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The perennial chokers of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur will finish yet another season trophyless. Even though they have evolved into a far better team that can challenge the who's who of Europe- as evidenced by their victory over Real Madrid in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League- they just can't seem to keep it up and have hence been without silverware for a very long time.
Spurs have a reputation for choking in the big games and a week ago, they bottled it once again in the FA Cup after losing 2-1 to Manchester United though they had gone in front in the early minutes of the game.
Tottenham have quite a few serious problems to tackle in order to transform into the team that they have the potential of becoming and in this slideshow we'll be looking at 3 issues that Pochettino must look into immediately:
#3 Bring in new players to provide Kane, Alli, Eriksen, and Son room to breathe
Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Son have been at the heart of everything good about Tottenham Hotspur. Kane has kicked on in the same vein as last season and has been as prolific as you'd now expect him to be.
Christian Eriksen has been menacing as the creator-in-chief and hardly ever has an off day. Son and Alli have stepped up to the task and have even gone on to win big games single-handedly.
However, the fact that there are no alternatives for these star performers is a glaring problem. As a result, Mauricio Pochetino has had to rely on these stars week in and week out and that has led to them underperforming on some of the most important nights.
Young players, especially ones who are as good as these 4 will thrive in a competitive environment and right now, Spurs do not have the squad depth to force them into trying to outdo themselves to nail down a starting spot.
To aggravate the problem, when Spurs have a high-profile Champions League or domestic cup encounter coming up, they seem to not be able to afford their star players enough time to recuperate and be present fully fit for that. Essentially, performing well in a big game comes at the cost of being sub-par in the next.
Hence, there is a need for Pochettino to bring in quality attackers so that the pressure on Kane, Son, Eriksen and Alli can be allayed to an extent. But with the rigid wage structure at Tottenham, it will prove to be a difficult task. But it will be one that Poch certainly won't be able to do without.
#2 Find a replacement for Mousa Dembele
Mousa Dembele remains one of the most severely underrated midfielders in the Premier League. His control, vision and composure are all attributes that have come in handy in almost all the major upsets that Spurs have caused over the past few years.
However, at the age of 30, Dembele is not at a point in his career where he can put in a shift on a weekly basis. In his absence, Spurs seem to relinquish control at the centre of the park and they need to find a replacement who can replicate the same alongside Eric Dier or Victor Wanyama.
Mateo Kovacic of Real Madrid could be a like-for-like replacement but it remains to be seen whether or not the Croat will want to make the step-down.
That being said, Pochettino has to sort out the issue sooner than later as they can't expect to walk into next season with the same squad dynamic and expect to pull off something grand.
#1 Mental toughness and the need for a leader
When Manchester United fell behind to Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, nobody really expected them to come out all guns blazing and prove a point to the rest of England. They did so thanks to the big personalities they have in the team.
Players like Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, and Chris Smalling have come to the fore and chipped in with goals and impressive performances to rally them on to season-defining wins.
It is this exact thing that Tottenham lack. They seem to lack a leader who can scream and harry them forward in the face of adversity. Tottenham had almost sealed the tie against Juventus before a lack of cohesiveness ensured they slipped up to gift the tie to Massimiliano Allegri's men.
Even in the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United, Spurs had taken the lead and from there on, they slipped into their ill-fitting robes of complacency and let the Red Devils take the game away from them.
Mousa Dembele had an absolute shocker and Spurs just seemed to lack the mental toughness that's needed on days like those that can propel them to becoming a title-winning side.
Be it Harry Kane or Christian Eriksen or Dembele, somebody needs to take charge on the field. Otherwise, they are staring at a long, winding and unrewarding road that stretches on for, maybe, all of eternity.
