One of the biggest storylines of the 2025/26 Premier League season so far for Tottenham Hotspur has been the disappointing production of attacking midfielder Xavi Simons, who joined Spurs for a near record fee in the summer transfer window with the expectation that he'd be an immediate star - and a future superstar - for Spurs.
While Simons has shown bright spots for Tottenham and is a nailed on starter with attacking midfielder James Maddison still out with a serious knee injury, by and large, the Dutchman has been a disappointment while registering no goals and just one assist through 537 Premier League minutes across eight appearances (six of them starts).
Simons has been almost exclusively deployed as a No. 10 after a brief period in which Thomas Frank flirted with the idea of him as a left winger. Obviously, a move to the left wing was never going to work out for the former Bundesliga star, but, so far, it really must be said that Simons as a 10 hasn't worked out well either.
Tottenham need to move him back
It is time for Tottenham to make a change and switch Simons's position to that of a No. 8. Simons's best work in the Bundesliga with RB Leipzig was actually done in space and transition as a progressor, where he could get on the ball more, pick the ball up, run with it, and then spray passes or bombard into the box for shots on target.
As a 10, Simons becomes stagnant and reliant on the system to get him the ball into areas around the goal, rather than being the super athlete that he is and making those opportunities into the final third himself. It's actually a similar problem to the one Lucas Bergvall faces at Tottenham when he plays as a 10 instead of a more box to box, traditional center midfielder.
In Simons's case, a further tweak from the usual No. 8 role would help him. He's not as defensive or as good of a ball winner as Bergvall, though he is passable in that regard, but he is better technically as an attacker. Making him something of an 8.5 like he was at Leipzig where he plays as a center midfielder but does more attacking would be best.
Simons can start as a left sided center midfielder, getting those shooting opportunities and chances to drift inside more on his right foot so he can masquerade as an 8, yet still drop off deeper into wider spaces to receive the ball with the space to carry.