(Article) Tottenham Have Depth to Compete but Must Find Way to Win Without Mousa Dembele

[Ribble]

Interesting piece from Jonathan Wilson, thought you'd all be interested in having a read:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ut-must-find-way-to-win-without-mousa-dembele

Three games into the league season, Tottenham Hotspur have five points. They haven’t played badly, as such, and draws away at Everton and at home to Liverpool are entirely reasonable results, but there is a sense of them not being quite right, of a flow and a fluency and a drive from midfield not quite being there.

The reason is simple: Mousa Dembele is suspended.

“Without Mousa Dembele, we do not exist,” Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said, perhaps partly in jest, after Saturday’s draw against Liverpool. “Tottenham does not exist.”

Of all the consequences of Tottenham’s draw against Chelsea toward the end of last season, the game that confirmed Leicester City as champions, the greatest might turn out to be the impact of Dembele’s six-game ban for gouging Diego Costa’s eye.

He still has one match of that suspension left to serve and won’t be available in the Premier League until the home fixture against Sunderland on September 18, although he could play against AS Monaco in the Champions League four days before that.

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His importance to Tottenham is extraordinary. Since Dembele returned from a foot injury last October, Tottenham have not lost in a game he has started. His drive, his willingness to receive the ball in tight spaces and his capacity for emerging from trouble to poke a pass forward became invaluable—too valuable perhaps.

With him in the team last season, they averaged 2.3 points per game—without him, 0.9. Since the start of last season, Harry Kane has scored 24 goals in 27 games when he’s played with Dembele; in the 12 games he’s played without Dembele, he’s scored only one.

It’s an astonishing transformation for a player who started only 10 games (but came off the bench 30 times) in 2014-15 and who seemed to lack the dynamism needed to play in a Pochettino side. At least part of that was down to a hip problem, and he emerged as a key part of their asymmetric midfield three last season.

The tendency was for Spurs’ system to be described as either 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, but the truth is it was somewhere in between the two. Eric Dier would sit, with Dembele advanced and to the left of him and Dele Alli advanced and to the right of the England man. When the trio first came together, the roles of Alli and Demeble were reversed, which perhaps suggests how the roles of the two more advanced players are largely interchangeable in what is essentially a variant of the “open triangle” Jose Mourinho is so fond of talking about.

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This season, Dier and Victor Wanyama have started all three games at the back of midfield, with Alli in front of them against Everton and Liverpool. The triangle at the heart of the team is still asymmetric, but this time, it seems more closed than open; rather than one player whose responsibilities are largely defensive and two creators, there are two defensive players and a creator.

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That is a useful option to have, and it may be that in the Champions League or in the toughest Premier League matches, Pochettino may opt to play Dier, Wanyama and Dembele as his core, even if that means Alli moving out to the left.

Against Crystal Palace, and for part of the game against Liverpool, Kane was used behind Vincent Janssen.

Pochettino said after the Palace game that gave Kane more freedom and opened up more space for him. It is true he had six shots in the match against the Eagles, per WhoScored.com, but it seemed to come at the expense of balance and fluidity elsewhere. Although Kane did end up setting up the winner for Wanyama, it was a flick on from a corner rather than coming from open play.

The signing of Wanyama does give Pochettino the option of playing that slightly more defensive style, but his real value is in giving greater depth to the squad. That’s not to say he’s a back-up player—rather, he allows Pochettino to rotate and relieve some of the burden on his mainstays, something that becomes especially relevant with a Champions League campaign to negotiate as well as the Premier League.

But the Kenyan does not, as Dembele does, offer both defensive and attacking options in the same package. He is not a guarantor of balance.

Kane played 50 matches last season, and Alli featured in 46; no matter how good Pochettino’s conditioning work is, that is too much. It also, in part, explains why, in every full season Pochettino has had at a club other than his first at Espanyol, his teams have picked up fewer points per game in the final third of the season than in the first two thirds.

It’s easy to see in that context why Spurs should have then made the move for Moussa Sissoko, which they announced late on Wednesday. The timing is odd—although chairman Daniel Levy is known for working hard and late to save money in transfer window—and you wonder whether that isn’t offset by the value of having the player in the squad earlier, learning how Pochettino plays so he integrates quicker. And had Sissoko been there, it's possible one of those draws might have become a win.

The France international has the advantage of versatility; he can play anywhere in Spurs' central triangle, as a holding player, a creator or somewhere in between. And as he showed in the first half of the Euro 2016 final, he can be a dominant influence in big games. The issue has always been one of temperament. Too often at Newcastle United, he seemed a little diffident, particularly in Tyne-Wear derbies, but his talent is undeniable.

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The situation at Spurs is different, though. It’s not just that the club should be battling at the opposite end of the table—it’s that Spurs can leave him out if they want. In his three full seasons at Newcastle, Sissoko missed only eight league games. Tottenham have a squad in which no player, no matter how well they are playing, will be asked to start anything like that number of matches.

It took until the end of the transfer window, but they at last have a squad that should be able to cope with the twin demands of the Premier League and Champions League.

