and right winger (N’Jie).

Toby Alderweireld wasn’t signed to become Pochettino’s new defensive midfielder and Nabil Bentaleb lost his starting job to Eric Dier. If Tottenham couldn’t sign two players who may have been deemed not good enough to start, then they must not have been good enough to be backups. Perhaps Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t think new signings will do a better job than Harry Kane or Eric Dier if they were only signed to be backups and not starters? It’s different for a young 19-year-old player to be signed or a youth player to get promoted, because those are long term projects and not short term fixes who can help the team out right now.

This means that it wouldn’t be surprising if Tottenham continued their stance of not signing a striker or defensive midfielder in January and waited until next summer to address both positions. If need be, Pochettino can play Nacer Chadli as a striker and promote Shaq Coulthirst once his loan deal expires. Eric Dier could get a rest or two and Nabil Bentaleb could play as a defensive midfielder once again to help out. Tottenham had two major needs during the summer and they still do, but so far, they don’t think it’s a necessity to sign backups at two key areas for the time being. If that’s the case, maybe it’s time to just trust what Tottenham are doing and wait until the season is over before casting judgment too soon.

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