Spurs’ Tom Carroll Comes Full Circle

Finally, Spurs fans are beginning to get a clear picture of just why the club has held on to Tom Carroll for this long.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Everton was just Carroll’s third Premier League start in Spurs’ colors and the first in which he lasted the full 90 minutes. For a player that first joined Spurs’ youth academy in 2008, that’s a fairly paltry haul, though one he is still no doubt happy with.

Those intervening years had not be idle ones for Carroll. The Englishman was sent out on a series of loans to a small handful of clubs, none of which amounted to much. Still, Mauricio Pochettino declined to have the 23-year-old sold or sent out on loan again in the summer, instead choosing to include Carroll in the matchday squad. Though he didn’t earn regular minutes outside of the Europa League and Spurs’ Capital One Cup loss to Arsenal, it was still the closest Carroll had yet come to being a Spurs regular.

What time he did get didn’t initially appear all that encouraging. That loss to Arsenal was in no small part attributable to Carroll’s poor positioning alongside Eric Dier in midfield, and the same could justifiably be said for the 2-1 loss to Newcastle in mid-December. Still, Pochettino pressed on with Carroll, including him as a sub in the next two games – one in which included his first Premier League goal – and has had him start the last two matches against Watford and Everton.

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This gradual promotion into the Spurs starting XI has come thanks to rotation demanded by the busy holiday period as well as Mousa Dembélé’s recent ankle injury, but it’s still a chance Carroll has not wasted. The young midfielder’s confidence is visibly growing with every minute he spends on the pitch, and the natural culmination of that appears to be Sunday’s match against Everton.

The first half of that match was about the best 45 minutes of football Spurs as a whole have turned in all season. Pressure on Everton’s midfield and defense was near-constant, as was Spurs’ possession of the ball. The key to the mechanics of Spurs’ attacks – in particular the repeated recycling of the ball back through the defense, up the midfield and back into attack – was Carroll himself. With Dier in support, Carroll was able to find himself open to simple passes from just about any area of the pitch. That knack for making himself available and then calmly distributing the ball effectively made him the central axle around which the wheel of the team spun. By the final whistle, Carroll has amassed 72 successful passes, tied with Toby Alderweireld for the most on the pitch.

That in and of itself was not remarkable about Carroll. The brief glimpses Spurs fans got of him over the years and this season are proof enough that Carroll is a competent distributor of the ball. That’s been the case even in the games where he’s had the loss laid in part on his shoulders. What differed here was the range of his movements and, in particular, how much care he took in staying far enough back to avoid Everton exploiting the space he often leaves in behind him in possession.

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We’ve even seen glimpses of this Carroll before. In the opening match of Europa League group play, Carroll absolutely bossed the Azerbaijaini’s midfield, thwarting attempts at build up play while also contributing to Spurs’ attack. Many dismissed that display given the quality of the opposition. That he was able to replicate – and indeed better – that match against better opposition on Sunday is a testament to just how much Pochettino’s confidence in Carroll is paying off.

Carroll’s four tackles and three interceptions are proof enough of just how involved he was in the pressing and defensive areas of the game. Particularly as Everton grew into the game in the second half, Carroll’s talents off the ball were exceptionally valuable. Were Dembélé fit, he might have turned in similar stats, though it’s doubtful that he would have been as influential a figure with the ball at his feet.

Next: Matchday: Everton 1 - 1 Tottenham

So what does all this mean for Carroll’s future with the team? Probably not much in the short term. Once Dembélé returns in two weeks – just in time for the Premier League to resume after a break for the FA Cup third round – he will likely slot back into the starting XI, meaning Carroll falls back to the bench.

In the long term however, Carroll is looking like a viable keeper as Spurs prepare for another round of cleaning up shop in the summer. That he was chosen to start on Sunday over last year’s central midfielder starters Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb says just about everything you would need to know. If he can continue to turn in games like this, Carroll has every reason to be confident that his role at Spurs will continue to grow.