The Curious Case of Tom Carroll

The latest member of the Tottenham senior squad to get a contract renewal may be the most surprising one to supporters of the club. Christian Eriksen, Harry Winks, Kyle Walker and Eric Dier all inked new contracts but it was Tom Carroll who’s new contract was met with the most polarising reaction.

Article by Chuck Booth @chuck_sec215

Carroll has a cult following within the club supporters that want to see him succeed, but outside of his beautiful strike against Norwich on Boxing Day last year Carroll has left fans wanting more. He has had an interesting journey to the first team but he looks to be in Poche’s plans for the future.


Carroll has had loan spells at Leyton Orient, Derby County, and Queens Park Rangers but it was his loan spell to Swansea City for the 2014-15 season that showed that he can compete in the Premier League. Swansea manager Gary Monk was able to pull the best out of the creative midfielder as he made 14 appearances for the swans. During that loan Carroll grew as a player and it wasn’t lost on Mauricio Pochettino as Carroll was recalled to the squad full-time last season.

Over the course of the season, Carroll went on to make 27 appearances in all competitions (17 in the league, four in league cups, and six in European competition). He got his biggest run-ins when the team needed to rotate the squad during the busy holiday fixture schedule as well as during Europa League play.

With Tottenham in Champions League this season, Carroll doesn’t look to feature as much in Europe as he did last season but with the mass exodus of his midfield competition, there will be minutes to go around for the 24-year-old midfielder. Ryan Mason has been sold to Hull City and Nabil Bentaleb has been loaned to Schalke leaving Carroll and Harry Winks as the likely league cup pairing in the midfield especially in games like this week’s fixture against Gillingham.


The knock on Carroll has been that he isn’t physical enough and that he can easily be knocked off the ball by stronger defenders but he’s one of the strongest passers on the team outside of Eriksen. When he’s on, there’s a silkiness to Carroll’s game that can’t be matched by most members of the senior squad. In the final third, Carroll has a fearlessness that most members of the squad lack and he isn’t afraid to try a difficult pass to open play for his teammates.

With the sale of Alex Pritchard, there is no direct backup to Christian Eriksen. Josh Onomah can play centrally but he doesn’t have the same eye for a pass. When Eriksen missed time last season the Tottenham attack looked flat because they couldn’t recycle the ball to keep play going. Tom Carroll is a player with that ability. Sure, you don’t want him playing against the top sides in the EPL but against the Stoke’s, and Sunderland’s of the world.

Thanks to the amount of games that Tottenham will be playing this season, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Carroll get more of a run out than people expect to see. Pochettino believes in him, otherwise, there’s no way that Carroll would have been signed to a contract to keep him with the club until 2019. He won’t be a starter but Carroll will play a large role in this Tottenham squad with title aspirations.



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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:27 pm

    I think that Carroll has the ability to be much more than just a "sub" for Eriksen. he has courage and if only he can learn how to handle the 2m 120kg thugs that see pushing someone off the ball as a tackle. IMO IFF he learns how to handle this he can dominate a game: e.g., the first 45 at Everton last season(in the second 45 the referee gave him NO protection and Barkley and Barry hit him every time he had the ball and usually illegally). IIRC Blanchflower was a late starter also. I am glad that Poc'sees what I think that I see in him.

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    1. Carroll has good running legs, if han improve his strength like Mo Farah our Olympic champ, he will be like Dembele potentially world class. Christian Eriksen has outstanding skills it up to Tom to improve himself so that he is the "man". Christian is in driving seat currently.Carroll must score more often but I agree he rarely not positive with passing. Against Monaco most of team sent slow passes which Tom does not do. We lost! Today the game is about Squad. Ben Davies is case in point he played excellent against Monaco and will make it hard for Danny to get place back. If Tom goes vigorously down the road of self improvement who knows what happens

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