Mohammed Kudus has been a gift to the Tottenham Hotspur fan base. Without the Ghanaian winger tirelessly working down the right flank, Spurs would have pretty much nothing up front this season, as Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel are yet too young to be reliable while the only other true standout up front, Randal Kolo Muani, has been injured more than he's been healthy since signing on loan on transfer deadline day.
Even though Kudus has been one of the best signings of the summer, an asset to Tottenham, and now the scorer of a brilliant consolation goal in a devastating loss to local rivals Fulham on Saturday, he's also beginning to show some cracks.
Kudus is a good player. But he's not great. He's too flawed to be great. And even on a day in which he scored a great goal, Kudus showed those flaws. Just like at West Ham, Kudus was the victim of a hard working man trying to do too much. He had a whopping nine unforced errors to lose possession for his team, far dwarfing his meager two chances created and two dribbles completed for Tottenham in this ghastly defeat.
Thomas Frank has no other ideas
Clearly, Thomas Frank doesn't have any attacking ideas. That's why Spurs xGs are so minuscule in key fixtures that they round closer to 0.00 than anything else. So in lieu of Xavi Simons playing a real playmaker role - or even starting at all - or any sort of tacticall system, cross and pray...or, more specifically, give the ball to Kudus to figure it out and sit back and pray...seems to be the daily special on the menu that is Frank's one star restaurant at the N17.
Kudus is important. He's talented. Spurs need him to start every game. But what they don't need is to keep forcing the ball to him, ask him to aimlessly cross, and then basically set up the rest of the team to fail with no central attacking playmaking and a vacuous hole where the left wing should be that strands whichever young player is left to fend for themselves out there.
A healthy Randal Kolo Muani and Dominic Solanke, as well as a Simons who is actually starting and in a position to be tactically productive, would help a lot. A lot. Because right now, the entire identity of the offense is ask Kudus to perform heroic feats and be the team's Lionel Messi or Lamine Yamal, and while he is a good player, he's not THAT good. Not close. And Frank and Spurs have to admit that.