Tottenham’s midfield issues have been drifting for some time, in the addition of Bentancur was undoubtedly a boost, but truth be told, the Uruguayan is still a work in progress. Hojbjerg is an RCMF/DMF and Skippy is an LCMF, so neither are by profession AMFs and so if more front-footed play is what you want, then you might want Spurs to play someone else in the middle of the park.
Admittedly, Hojbjerg has noticeably stepped up the attacking side of his game and whilst I don’t have numbers for ground covered in games, I’d be surprised if the Dane isn’t putting in legion shifts. Thinking specifically of the Everton game, we actually got performances from our midfield duo that really summed up what this pair offers. Between them, we saw just 15 forward passes. For immediate context, that’s a shade less than Christian Eriksen’s forward pass average in his last few seasons with us. Eriksense was by trade and AMF/RAMF.
What we are looking at with Spurs’ current system is one that pretty much dispenses with a midfield, because it hasn’t played as Pochettino liked to play, since well, Pochettino was fired.
Anyone griping about the football under Nuno, Mourinho, and Conte needs to save their ire for Levy, who went out and hired three coaches in a row who didn’t match the style of play desired by the fans. Could a solution be on the horizon?
Speaking on Sky Sports News on Wednesday night, Daily Mail journalist Craig Hope claimed that despite links to Newcastle United, Leicester City’s James Maddison could well end up in N17.
“I don’t expect James Maddison to go to Newcastle now, the noises I’m hearing, he will be going to Spurs.”
Maddison to Tottenham would be a great acquisition, and hopefully an indicator that Levy is looking to turn it around.