The issue now is ending their reliance on Dembele. You can have a squad as large and as balanced as you want, but if it can’t win games without one man, however gifted, it doesn’t make much difference.

I think his point regarding nobody really being "safe" in their position any more (except I guess Alderweireld atm) is interesting. That along with Pochettino being quite the hard task master makes me feel happier about the Sissoko deal in regards to his underperformance at Newcastle.

 

[Adam456]

The stats with and without Moose are bonkers

PS. What do we call Sissoko ? I can envision about 5 different spellings there.

 

[Ribble]

The stats with and without Moose are bonkers

PS. What do we call Sissoko ? I can envision about 5 different spellings there.

Mousse

 

[AW?]

I reckon we should call him M&S, or Sissy.

Sure he'd love either if those.

 

[double0]

I remember a wired stat with Bale not being on a winning side for Spurs for ages.

 

[Gbspurs]

I remember a wired stat with Bale not being on a winning side for Spurs for ages.

Good job we sold him!

 

[danielneeds]

The stats with and without Moose are bonkers

PS. What do we call Sissoko ? I can envision about 5 different spellings there.

I believe he goes by Mo for short.

 

[Adam456]

I believe he goes by Mo for short.

Nice

Think I'll use Moko for no particular reason

 

[Snarfalicious]

Think this is why we went for Sissoko as hard as we did. He's as close to Dembele in terms of a physical skill set as we could probably find. But, Dembele isn't just successful because he's a physical monster, he's actually really improved in his reading of the game and watching him and Dier work together in midfield is nothing short of complete understanding between two players.

It's a big ask for Sissoko who really has been playing more advanced in recent times, but i do believe he's a better option for when Dembele is out than any of our other players.

 

[JayB]

I remember a wired stat with Bale not being on a winning side for Spurs for ages.

It goes beyond just points return or Kane's goals, it's the disparity between the performance levels with and without him. That Poch quote -- "Tottenham does not exist [without Dembele]" should say it all really.

 

[PT]

The statement from Pochetino from the front page article suggests that Sissoko was bought when a bid for Zaha, who would have provided width and pace, didn't come off.
So Poch has identified a narrowness to our game, even with marauding full backs bombing up and down, which he desired to address.
Sissoko isn't that player surely, as his game is more central, yet we went gung ho for the player and nailed him on lights out.
It'll be interesting because last season we had Dier finding his feet at DM with no pressing replacement other than a subdued Dembele. Now we have Wanyama as well as Sissoko who can play there, so an abundance od defensive qualities more suited to Conte at Chelsea.
We'll see how it unfolds I guess.

 

[npearl4spurs]

With him in the team last season, they averaged 2.3 points per game—without him, 0.9. Since the start of last season, Harry Kane has scored 24 goals in 27 games when he’s played with Dembele; in the 12 games he’s played without Dembele, he’s scored only one.

astounding stat

 

[walworthyid]

Think this is why we went for Sissoko as hard as we did. He's as close to Dembele in terms of a physical skill set as we could probably find. But, Dembele isn't just successful because he's a physical monster, he's actually really improved in his reading of the game and watching him and Dier work together in midfield is nothing short of complete understanding between two players.

It's a big ask for Sissoko who really has been playing more advanced in recent times, but i do believe he's a better option for when Dembele is out than any of our other players.

I really don't think Sissoko will play holding midfield, that is what we bought Wanyama for. He will play out wide or at 10/am. He also has none of dembele's skillset. The reason it's difficult to win without him is because almost nobody has his skillset.

 

[guy]

I really don't think Sissoko will play holding midfield, that is what we bought Wanyama for. He will play out wide or at 10/am. He also has none of dembele's skillset. The reason it's difficult to win without him is because almost nobody has his skillset.

They may not have the same skill set, but they can both achieve the same thing.

Dembele glides past people, sissoko powers straight through them - end result for both is getting past an opposition midfielder and moving into space

 

[Pauleta01]

I have often tried to put my finger on why Dembele is so important to us. I think he is similar in many ways to Modric in that he is so productive at taking the ball off the back four and progressing the play to the final 3rd. He also seems to beat his man 1-on-1 every time and this seems for a split second to open up 2-3 other options in the final 3rd. No one else seems to beat a player and leave them behind like he does. Plus he is as hard as nails, have you ever seen him bullied off the ball. He is 8-10 goals a season away from being the most productive midfielder in Europe! I like Sissoko and Wanyama but they offer nowhere near as much as Dembele to the team.

 

[SpartanSpur]

I could be wrong in this but I see two separate reasons for our issues without Dembele:

2015/16 - Backup was extremely ill fitting. Mason, Bentaleb even Alli early on maybe had quicker more incisive passing but sorely lacked in strength and defensive awareness (run tracking, covering FBs etc)

2016/17 - Wanyama makes up for strength and defensive deficiencies but lacks a bit of creativity, but I'm not sure if Dembele's presence would have made Kane/Alli/Eriksen somehow start the season on fire (all undercooked/off form for me so far) or make Janssen acclimatise better. Edit: That Kane stat above could be damning however