Competition for Places About to Heat up at Tottenham Hotspur

Deciding the Tottenham Defense

Striker, left wing, defensive midfield, and keeper; four positions where all the starters are known for Tottenham Hotspur. We can conjecture about who might start and of course we do every match with our projected XIs, but those four are the knowns. That leaves the entire back line, most of the midfield and one wing wide open for the taking. So, what is the low down on these positions and who has the inside track.

Fullback Positions

Tottenham now have four full internationals playing at their two fullback positions. Serge Aurier – who is captain for Ivory Coast – and newly signed Matt Doherty have the responsibility for the right. Aurier is the pacier and more dynamic of the two, while Doherty is more consistent and steadier. Both can provide a nice cross and Aurier has demonstrated an eye for goal over the last couple seasons.

Which plays can depend on many things such as who is on the opposition, who is playing center half with them, and even who played last. One thing is for certain, Jose Mourinho had already gotten Aurier’s game to the next level simply by being Jose as many of the dumb fouls disappeared last season.

Now with competition from Ireland’s starting right back in Doherty – who was excellent against LASK – Aurier has lifted his game even more. Expect Aurier and Doherty – barring injury – to rotate all season as they both have a lot to bring and seem to bring out the best in each other. On the left side, the battle may not be quite as even.

At left back Ben Davies is the returning starter. We have already seen with Danny Rose if you are not interested in competing and sharing time you will be left behind; so, Sergio Reguilón has come in and hit the ground running. The young Spaniard – who just got his first senior caps at the last international break – is the more natural attacker of the two. Reguilón just looks the part of a modern wingback as you seem him gliding up and down the sideline.

Ben Davies – who has featured for Wales for eight years – is your more classic fullback, who gets the job done as much with positional awareness and football acumen as he does with skill. Davies can do a job going forward, but his overall offensive skillset is not at the level of Reguilón. Expect to see more and more of Sergio as the season continues, particularly in games where Spurs need to attack more than defend. Davies has his role and will get his minutes, and some may even come at center-half, but ultimately Mourinho brought Reguilón in from Real Madrid to win the job and thus far it looks like it will happen.

 Center Half

The center half position is an interesting one at Spurs as there are really five players – not including Ben Davies – vying for two positions. There is only one new player in the mix with Joe Rodon – who is not eligible for Europa League – but with injuries and other limitations, this position is still in flux. The reality is that for four if not all five of the defenders – I have not seen enough of Rodon yet to say – their best position is the right sided center half position.

This is where things start to get interesting as it is often multiple players competing for the one spot rather than the two. Eric Dier was the starting left-sided center half, almost by default, to begin the season, but injuries derailed that train. Davinson Sanchez has tried the position and clearly is better on the right side.

Toby Alderweireld can play the left well but seems to prefer the right based on how seldom we see him play on the left. This leaves Tanganga and Rodon. Japhet Tanganga has been injured all season and who knows when we will see him. Then Joe Rodon is new but is untested at this level of competition coming to Spurs from Swansea in the Championship.

Who ultimately wins out from this group is hard to say? Dier’s background playing in Portugal clearly endears him to Jose Mourinho. Alderweireld is still probably the best defender of the group, but he also probably has the most physical limitations. Davinson Sanchez is the most powerful and athletic of the bunch, but he also can lack focus and commit silly fouls.

Tanganga looked to potentially have an inside track on a lot of minutes given his versatility across the backline, but he cannot even get on the practice pitch, let alone on the field right now. This again brings us back to Rodon, who has yet to play. So, when we say the position is up for grabs, it truly is. For the sake of consistency and success, we need to hope a couple players step up and grab those spots, like Højbjerg did in the midfield.