Summer 2024 Squad Planning – Update

This is essentially a second draft of my Summer 2024 Squad Planning blog, with information from pre-season as well as some deeper reflections on last season factored in.

It goes back to my assessment in November 2023 of the players we needed to add to the squad in order to compete on two fronts.

Since then we’ve ticked off the right centre-back (Radu Drăgușin) and we have also added Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray to the squad. Here’s where I think we are on the remaining places.

Goalkeeper

It appears to me that Brandon Austin is now our second choice goalkeeper. He signed a new contract, and has had solid involved in pre-season in Fraser Forster’s absence. He is a much better team style fit than Forster, albeit he is almost completely untested in men’s football, aside from a couple of short loans several years ago.

My view is that Josh Keeley and Luca Gunter are the serious goalkeeping talents at the club, but with Keeley not being ‘Home Grown’ qualified (since he turned 21 at the end of last season, only his second at the club), I wonder whether that might work against him. He will presumably get another loan this season anyway.

Goalkeeper does concern me. If Vicario were to get injured, I think we’d have a pretty significant problem. How can you rely on Austin when (and this is not his fault) he is totally untested? Forster is a poor squad fit, not strong with his feet and not good at sweeping. Ideally I think we should be looking to sign a short-term, profile fit goalkeeper who can rotate in Europa League matches if required. But maybe we just don’t know how good Austin is, because how could we know?

Right back

With the re-emergence of Djed Spence, and the signing of Archie Gray, I feel satisfied that we’ve now got suitable right-back rotation. Spence’s renaissance is such a good news story. He is a huge talent, and is coming back from Genoa with renewed focus and a fresh perspective is just fantastic news for him, for Ange and for the club. His dynamic, front-footed ball carrying is a nightmare for defenders – he commits them early and often beats them with his purposeful stride length and excellent acceleration. He also dribbles inside really effectively, with good close control and spatial awareness.

Gray played a lot of right-back for Leeds last season, though it’s worth noting that the expectations of the inverted role at Spurs are significantly different. I think Gray is a phenomenal talent but my main question mark over him at the moment is his ability to consistently receive the ball with his back to play. I think this is what makes him less of an Ange six and more of a Ange eight, and obviously with the full-backs drifting in-field to become the ‘3’ ahead of the ‘2’ in build-up, it is a requirement of the role to receive back to play. So it’s worth keeping an eye on his development in this area. His ability when facing play is seriously impressive.

Left back

Last time I wrote I included this:

Ben Davies is not an ideal fit for the inverted full-back role and, in my view, should only be considered for the left centre-back role going into next season. However, given that Radu Drăgușin has played in that role with Micky van de Ven out injured, it implies to me that Davies is now down the pecking order. He has just gained coaching qualifications, and I’m sure Spurs would welcome him as a coach with open arms. However, he still has plenty of football left in him at a decent level, so he has a decision to make. Assuming Swansea City stay up, perhaps he does a couple of years there before coming back to us in a coaching capacity.

Summer 2024 Squad Planning

I think this still rings true, but given there’s been little to no speculation about Davies leaving, I think we can probably assume he’s with us until January at least. I do think there will be very few matches there for him, though, and personally I’d prefer to see Spence or Gray used at left-back as rotation for Destiny Udogie.

For me, finding a specialist left-back rotation is still quite important. I’m a huge fan of Rayan Aït-Nouri and I like the way he carries and comes in-field. But with Spence profiling closer to Udogie than Porro, perhaps we need to find a creative passer as our rotation left-back to help in build-up. On a totally unrelated note, creative passer Jamie Donley had an outstanding performance there against Vissel Kobe.

Left centre-back

Left-sided centre-back was a really high priority for me, but I must admit that Archie Gray’s performances and profile do have me a fair bit less concerned. If the right player is available, I still think it would be a smart piece of squad-building, but given Gray’s impressive vision, execution of pass, and reading of the game, I think we could manage until January and then re-assess.

