The biggest concern for Tottenham Hotspur following victory over Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur gave fans of the club a real treat in defeating Manchester City on opening day with a physical style of football that may be difficult to maintain.

The opening day win, the crowd, the effort from lads, everything Tottenham Hotspur fans wanted was there in the opening match of the season against Manchester City – less Harry Kane of course. As the crowd got more behind the team, the team worked hard to win the day and take all three points. However, the effort put forth on Sunday begs the question is Tottenham deep enough to play this way all season long.

Spurs gave it all on Sunday

There is no doubting the intensity and effort displayed by Tottenham on Sunday against City. The physicality from Spurs was apparent from the opening minutes with Japhet Tanganga on both Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish all the way through to the last minute of extra time as Davinson Sanchez was bravely tackling Kevin De Bruyne near midfield.

Whether it was Dele Alli running all over the field pressing or Lucas Moura coming back into the box to help defensively, the Spurs left it all on the pitch.

Tottenham is fitter than last season

As was apparent in the preseason and continued on Sunday, the Spurs got stronger as the game went on. As it seemed that Manchester City was tiring, Tottenham just kept coming. Whether players driving the ball with the dribble up the pitch or diving to block a shot or pass, the team had no letup in their play.

Clearly fitter than last season, hopefully, the issues with losing leads late in matches will disappear. However, even with better fitness, this intense, all-out style begs the question if Tottenham can do it for an entire season.

Is Tottenham deep enough to maintain Santo’s style?

The ultimate question is around the depth of Tottenham Hotspur and if they have the horses to play the kind of football they did Sunday all season.

If the season was simply the 38 Premier League matches over the course of 10-months, this question is probably a non-starter. However, assuming Tottenham advance to the group stage of the UEFA Europa Conference League and factoring in even okay performance in Cups, it is not a stretch to think the Lilywhites will play 50 or more matches this season.

Even the most physically fit players wear down over the course of 10-months and 50 matches, we saw it last season with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg who did not miss a single minute of Premier League action but was a shell of himself by the end of the season. Clearly, a little rest for Pierre did him wonders for Euro 2020, the question is can Tottenham give Højbjerg the same kind of rest?

When we look at the style of play that Tottenham deployed, we start to realize why some of the players need to be moved on. As good of a technical player as he is, most likely cannot see Tanguy Ndombele closing out and pressing for 90 minutes of a match. Likewise, while Harry Winks can move the ball around the pitch, is he going to give the same all-out effort we saw from Skipp and Dele on Sunday?

The XI on Sunday was clearly the right XI as they all understood and could execute the game plan. The concern is what happens when those best at executing the plan are not available? This is where the hope has to be continued work in the transfer market.

While Spurs have two players in some positions, see left-back and right-sided center-half, the same cannot be said for a number of other positions, leaving the team overly-reliant on some players – like Højbjerg last season.

At this point, the Spurs do not need 10 new signings but they do need 2-3 more who can and will play the Santo style of all-out football for 90 minutes are likely needed for this team to maintain the kind of energy we saw on Sunday.

It is this need to rely on the energy and activity that really separates world-beaters like City from challengers like Tottenham. Manchester City is good enough to not play with such abandon and still take teams to the cleaners. As was the case when Spurs were in their Mauricio Pochettino heyday, being a bully is their best bet.

The Spurs are not the flat track terrors they were a few years ago yet, but with a little more depth and a bit more belief, maybe they can force the window of success open one more time.