Where do Tottenham Need to Strengthen?

Article by e-Spurs Writer Florian d'Olesnitz. Co Written by Arjun Malhotra.

This season was a mixed one for Tottenham, we recorded our highest ever points total in the premier league, but still managed to miss out on Champions League qualification. With Chelsea, Arsenal and both Manchester clubs looking to spend this summer to strengthen, I want to look at statistically where and how we can fortify our squad and improve it. 

The main area we need to look at is up front as our defence isn’t likely to change according to AVB.

First, and most importantly for Spurs fans, is our need for a new striker. Supporters have been clamouring that this one addition will make our squad amazing. Whilst one addition might not, in fact, completely rectify all our problems this year, there is no denying what effects a new world class striker can have at a club (Van Persie to Man U sticks out). If we look at our current first team strikers, Adebayor and Defoe, they added only 9 and 18 goals respectively; this is far too low for a forward, which ended up putting a lot of pressure on our midfield to score, most notably Gareth Bale who notched 21 goals this campaign just in the league. Both strikers offer different attributes to the game, Defoe is more of a poacher and will attempt a lot more shots in a game but will do little to bring in others of the team and contribute, Adebayor is the opposite he makes more passes than Defoe but will take fewer shots. Indeed WhoScored.com state that, statistically Defoe is weak at passing, but actually say that adebayor is strong at finishing. What this shows is that Adebayor's main weakness is his reluctance to shoot. This is further evidenced by his performances last season (2011-12) where many Tottenham fans looked forward to seeing his name on the team sheet, he managed 3 shots per game compared to 1.7 this year, unsurprisingly his goal total was higher last year as well.  Not only that, but he managed even more passes than this season as well, and WhoScored.com rated him as our 4th best player compared to 17th this year. 

Clearly, the change in manager over the summer has not aided Adebayor, but if Villas-Boas can cajole the Ade of old to come out and play then our striker problem may be fixed. In our last 3 games, the Ade of old has emerged to the amazement of some fans, averaging 3.7 shots a game and 40.7 passes we were starting to see a glimmer of the money we paid to Man City. But if adebayor doesn’t recapture his form who could we turn to? 

One man that Spurs have been looking at and have been linked with for the last few years is Leandro Damiao. Every transfer window we seem to come so close to signing him, but every window the deal fails to materialise. In Brazil he seems to have a real eye for goal and looks like he is everything Spurs are looking for, but his lack of experience in the European game will be a big negative against him. Another striker that Tottenham are looking at is Roberto Soldado, he might be what we need averaging 2.7 shots a game, however averaging just 20.3 passes a game shows he isn’t what we need up front creatively. One person that would is Christian Benteke, who has had a very impressive debut season in the premier league. Racking up 19 goals and averages 33.6 passes a game he is exactly what Spurs need, he has a proven Premier League track record. He is also not shy of having a go at goal, making 3.1 shots a game. However, he might not come cheap as he has just played one season at Aston Villa and there many other big clubs circling, he may command a fee of over £15 million.

Spurs have also been sniffing around goal scoring wingers, to aide in their move from a 4-2-3-1 to AVB’s preferred 4-3-3. If Bale is to be deployed on the right, as he has been in recent times, then a left winger is what we need. With Barcelona’s acquisition of Neymar this window, David Villa looks likely to move, and Spurs seem keen to sign him. This season probably hasn’t been his best as he is averaging 1.6 shots per game and averaging only 16.5 passes in a team built around large amounts of short passes. His age also seems likely to be a detractor as, at 31, this will most likely be his last big move, and the Daniel Levy, the spurs chairman, isn’t exactly known for his willingness to buy players with little resale value. However, he has helped Barcelona by scoring or creating 14 goals in 27 matches (11 from the bench) and does have some quality, if this was a cheap purchase with lower wage demands, I could see it working out. 

In my opinion, however, the better purchase would be the one of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the joint second top scorer in Ligue 1 for Saint-Etienne. Averaging 3.7 shots a game he clearly wants to score goals, he is also versatile and can play well both in the centre and out wide. On the right he has made the biggest impact averaging a 7.93 from whoscored.com. A move out to the left could provide even more encouragement for him to score as he will then be cutting inside onto his preferred right foot. Spurs will need to be quick if they want to buy him as he is hot property and everyone from Leverkusen to Swansea have been linked with him. One other problem with this plan though is that Gareth Bale could leave. Whilst losing a player of Bale’s quality would perhaps leave a permanent gaping hole on the team, a patch work of Villa on the left and Aubameyang on the right might aide the shift away from a Bale oriented team. If Bale does stay, and stays on the left, then Aubameyang cutting inside could be a nice contrast to Aaron Lennon hugging the touchline.

A lack of creativity has been worrying Spurs fans since the sale of Luka Modric, and to a lesser extent Rafael Van see Vaart, last summer. With Moussa Dembélé filling in Modric’s role we have been missing a certain “je ne sais quoi” about the team. The signings of Lewis Holtby and Gylfi Sigurdsson were meant to ease the transition by adding in the extra missing vision, but they have only averaged 1.1 and 0.9 key passes between themselves respectively. In contrast last season Modric averaged 2.7 a game. 

With one of our transfer targets in Joao Moutinho being snatched up by the over-spending Monaco, One name being touted by the media to come to Tottenham is Younes Belhanda. The Moroccan international only has 1 year left to run on his current contract and looks to be leaving fairly cheap from Montpellier. He is averaging 1.8 key passes a game; whilst still not as good as Modric, it is still better than our current options. Levy could also look at Christian Eriksen. The Ajax midfielder is a wanted man and has been heavily linked with Dortmund ever since Mario Gotze’s move to Bayern. He seems like a very good player and has done well in the Champions League as well. He is averaging 2.8 key passes a game, bear in mind though this is only from the Champions league and Europa League where he faced harder competition than he did in the Eredivise (Their group consisted of Real Madrid, Dortmund and Man City), so he will be more than able to step up a level and fill the creative void left by Modric.

Before I started writing this, if you had asked me who I would have wanted to buy this summer I would have said: Damiao, Aubameyang and Belhanda. Now looking at it, I see that adebayor could actually be our best bet as a striker, with maybe Benteke coming in. I still think Aubameyang should come in, even if to contrast Lennon currently, and if we can snag Eriksen from under Dortmund’s noses then we could regain some creativity in our midfield. Ever the optimist, I believe if all of this goes our way then there is even an outside chance that we could mount a title challenge. As Bill Nicholson said “It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low.”

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