Article by Marc AshedClick here to follow e-Spurs on Twitter for the latest news!
Just a few short days from the opening of a new season, filled with new hopes, new optimism and new leadership. As we learnt last year, new is not always better. But this new was needed after the failed AVB era and shameful time under Tim Sherwood. One year after we "sold Elvis and replaced him with the Beatles", the ability and potential that we were so excited about last year is still there.
Paulinho struggled with injuries but still managed to score 6 goals from the midfield. Christian Eriksen emerged as one of the top playmakers in the Premier League. Erik Lamela suffered a Neymar-esque injury only months after moving to England and generally struggled to adapt to his new club, language and culture. Robert Soldado, despite his struggles, scored 11 goals. Nacer Chadli started to play well towards the end of the season as well. New signings take time, not everybody beds in immediately to the best league in the world, especially when coming from different leagues and speaking different languages. If the preseason is telling, Lamela looks primed for a massive season, one that we expected from his last year. Eriksen is going to have another season among the top echelon of Premier League playmakers and Soldado will benefit from the directness of the attack.
One year later, we have a new leader, Mauricio Pochettino who's high pressing, direct, attacking, lung-busting style fits Tottenham Hotspur Football Club to perfection. Our team is united in a way that we haven't seen in years. In the preseason, the form has been improving with each match and producing some beautiful play. It's clear to see that the players respect Poch, enjoy his philosophy and product out on the pitch. Neither Harry Redknapp, AVB or definitely not Tim Sherwood were able to strike that balance of respect, admiration and inspiration that Poch seems to capture with his squads.
The quotes from Southampton players such as Jay Rodriguez tell the story, “To work with him was brilliant, it was hard work but the lads loved it and we got results....His tactical awareness gave you confidence, you wanted to go out for him because he’s such a great guy....You can talk to him. The players respected him so much.”
It appears as though we've found the right leader to lead our very talented and now underrated squad. Let's take a look at what we are working with this year.
Our goalkeeping situation is among the best in the league, with Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm. We are (pun intended) in very safe hands with the duo.
Last year, the players in front of Hugo left a lot to be desired and we were among the league leaders in defensive errors and errors leading to goals. Bringing in Ben Davies, Eric Dier and potentially Mateo Musacchio and DeAndre Yedlin shows a clear priority at cleaning up our back line. Kyle Walker struggling for fitness is a cause for concern as we are shallow in cover with Kyle Naughton being overall poor and Ryan Fredricks not quite ready to play significant minutes at RB. Our LB situation looks like a strength now due to the bright performances of Danny Rose this preseason and Ben Davies' steady and reliable abilities. Against stronger teams, I expect to see Davies while Rose may play significant minutes against teams with poor fullbacks. At CB, Jan looks sets for a huge year and Dier looks like he could be the brightest young English centre back in the league but the strengths stop there. Kaboul perpetually struggles with injuries while Vlad has seemed to pick up the injury bug as well. A new signing would do well and I expect one in whether it is Mateo Musacchio or Daniel Agger and the new signing could be starting by the Liverpool match. Poch prefers playing from the back and this team is clearly being crafted into that philosophy. Every player on the pitch is responsible for defending and pressing therefore this unit's weaknesses should be masked by the overall emphasis on team defending and efforts. Our defence is going to be better because Poch demands it and has the resources to play the style that he wants.
Tomorrow, a look at the midfield and forwards plus my prediction for the 2014/15 Spurs season.
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