Would Tottenham Have Won With Vincent Janssen?

An hour ahead of Tottenham’s match against Bournemouth on Saturday, it was revealed that Heung-min Son would start at striker over Vincent Janssen.

This made a kind of sense in the moment. While Janssen was improving match-by-match, he still wasn’t a reliable goalscoring threat. With Harry Kane still out injured and Son the most potent of Tottenham’s attackers, it made sense to put the South Korean in a position to score.

Moreover, Bournemouth’s fearless tactics at home would likely mean that Son would be playing against a relatively high line. That means more pressing from Tottenham’s midfield, and more space for Son to run into when the ball is sent back toward Bournemouth’s goal.

It took maybe ten minutes for this set of presumptions to begin to crack. Not only were Bournemouth aggressively pressing and closing down Tottenham’s midfield, but Son was being double marked out of the game.

His service all but dried up, Son became dead weight. When he did receive the ball, his skillset — built as it was after years of operating in wider areas — worked against him. He would lose the ball far more often than he would pass it into a teammate. Indeed, over sixty minutes he managed just nine accurate passes.

Listing what Son could have done to improve his and thus Tottenham’s chances reads like a Vincent Janssen scouting report. He needed to control the ball better when it was passed to him. He needed to have the strength to hold off Bournemouth’s centre-backs. He needed to find a way to draw in Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Érik Lamela. He needed to find a way to play with his back to goal in such a way that allowed him to pivot into shots.

Perhaps with time Son grows into that role, but it was clear that wasn’t happening after 45 minutes. Pochettino could be forgiven in thinking Son was the best option to start, but he had an obligation to bring Janssen on after the interval.

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Son wouldn’t have to come off. With Lamela risking a second yellow, Pochettino could have removed the Argentine and simply shifted Son to a wing role with which he’s much more familiar. Janssen then takes up the centre-forward role and, perhaps, Tottenham break through.

That scenario didn’t play out. Son stayed on and remained ineffectual as Tottenham finally found a way to camp themselves in Bournemouth’s third. He would eventually be swapped for Janssen in the 60th minute.

Granted, Janssen was far from a gamechanger. He took set up no shots and took none of his own. Still, take in the big picture and it’s hard to justify Janssen not starting this match.

While Son was once solely used as a striker when he played for Hamburg, his experience in that role is extremely limited in the past few seasons. Pochettino seemed to be basing his selection of the South Korean Saturday based exclusively on his performance against Manchester City three weeks ago.

He was, without doubt, brilliant in that match. Not brilliant in the way that Harry Kane is usually brilliant, mind you. But brilliant insofar that his set of skills worked especially well against City’s vulnerabilities — namely, their backline’s lack of pace and composure. It was a performance that should have been recognized as being down as much to City’s failures as Son’s talents.

To think that Son could pull off a similar feat against other opposition was, at best, a stretch. He’s scored all but one of his goals this season from the left wing position. That’s the position Tottenham bought Son to play in, and that’s where he should start every match.

And Son’s unsuitability for the striker role wasn’t the only crime committed on Saturday. Janssen’s trajectory was and is on the rise. He performed wonderfully against West Brom last Saturday, and did a job against Leverkusen midweek. No, he’s not scoring, but one feels he’s getting closer to reaching the peaks he found with AZ Alkmaar last season.

Next: Matchday Live: Bournemouth v Tottenham

Matches against midtable sides like Bournemouth are the perfect opportunity for Pochettino to put miles in the legs of Janssen. The Dutchman is adjusting to the Premier League, but needs to know he’ll start every match while Kane’s out. That’s the only way he will build the confidence that, in some part, plays a role in a striker’s potency.

A win against a surprisingly game Bournemouth wouldn’t be a guarantee should Janssen have started. There are other aspects of this Tottenham team that failed to live up to expectations on the day. But giving Janssen experience needs to be paramount, especially after his recent improvements.