Moussa Dembélé is Having a Medical with Spurs

Spurs are closing in on Moussa Dembele a day after signing his namesake to an extension.

Reports are flying around, and the Enfield Independent is one of them, that Moussa Dembélé is having a medical with Spurs following the team’s 4-1 win over Colchester United in the FA Cup’s fourth round.

If this transfer is finalized and agreed upon, then Spurs will loan Dembélé back to Fulham to complete the final four months of the current campaign and have the French striker return in the summer.

Obviously, this move will help bolster Tottenham’s striker position for next season, but for now, it won’t help with Harry Kane as the starting and only out-and-out striker in Mauricio Pochettino’s 4-2-3-1 formation.

Of course with Nacer Chadli coming away from today’s cup tie against Colchester with a brace — although he should have had at least a hat-trick and then some — the Belgian wide midfielder looks to have gotten his goal scoring form back after netting his fourth goal in three games. This makes the 26-year-old a logical choice to help ease the burden on Kane.

Because that kind of production, after returning from a long injury layoff that put him away for a couple of months, comes at a good time with the Europa League returning in February.

However, it remains to be seen if Pochettino will alter his formation to accommodate two strikers or shift players around in his lineup to have Chadli start games instead of finishing them.

Assuming that Mauricio Pochettino sticks to what has worked best this season, which is having a lone striker in the lineup and having super-sub players on his bench, then despite Nacer Chadli’s current form it means that Dele Alli is more valued as the team’s #10 over Christian Eriksen.

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There isn’t anything wrong with Alli playing in a more advanced role, as he has shown that he can clearly make an impact.

But it should be noted that he is clearly playing out of position which has in turn, made Christian Eriksen play out of position too and forced Chadli onto the bench.

It’s a chain reaction, but again, at the moment this set-up has worked thus far so it’s best to not fix what isn’t broken.

At the very least though, Pochettino has shown that changes will be made depending on how a game is currently going. So for example when Spurs need more attackers on the pitch to score goals, the Argentine manager isn’t afraid to take players out and replace them with others.

Mousa Dembélé and Christian Eriksen are two examples who have come off in games this season. And seeing the two of them leave back then would have resulted in a draw at most, or a loss at worst because Tottenham would be losing two key players who can control the flow of the game by dictating the pace.

But now that isn’t the case. Spurs have enough depth to withstand Eriksen and Dembélé not being on the pitch to close out a game even if the score is close. Even Harry Kane has come off — though it rarely happens. Adding Fulham’s Moussa Dembélé to a growing list of talented depth on Spurs’ squad is great but let’s hold off for now.

Because as of this writing, it’s not finished yet. And should this transaction be finalized, there’s two things that will need to be addressed ahead of next season.

Next: Matchday: Colchester 1-4 Tottenham

One, what will be the team’s formation if Dembélé joins Spurs? Mauricio Pochettino has stated that he could switch to having two strikers on the pitch but even with Son Heung-min and Nacer Chadli looking good recently that has yet to happen.

Two, will Spurs continue looking for more lower league players before the transfer deadline or are they finished? Because if Tottenham signed more youth players they would all return on loan so they wouldn’t be able to help this term. Instead, it will just make for a very crowded team for the 2016-17 season.

With or without Moussa Dembélé, Spurs have once again stuck to a similar January plan for the second consecutive year where there was minimal movement coming in and going out. This will become the norm moving forward.