How Chadli and Bentaleb Fell to Tottenham’s Bench

Tottenham’s first half of the Premier League seasons was littered with injuries, so much so that some opening day starters have been all but forgotten in terms of the team selection.

Both Nacer Chadli and Nabil Bentaleb started against Manchester United back on August 8th. They weren’t granted those slots in the first team out of necessity, but rather out of merit. They had both played frequently for the club in the season prior – Chadli for 27 starts, Bentaleb for 25 – and therefore were part of the presumptive starting XI coming into the season.

Given what we’ve seen since from players who began the season as backups, new to the club or both, the idea that as recently as this season that both Chadli and Bentaleb were expected to be regulars is a bit shocking. The advent of Dele Alli and Toby Alderweireld, plus the resurgent forms of both Érik Lamela and Mousa Dembélé, makes it seem unlikely that either of those original starters find a way back into this team.

That’s a slightly less surprising turn of events for Chadli. Though he was good for 11 goals and five assists last term in his role on the left wing, he has yet to fully grasp Mauricio Pochettino’s system of pressing and reactive attacks. The Belgian is a more traditional inverted winger and while there’s nothing wrong with that generally, it slowly made him stick out more and more as the team began to adapt to Pochettino’s methods this season.

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Still, he started eight of Tottenham’s first nine matches of the season, and might have earned even more starts had he not succumbed to injury less than ten minutes into Liverpool’s visit in October. While Clinton Njie – another new, untested Spurs bench player – came in for Chadli that day, the ultimate benefactor of his injury was Alli. Though the 19-year-old had begun earning starts prior to that match, only after Chadli’s injury did Alli get a chance to prove himself as part of the attacking band of three just behind Harry Kane.

Since returning to full fitness in mid-December, Chadli has yet to earn a full start in the Premier League and has only featured for only minutes at a time late in games that have long since been decided. His first start since his injury was actually last Sunday’s FA Cup match against Leicester, and he should expect to start again for the replay on Wednesday.

Bentaleb’s downfall – if you could call it that – was much more abrupt than Chadli’s. Though his sidelining has in part also come from injury, what began the Algerian’s descend is indisputably his woeful performance against Manchester United on the opening day. If Pochettino had any lingering doubts about Bentaleb’s role in Tottenham’s problematic midfield last season, that match seems to have settled it. He only came on as a substitute in the next two games, though did turn in a decent full game against Everton at the end of August.

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And that was the last we saw of Bentaleb this season up until his return for the match against Monaco in the Europa League in mid-December – the first match, incidentally, that Chadli also returned – and then again as a sub in the first FA Cup match against Leicester.

While Chadli’s slow descent onto Tottenham’s bench is at least unsurprising and at most predictable, Bentaleb’s sudden obscurity doesn’t seem to add up. Tottenham’s recent youth movement could be said to have begun with Bentaleb’s promotion into the first team by Tim Sherwood in the latter half of 2013/14. His ability to perform at that level consistently was the first real indication that Tottenham had an academy program worth talking about. Were it not for the attention Bentaleb got then, who’s to say that anyone at the club would have been willing to take chances on Harry Kane or Dele Alli?

Now, of course, Bentaleb isn’t owed anything for his role as trailblazer. If his performance isn’t up to snuff with Pochettino’s improved Tottenham, then his chances should be limited. At some point, however, Bentaleb needs to be given the chance to show he still has it in him to do what got him promoted in the first place. A match like Wednesday’s relatively unimportant visit to Leicester would be a perfect chance to give him a start, perhaps in place of an overworked Eric Dier.

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If he can perform there, there’s a chance we see more of him as the season wears on and rotation becomes more a necessity.

The same cannot be said for Chadli. In all likelihood, at this point he’s playing more for his next club than he’s playing for Tottenham. At only 26-years-old, there’s still a good chance that Tottenham can get a decent return on him in the summer transfer window. Then again, similar things have been said about Mousa Dembélé, so who knows? Maybe both Chadli and Bentaleb can get second chances before it’s too late.