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Tottenham Hotspur Are Finally Reaping Benefits of Defensive Partnerships
- Updated: August 4, 2016
A football team does not lose 5-1 and just forget about it.
Tottenham Hotspur’s final-day defeat to relegated Newcastle United by that scoreline was mostly a consequence of their loss of motivation after their Premier League title challenge ended unsuccessfully. Still, the ease with which they were repeatedly bypassed was sufficiently jarring and should not go unacknowledged.
The loss underlined Tottenham’s need to continue working on the defensive partnerships that had been so integral to a mostly great season. Their development marked a break from the inconsistency flavoured norm of the preceding few campaigns.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino has taken a further step away from that time with the decision to allow centre-back Federico Fazio to join Roma on loan.
LOAN: Federico Fazio has joined Serie A side Roma on loan until the end of the 2016-17 season.
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 3, 2016
Though Fazio signed for Tottenham after some of the players who have become regular parts of his compatriot’s defence, he feels like a remnant of a different time. Like he had his chance to be part of the future but was still stuck in old ways.
This is somewhat misleading and certainly harsh. Poor though Fazio was in last season’s Capital One Cup defeat to Arsenal, a solitary appearance is hardly enough for a player to prove his worth.
During 2014-15 his stretches in the team playing alongside Jan Vertonghen contributed significantly to the team’s better runs of form.
Unfortunately Fazio’s struggle to hit the ground running after time on the sidelines—exacerbated by, at 6’3″, his more cumbersome nature—gradually limited his appeal to Pochettino.
If a change was required in his defence, he needed more immediate reliability, not the promise of it two or three weeks later. Pochettino’s choice to move on from one of the first signings made in his reign has been backed up by the good covering job Kevin Wimmer did for Vertonghen last season, as well as the overall impact made by the more well-rounded Toby Alderweireld.
Fazio was something of a throwback to a period when Spurs’ defending was particularly erratic. Or rather, the understanding of what combinations would serve the team best in the position was.
The injury issues suffered by longtime captain Ledley King either side of the turn of the decade had a big influence here.
Spurs got by all right at different points without him, as well as adjusting when he was available.
Michael Dawson and Sebastien Bassong were immense at times, helping the club qualify for the Champions League during 2009-10. William Gallas did similarly well in some big nights in the competition itself, while some of Younes Kaboul’s best work for the club came when Dawson missed large chunks of 2011-12.
King’s retirement at the end of the latter campaign was a catalyst for the greater …
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