Tottenham come into the new campaign following their best ever Premier League finish.
The disappointment of missing out on the title to Leicester should now have vanished and they should be able to look forward to building on what are some very solid foundations.
Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t need to make any radical tweaks to his approach or formation.
He has a talented group of young players who are used to the way he wants to play and appear well suited to the 4-2-3-1 formation that he employed for most of last season.
Sound additions
They have made two major additions so far this summer in Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen, but they can both be easily slotted into the system and should need little time to adapt to it.
It’s unlikely either will go straight into the side but both are very capable of coming in and not weakening it when the occasion arises and they should see quite a lot of game time if Spurs do well in the cups.
The goalkeeper and back four picks itself and contributed to Spurs having the joint best defensive record in the Premier League last season.
They should again go with two holding midfielders in front of them, who do an excellent job of protecting the back four, breaking up the game and getting Spurs on the break.
Wanyama will put real pressure on Eric Dier and Mousa Dembélé and the added competition should keep them on their toes.
The real question
The only real question-marks about how Spurs will line-up this season lie further up the field.
One option is to partner Harry Kane with new signing Vincent Janssen up front, but that would risk harming the balance of the side that was so good last season.
Janssen has only spent one season in the top flight in the Netherlands so he has gone through a whirlwind rise and it’d be a big risk to throw him straight into this team particularly when it may negatively impact other key members of the team, who’d have to move around to accommodate him.
The best approach and a possible alternative
Therefore, the 4-2-3-1 formation still looks clearly the best approach for Tottenham to take given the strong understanding Dele Alli built up with Kane last term, meanwhile Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen both offer real threat from an attacking wide role and wouldn’t benefit from a change to 4-4-2.
They could utilise it or even a 4-3-3 formation with Son Heung-min another option should the need come to chase a game, but all things considered Pochettino doesn’t need to change much from last term and is highly likely to continue with the approach that fired them to a third place finish in the 2015/16 campaign.
Written by Mark Sochon
Follow Mark on Twitter @tikitakagol
Check out his brilliant blog on all things La Liga, Tiki-Taka-Gol!
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