Few can look at Mauricio Pochetinno’s work at Spurs, transforming the London club from a side synonymous with cack-handed inconsistency into one of the nation’s finest sides, and not be left in awe.
Still, this season the Champions League qualification slots have never been harder to attain. Aware of this, Pochettino has bolstered his squad with the January acquisition of Lucas Moura from PSG. Aided by the Brazilian’s presence, Spurs are currently 8/11 to finish in the top four.
Pochettino has made his reputation by getting Spurs to perform well above the level their wage budget would suggest.
Hugo Lloris, while prone to occasional lapses in concentration, remains one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
A three-man defence of Alderweireld, Vertonghen and Sanchez is as good as anything that the sport can muster. The fullbacks, perhaps the key men in Spur’s system, all look terrific.
The midfield is a fine amalgam of silk and steel; composed and elegant in possession, yet fearsomely robust and impossible to bully.
In Christian Eriksen, Son and Dele Alli, they have enough creativity to slice open the most entrenched defences, and in Harry Kane, Spurs have one of the sport’s deadliest poachers.
What they do lack is the ability to vary their style when plan A fails. The current back-up plan is to utilise Fernando Llorente as a target man, looking to get as many knockdowns from the towering Spaniard as possible. This, of course is is a feasible solution, however, it often requires a fair amount of luck.
What the signing of Lucas Moura offers is the ability to attack with much more width, a tactic that should bring the best out of far more members of the Spurs squad. Currently all the work in wider areas is provided by the wing-backs; Rose and Davies on the left and Aurier and Trippier on the right. And while they have all looked brilliant, they are hardly brimming with guile. All their work relies on lung capacity and a talent for crossing the ball.
What Spurs have missed is someone capable of getting on the ball and driving at defences before making a decisive impact with either goals or assists. Lucas Moura has shown that he is more than capable of doing just that.
His problem, as with so many wingers, is his consistency.
For all of Moura’s dazzling skills and ferocious pace, he has only notched double figures for league goal-scoring once. Moura enters Wembley, Tottenham’s temporary home, with a lot to prove, having been ushered out of Paris with just five league appearances this season.
Fortunately, for Spurs fans, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue. The looming presence of a World Cup has a dramatic effect on players, with virtually everybody keen to play week-in, week-out to their highest possible standard – Lucas Moura is no exception.
Add the fact that Brazil’s coach, Tite, has yet to etch his final squad in stone, leaving the door ajar for Moura, and we could see a version of the winger that has not been visible for some time.
The alliance between Pochettino’s hard-line, disciplined approach and Lucas Moura’s slap-dash, anarchic style could gel to make something beautiful. With the now weekly war of attrition against Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, his arrival could hardly be timelier.
