Looking at the Premier League table and you can see just where the Tottenham Hotspur side needs to improve if they are going to seriously challenge for the title this season.

Spurs have a mean defence, only league leaders Chelsea have conceded fewer times so far this term. But it’s the goals for column that must frustrate boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Spurs have scored twenty-nine goals in their seventeen league fixtures and that isn’t good enough to break into the top four; as Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool have all scored more.

Tottenham have a superb squad.

Goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris is one of the Premier League’s top shot-stoppers.

Their Belgian centre-backs are terrific and are always solid. England international full-backs Danny Rose and Kyle Walker are superb going forward and create plenty of chances, plus they aren’t slow to get back when needed.

Spurs have a plethora of midfielders, both solid defensive types and tremendous creative forces!

But it’s up-front where things need bulking up.

Obviously they have Harry Kane and the hitman has seven strikes in his twelve league appearances.

Kane is a top striker and can score almost any type of goal. He leads the line excellently but what happens if he has an off day or heaven forbid he suffers a long-term injury?

They signed young Dutch forward Vincent Janssen for a £17m fee from AZ Alkmaar. That was after the pacy front-man scored twenty-seven Eredivisie goals in thirty-four games last season.

But he hasn’t had the best of starts at White Hart Lane, scoring just one penalty in his eleven Premier League appearances (mostly from the bench).

Janssen is only twenty-two years of age and he only spent one season in the Netherlands top flight before joining Tottenham. So it’s very probable that the striker just needs a confidence boosting goal to kickstart his season and time to settle in at the club.

But unfortunately if Spurs are wanting to really break back into the ‘Top Four’ this season then you think that they’ll need another forward who is ready to fill in if Kane is missing.

South Korean Son Heung-Min can play through the middle but he’s better out on the left and that’s where he’s got his goals from this term.

Tottenham have only lost twice this season, earlier this month Man United won with a clean-sheet. But tellingly they’ve also drawn six times, no one has drawn more so far in this campaign.

Maybe a more experience frontman could have helped them out from the bench in some of those games.

It’s not through the lack of trying by the way, last season they had Clinton N’Jie and before that they had Roberto Soldado and they too failed to find the net regularly. Emmanuel Adebayor only managed two goals in his last year in North London.

They missed out on French youngster Moussa Dembele last January and he’s now scoring for Celtic in Scotland and the Champions League.

They could throw cash at Lyon in a bid to prise away Alexandre Lacazette.

West Brom frontman Saido Berahino has been constantly linked with a move to ‘The Lilywhites’ but a move constantly breaks down. Could they finally get their man this time?

If they can persuade former Man United man Javier Hernandez to return to England this January then that could be the ideal solution.

Could Daniel Levy maybe make a move for former hitman Jermain Defoe? Would Sunderland sell? Would Defoe come back for a third time just to sit on the bench? Well you’ll never know until you ask. The veteran has shown in 2016 that he still has a keen eye for goal!

Getting that extra forward in could be the difference between fourth and fifth come May 2017, so I really think that Pochettino has to go to his chairman and demand a goalscoring back-up!

Posted on December 19th, 2016 by scott
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