2 weeks ago
19
5th in table
©TM/IMAGO
Tottenham fans would be forgiven for having mixed feelings after their 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday. Thomas Frank’s side did well to come from behind following Bryan Mbeumo’s opening goal to take the lead in the second half with two goals of their own. But that was cancelled out in the dying moments of the game by a last-minute equaliser from a Matthijs de Ligt header.
On balance, perhaps a point apiece was a fair result, but it now means that Spurs haven’t won a league game in front of their own fans since the opening day of the season. And, most notably, after 11 games of the new Premier League season, Frank’s new-look side are sitting fifth place with just five wins to their name. So should the North London club be doing better under their new manager and following a summer transfer window that saw the club spend €211 million on new players?
When we consider the club’s results to date, it’s not hard to see why some Spurs fans aren’t exactly elated at Frank’s start to life at Tottenham. With 18 points from their first 11 league games, Tottenham’s start to this season’s Premier League is the fourth worst in the last 10 seasons. Frank is doing better than Mauricio Pochettino did in his final season at the club (13 points from 11 games) and Antonio Conte’s first season (16 points), but the Danish tactician is doing considerably worse than Ange Postecoglou’s first season in charge (26 points) and the fact that his Spurs team have picked up just two more points than last season’s team will certainly fill few fans with much hope. And in many ways these numbers sum up the discourse around Spurs at the moment: they’re not doing terribly by any means, but Frank has hardly hit the ground running in the Premier League.
This lacklustre performance to date can also be seen when we consider the quality of opposition that Tottenham have played in their first 11 games. While Man Utd are a formidable foe at this moment in time and Frank’s team have already played Chelsea and Manchester City, for the most part, Tottenham have played sides below them in the league table. This much is evident when we consider the matchday market values of Tottenham’s squad and their opponents to date. According to Transfermarkt’s information, the average market value of Tottenham’s matchday squad in the Premier League this season has stood at around €646m, while their opponents’ has been just €461m.
As such, Tottenham have had a more valuable squad to work with in eight of their first 11 games of the league campaign and when we extrapolate that into games they should or shouldn't have won, it suggests that Frank’s side should be sitting on 24 league points at this stage of the season rather than just 18. Which certainly makes sense when we consider that while Spurs have taken points off more valuable squads in their 2-0 win over Man City and the weekend’s draw with Man Utd, they’ve also dropped needless points in defeats to Bournemouth and Aston Villa, as well as draws with Brighton and Wolves. As such, Frank’s team are perhaps not doing all they can with the evident talent at their disposal.
A response that has often been levelled at critics of Frank and this season’s Spurs side is that they have been heavily impacted by injuries, but while there certainly are some big names missing from Tottenham’s line-ups this season it perhaps isn’t as desperate a situation as some believe. As we can see in the table above, among Tottenham’s 15 most valuable players only two ( Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison) have missed every league game thus far, while star striker Dominic Solanke has missed 82% of the club’s league games. Add to that Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie missing 18% and 23% of the league games so far and it’s a decent chunk of last season’s strongest starting XI.
However, when we consider that new signings Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus have slotted directly into the team in place of the injured Maddison and Kulusevski respectively, that really only leaves Solanke and his clear eye for goal as the main absence from Frank’s ideal starting XI. And, even in that regard, Frank does have three other strikers to choose from in Mathys Tel, Richarlison and new signing Randal Kolo Muani. So while Tottenham’s injury concerns are notable, the data doesn’t exactly point to a squad that are under tremendous strain due to said absences. And it certainly doesn’t look like a viable excuse for Tottenham’s poor form under Frank to date.
