Tottenham Lack of Depth Brutally Exposed

There might not have been a single moment in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Liverpool where Tottenham looked the better team.

What began as a sort of passive patience on Tottenham’s part quickly turned to outright panic after Sadio Mané’s goals, then settled into a sort of impotent bafflement as Liverpool saw out the game.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Tottenham, after all, were unbeaten since the middle of December in the Premier League, while Liverpool had not yet won a game in 2017. Just last week Jürgen Klopp watched on as his team succumbed to a 2-0 defeat against lowly Hull City.

In hindsight, these teams were not so far apart. Liverpool were never going to be that bad for much longer. There’s simply too much quality there — just watch Sadio Mané for a few minutes — for matters not to level out.

Tottenham’s high, too, seems an aberration. That unbeaten run was marvelous, including as it did a 2-0 win over league-leaders Chelsea. It is absolutely a representation of the heights this team can reach.

Unfortunately, there remain problems that keep Tottenham from sustaining that altitude. Pochettino has yet to properly figure out how to build a team that can resist the same level of press they themselves employ every week. Certain players like Christian Eriksen are streaky, sometimes key men and other times anonymous.

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At the core of Spurs’ problems is depth. There is a sizeable gulf between Pochettino’s preferred starting XI and those players who cycle on and off from the bench.

When everyone is fit and firing, this is easy to ignore. Pound for pound this XI one of the best in England.

When injures crop up — as they have very frequently this season — the cracks begin to show. The goals dried up when Harry Kane suffered an ankle knock in the autumn. Tottenham did not record a single win for the duration of Toby Alderweireld’s time on the sidelines. Even during their unbeaten run, there was a sense that Érik Lamela could add still more quality were he available.

In each of those cases Pochettino was forced to turn to players who are hardly the equal of the men they understudy. Vincent Janssen is yet to show the spark that earned him the move to Spurs last summer. Eric Dier is uninspiring in a conventional centre-back role. Heung-min Son is capable of high peaks, but tends to reside at below average levels as part of the attack.

Spurs’ most recent injuries have hit them the hardest. Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose are both out, possible through March. Both are key figures in Tottenham’s stern defense, and Pochettino lacks proper cover for both of them.

Once, not too long ago, Kevin Wimmer was more than capable of coming in for Vertonghen. Pochettino appears to have lost faith in the Austrian however, and again it’s been Dier who fills in at the back.

Ben Davies enjoyed a healthy rotation with Rose last season, but thus far seems utterly incapable of matching the England international’s contributions. If one wanted to point a finger for Saturday’s loss, it would inevitably go toward Davies. Mané ran over him time and time again, a situation not at all helped by Davies strange choice not to be particularly mindful of the Senegalese’s whereabouts.

Add to that misery the fact that, down two goals with a starting XI incapable of finding a grip on the game, Pochettino had virtually no one to turn to. There were no options on the bench that might reasonably be able to turn a game around.

Harry Winks was substituted on first and did fine, but he’s hardly an attacking dynamo. The other two players brought on, Moussa Sissoko and Vincent Janssen, have yet to score a goal in open play for Spurs in the Premier League.

Next: Tottenham: Dele Alli Wins January Player of the Month Award

Legitimate title contenders, simply put, can name a matchday squad the can find multiple ways to win, defend a lead or simply play on approximately the same level. Tottenham, at their best and healthiest, can maybe count on thirteen such players.

Pochettino has done astonishingly well to squeeze out as much quality as he has with this Tottenham team. For them to be in second place in the middle of February is genuinely amazing. The baffling inability to build for depth will keep them out of meaningful contention for the title for the foreseeable future however.