Tottenham Hotspur have overhauled their defense this summer transfer window, and they confirmed further changes in their squad recently by selling Cristian Romero and Djed Spence to Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan, respectively.
No position is undergoing more change than center back, as Spurs have brought in Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke as new transfers with Kota Takai currently in the first team squad after a successful spell of months on loan to Borussia Monchengladbach in the Bundesilga. Meanwhile, fellow Bundesliga stud Luka Vuskovic has left for Brighton, while Romero, a crucial starter for Spurs over the past few seasons, is off to Spain.
So the top three center backs Tottenham have now are Micky van de Ven, Van Hecke, and Senesi. All three of them fit the ethos manager Roberto De Zerbi has for Tottenham, which is to control possession and dominate play, as these are three of the best ball playing central defenders on the planet in terms of both passing accuracy and actual creative ball progression.
Tottenham's center backs may have one key flaw
As amazing as these three are on the ball, there is a draw back to them off the ball. Van Hecke was dribbled past 0.6 times per game last season and Senesi 0.8 times per game. Meanwhile, Van de Ven was only dribbled past 0.3 times per match, but he was dribbled past 0.5 times per game in the 2024/25 Premier League season. And in past seasons, Senesi was regularly dribbled past at least once per game, which is horrendous for a center back, before improving markedly in a career year in the 2025/26 season.
Tottenham Hotspur have three center backs who are amazing on the ball but have issues against quicker opponents with not getting dribbled past. Van de Ven, for example, is fast in terms of covering a lot of distance and making recovery runs to catch up to strikers, but against shifty players who are agile, he can struggle. He is better than Van Hecke and especially Senesi against quick dribblers, but he can get beat by the best players in Europe.
Roberto De Zerbi has to love these three players, and they should form one of the elite center back trios this season in European football. But Tottenham also need to be able to overcome their issues against quicker attacking midfielders and forwards who come inside on them, and that means the fulllbacks, midfielders, and maybe even goalkeeper are going to have to be on alert to recover if a lumbering Senesi, Van Hecke, or Kevin Danso gets caught out by fleet feet.
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