After a bright start to the season with consecutive wins over West Ham & QPR, a Mauricio Pochettino inspired Spurs have stuttered of late. A home defeat by then bottom of the table West Brom exposed a serious chink in their armour that, come the end of the season, will cost them dearly.
With only the inconsistent Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado and a rough around the edges Harry Kane leading the line, a striker capable of scoring twenty plus goals a season is badly missing and desperately needed.
Against the Baggies, they mustered only one shot on target and were toothless in attack. Spurs deserved to lose but with the likes of Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela in midfield, you would expect better. Then there’s the service. Andros Townsend and Aaron Lennon are both capable of getting to the byline except when they do, they can’t deliver an accurate cross if their life depended on it.
Danny Welbeck would have been perfect but they failed to act and now he’s scoring goals for Arsenal. Loic Remy was available and so was Romelu Lukaku but they ended up at Chelsea and Everton respectively.
I’m still not convinced by Harry Kane and it’s clear Adebayor and Soldado are neither up for the fight nor good enough. They all lack pace and a killer instinct while their movement is about as quick as a bus completing a three-point turn down a narrow road. I dread to think what would happen if either one is injured. We’d be in the proverbial you know what.
With a back-four looking nervous and weak from set-pieces, I worry that we’re going backwards.
We were stupid not to sign another striker when we had the chance. I thought Welbeck was made for us. His lighting pace and runs in behind would have been a dream to our midfielders and as we’ve already seen down the road, he’s a quality finisher. That’ll be the difference between finishing fourth and in our case, probably finishing sixth or seventh.
I was surprised we didn’t go back in for Jermain Defoe who, after less than a year at Toronto in the MLS, wanted a move back to the Premier League. Our former striker splits opinion but there’s no doubting his ability to impact from the bench. He’s the closest thing to a natural finisher we’ve seen since Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler and although his resale value would be little to none, he’s worth having.
Look at our rivals and you’ll see how desperate our striking options are. We’re not title challengers but nevertheless, Chelsea have Diego Costa who has taken to our league like a duck to water, while Everton splashed the cash on a player many consider to be one of the best young strikers in Europe. Manchester City are blessed with Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Steven Jovetic and we’re aware of Arsenal. Even with Luis Suarez leaving, Liverpool can count on Daniel Sturridge and Mario Balotelli. Are we really on that level? I’m not sure.
Perhaps our new manager was happy with what he had at his disposal and I’d hazard a guess that he knows more than me. But our refusal to invest in a striker will, in my opinion, come back to haunt us from now until May. I hope I’m wrong.
By @cravingfootball – http://www.cravingfootball.co.uk/
