After Gareth Bale was sold to Real Madrid for €100 million to Real Madrid and Scott Parker was sent packing to Fulham, Daniel Levy decided to bolster the squad with 7 new players, mostly in midfield position. Capoue, Eriksen and Paulinho all joined the squad in hopes of a Champions League spot finish. However with the midfielders that Tottenham already had before the season such as Sigurdsson, Sandro, Holtby and Dembele, a bit of a crisis started to appear as big talents started to sit on the bench and become unhappy. Holtby and Capoue barely had chances to show themselves on the pitch and Holtby decided he has seen enough and left the club on loan for Fulham. Capoue demanded transfer but Napoli and Spurs couldn’t agree on a fee so he stayed at the club for another 6 months at least.
Under AVB, Spurs was playing the 4-2-3-1, which could only allow 3 midfielders to be on the pitch and even then, the competition was incredible. Now, under Tim Sherwood, Tottenham is playing the 4-4-2, and the competition is fiercer for midfielders. However, the injury problems made Sherwood’s job easier to choose a midfield duo as the likes of Paulinho and Sandro were out for a long time. Now that they are both coming back into the contention, there is going to be a bigger crisis as Bentaleb also showed himself as a first team player.
To solve this situation, and also put the best team on the pitch, Tim Sherwood has to change to 4-2-3-1 with Eriksen having freedom to roam around anywhere he wants. Under AVB, when Paulinho held one of the holding midfield positions, he produced his worst performances because he couldn’t decide whether to attack or to defend as he was always caught in no man’s land. But if Eriksen becomes almost the second striker, Paulinho will now have to control the midfield and show his abilities both ways and prove why Tottenham spent €20 on him over the summer. To balance the midfield Sandro looks to be the best option in front of Dembele because he is a world class holding midfielder at his best. He lacks the technical qualities that Dembele has but with almost 5 men up front attacking, the squad definitely needs a strong midfielder who will recover the ball and prevents the opposition to pass the midfield with ease.
Capoue and Bentaleb will also be solid options as the season goes on, because Sandro, Dembele and Paulinho all had injury problems over the season. As Townsend comes back to contention, I think that Sigurdsson’s spell on the left flank is over and Tim Sherwood should use him as a backup to Eriksen as he has the passing and shooting quality of an attacking midfielder.
This article not only suggests a guideline for the rest of the season, but also proves that we have one of the best squads in the Premier League. At our best, we can easily beat our rivals and make into top 4. Let’s hope that Tim Sherwood finds the balance in his squad and leads this team to success at the end of the season.
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