Xavi Simons stole the show in Tottenham Hotspur's 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16, scoring an insane goal from beyond the blue before depositing a penalty that he himself had won.
It was a vintage performance from Simons, the best yet in a Tottenham shirt and a throw back to win he was regularly carving up defenses in the Dutch Eredivisie and the German Bundesliga. Simons is one of the best young midfielders in world football, and when Spurs signed him for 60 million euros this summer transfer window, that is exactly the player they thought they were getting.
But anyone could plainly see that under Thomas Frank, he was being set up to fail. Tottenham were playing the most lethargic and uninspiring football of any team in the Premier League, with Simons totally isolated as a No. 10 who never even got to play as a 10.
Xavi Simons actually has options now
He had nobody to pass it to. Simons would get the ball and immediately be met with double the defenders as attacking players, and Frank never tweaked the tactics so that his best player would have people to actually play off of.
Igor Tudor immediately fixed that. Well, not immediately, but he has pretty quickly found a way for Simons to get more involved with the rest of his attacking teammates. The Dutch star's two goals will get the headlines for Spurs, but he also had five key passes and was just as brilliant as a creator as he was as a scorer - maybe even more brilliant, considering one of the goals was a penalty.
Tottenham Hotspur spent big on Simons to be their main creator both in terms of his passing and dribbling, and we finally got to see both of those traits together - and against a big opponent like Atleti, no less.
Xavi Simons could not do it on his own. Now, he had to shoulder the blame for poor performances this season, including in recent games under Tudor, but this breakout display against Atleti is a reminder of the quality he has, especially when he is given a chance to actually shine. Whether at Leipzig or PSV, Simons's best games and seasons have always come when he has players around him who are stars to work with like the star strikers in Leipzig. Tottenham don't have the most dominant forwards, but when Mathys Tel and the others start and can be around Simons with good possession behind him from Archie Gray, he has the ingredients there.