Long-term I really like Alfie Dorrington as a centre-back option for us, but he has played a lot more on the right, and probably needs a loan (or perhaps two) before he can be considered. Unfortunately he has missed pre-season due to injury, else he might have had some first team exposure, with Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Radu Drăgușin all returning late after the summer tournaments.

Of course, if we are serious about competing for the league, it would make sense to invest in a top quality, ball-playing, left-sided (or versatile enough to play left-sided) centre-back.

Defensive midfielder

I think it’s become extremely well known that the market for number sixes is difficult right now to say the least. What Angeball requires of its six makes the role extremely pivotal and also limits the number of players that could tick all boxes. If you’re elite at defensive screening, anticipating, backing up the press, being press resistant and progressing the ball through passes and carries, you’re… well, you’re Rodri. So it comes down to compromise.

A lot of Spurs fans wanted us to sign Amadou Onana, but for me the drop-off in dexterity and press resistance between Yves Bissouma and Onana would have been significant so at that price point we were right to pass. All being well, 2025/26 will be Tyrese Hall szn, but what do we do in the meantime? Well, we have Rodrigo Bentancur and Archie Gray to rotate with Bissouma – neither option is ideal in my opinion. Alfie Devine looked really good at the base of midfield vs QPR but it would be a big ask for him to immediately step up in a largely unfamiliar position. Do we have enough to muddle through? Maybe. Are there any other options on the market that would improve our depth? Ehhhhhhhh. It’s a tough one.

Attacking midfielder

In my previous draft I noted:

As the season has progressed and Dejan Kulusevski has played more as a central player, I think we’ve created a genuine option for ourselves. Between James Maddison, Kulusevski, Lucas Bergvall, and whichever of Alfie Devine and Jamie Donley stays at the club next season, we might just have enough attacking midfield coverage for two competitions. However, I would be in favour of signing a dribbly winger who can also play centrally…

Summer 2024 Squad Planning

I stand by it. And I’d say Kulusevski has cemented himself as an option. But, as above, if we really mean business then someone immediately close to Maddison’s level of creative passing would elevate us in the here and now. I do think there’s an argument that this could be a positionally flexible player who could also cover the wing slot.

Winger

I’d originally had this role pegged down as left winger, but I am no longer certain that that’s the right choice and, besides, I think the squad building leads towards us wanting someone for the right.

My view after watching Son Heung-min play both wide on the left and through the middle in Angeball is that he is significantly better on the left and that I would rather not see him play up front much at all. Watching Kulusevski play through the middle against Vissel Kobe, despite Son being on the pitch, was encouraging to me — perhaps Ange agrees. So with Son on the left, and Timo Werner’s loan renewed for a further season, we seem fairly well set for that side. On the right, we have Brennan Johnson and Kulusevski, but with Kulusevski playing centrally a lot more it certainly leaves the door open for the dribbly boi signing to be a right-sided player. Mikey Moore gives us a dribbly option, and can certainly expect a good number of minutes in the coming season, but it would be unfair and irresponsible to expect him to deliver regularly at just 16.

I think the signing of Werner can only really be assessed at the end of the window.

We have today announced the signing of 18-year old South Korean dribbly winger Yang Min-hyeok. I don’t think this changes anything about our winger search.

Forward

I had previously considered the forward role ‘dealt with’, with Son and Richarlison as striker options. But, despite Son’s incredible finishing, I am convinced after last season that he is not a great fit for the central role and I also think him being there somewhat negates his greatest strength: the cut in and shoot. Given Richarlison’s dreadful problems with injury last season, I do think a new forward is now imperative.

Kulusevski has shown that he can play through the middle at a push, and Pape Matar Sarr also did a great job there against Manchester City at the end of last season. But some guaranteed goals would really help ease the burden on others. In Will Lankshear, Alejo Véliz and Dane Scarlett, there is some promise for the future, but none are ready to contribute immediately and there is no need to change their development plans unnecessarily.

There are a fairly limited number of options on the market; if you’re interested in who Nathan likes (or on our squad building issues with regards to Premier League and UEFA regulations), you might want to watch this video.