Xavi Simons has had to fight for every inch since joining Tottenham Hotspur, and there was even a stretch of four games in which manager Thomas Frank discarded the Dutchman on the bench. The decision by the Danish manager was met with wide spread derision by the Spurs faithful, and Tottenham did not win a single one of those four games in which Simons was thrown to the subs.
When he came back, Tottenham immediately improved offensively, and, if anything, the time Simons spent on the bench and the issues that have remained even with him on the pitch as a No. 10 have exposed the true extent of a rotten issue eating at the core of Spurs and their inability to truly push the Champions League level sides in the Premier League.
Tottenham are closer to the bottom half of the Premier League table than the top, and there is a serious dearth of goal scoring weaponry and attacking fire power. Simons gets the slack, but he only has three assists between the Premier League and Champions League despite actually playing well because of how poor the players in front of him are.
Tottenham know what they need to do
Besides new striker Randal Kolo Muani, who has not been able to feature much due to injury, and young left winger Mathys Tel, who barely plays because of Frank's poor personnel decsion making, there is not much to write home about as far as the goal threats at Spurs. Richarlison leads the way with six goals, but he misses way more of those chances and has been awful, as any true Tottenham fan will readily attest.
As Tottenham enter the January 2026 transfer window, it is clear and obvious that the Lilywhites need to sign more attacking talent, specifically someone who can go out there and score goals and link up with the talented No. 10 who has been left to feed off scraps with mostly Richy to try to assist. And that's not going well.
The fact that Simons barely has any assists despite showing real spark and technical quality is down to the personnel around him, and it only underscores how badly Tottenham need to go after a player like Antoine Semenyo and continue to feed Tel and Kolo Muani, especially, more minutes. They are not going to find a great striker option in January, but they have a ready made left winger who can score double digit Premier League goals in Semenyo available. And a player like that can really open the offense for Simons to improve his assist totals and overall output.