Positional Battles Are Heating Up as Tottenham Hotspur Maximise Their Depth

One of the themes of the early season for Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino was the importance of preparing his squad for demands to come. The hope was that preparations made at the beginning would pay off throughout a fulfilling and successful campaign in domestic and European competitions.

“Today, when you look at our squad, we have the possibility to play in different ways,” he told Tottenham’s official website at the close of the transfer window. “That is important because we have different alternatives across the team in order to compete in all competitions.”

Pochettino will be pleased with how he has been able to maximise the depth of his playing staff so far. It is still early in this process, but the team’s increasingly confident performances and the competition for places informing them will create belief that it is something they can sustain.

Seeing where Spurs’ positional battles stand compared to the eve of 2016-17 makes for a mix of the expected and the surprising.

Certain areas of the team are as reliably consistent as they were when driving the preceding Premier League title challenge that has created so much expectation this time around. Others have seen variation according to the different impacts made by new signings.

Fortunes for holdovers from last season have contrasted, too, while a new crop of academy prospects have gotten their first taste of the senior game.

Much could change throughout the Tottenham team beyond this point. But as the club game takes a pause for the latest international break, this is a good time to take a more detailed look at how things look right now.

Goalkeeper

Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’ performance in the 2-0 win over Manchester City reiterated just how important he is to the north Londoners’ cause—if anyone needed reminding.

He repeatedly stopped Sergio Aguero, anticipating the striker’s runs into the box and also doing enough to deflect one near-post effort away via the woodwork. Lloris denied substitute Kelechi Iheanacho from close range and saved shots from Raheem Sterling as Spurs shut their visitors out.

Lloris had been playing solidly enough before the team’s final fixture ahead of the international break. But this unbeatable outing from the captain saw him firmly at his best.

Backup Michel Vorm will have watched on approvingly, albeit with a hint of frustration.

The Dutchman had deputised for Lloris after the first-choice keeper got injured in the season opener against Everton. He was as commanding as he has ever been in a Spurs shirt, doing particularly well to keep his side in the game against a dangerous Liverpool attack.

Losing his place will have jarred a little. But he knows his role, and Lloris’ playing so well makes things a tad more tolerable.

On-loan third-choice Pau Lopez has yet to make an appearance even on the bench. Alfie Whiteman, just turned 18, was the alternative to Vorm for the EFL Cup win over Gillingham.

Centre-Back

“I don’t like to speak about names, because for me the collective is the most important, the squad,” Pochettino told his pre-Manchester City press conference when asked about the good form of Toby Alderweireld. Yet while the boss would not go into specifics about the defender’s work, he made it clear that anyone he selected at any given time was there on merit.

Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen have played every Premier League and Champions League match so far this season and have deserved to, as well. Save for a below-par night in the loss to Monaco (although Alderweireld did score Spurs’ consolation goal in a 2-1 defeat), they have been tough, organised and close to fully engaged in keeping …

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