Reviewing our summer signings

Much has been said about the improvements of our signings from last season. Finally it seems we’re getting to know our squad and their true capabilities. But what about our summer signings who have so far flown so low under the radar they’ve had barely a mention?

Over the summer, the prospect of Musacchio had us excited. Highlights of him keeping Barcelona at bay suggested that we might have found a top class centre back capable of keeping those pesky top four teams from dismantling us with such ease. However, when the deal inevitably fell apart the switch to Fazio seemed reasonable.

In Fazio was the promise of an experienced defender coming off the back of lifting the Europe League, who would surely improve our less than water-tight defence. Quite the opposite has happened.

Fazio has been limited to Europa League appearances, in which our defensive displays have been anything but convincing, in no small part to his Romanian teammate, it must be noted. Thus, so far it’s hard to say with any amount of certainty whether he’s up to the task.

[leftquote]In Fazio was the promise of an experienced defender coming off the back of lifting the Europe League[/leftquote]

And then there’s Ben Davies. There was a great deal of optimism surrounding his acquisition, he was supposed to be the calm, collected, defensive minded full-back our team was crying out for. But again, like Fazio, he’s featured mainly on Thursday nights.

Eric Dier has been the one signing to play regularly in the league and he’s impressed. He is clearly a talented young man and has already proved to be a snip at 4 million. Although, despite the inclusion of Dier, our defensive line up has been much the same as last year. This isn’t what many of us had envisioned during pre-season.

Yet we are improving defensively. Last season a line-up including Kaboul, Naughton, and Rose would have had some of us looking for an early exit. So what has changed? Has Pochettino and his ‘philosophy’ (a term he refers to nearly as much as Sherwood did ‘capitulation’ or AVB did ‘objective,’ maybe even as much as ‘Arry did ‘terrific’) starting to work?

It’s surely too early to say, what has become obvious though, is an improvement in spirit. Sherwood farted on a lot about fighting and showing bottle to little effect, but Poch seems to be getting it from the players. Take Kaboul for example, with his confidence undoubtedly shot to pieces after some woeful displays over the last year or so, we are beginning to see the re-emergence of our new club captain, with recent performances harking back to the days before injuries and comical errors made him somewhat of a laughing stock.

[linequote]Rose seemed to epitomise everything that was wrong with the English youth system, with it’s focus on athleticism over technical ability and footballing intelligence[/linequote]

He now looks more committed, more switched on and besides the occasional miscued clearance, in-form. He was recently quoted as saying that Pochettino was a hero of his from his early days at PSG and it’s becoming more evident week by week that our new gaffer is a leader, someone who demands respect, without literally demanding it. And it’s beginning to rub off not only on Younes.

Many of us had all but given up on little Danny Rose. He seemed to epitomise everything that was wrong with the English youth system, with it’s focus on athleticism over technical ability and footballing intelligence.

However, slowly but surely, he is developing into a proper full back. His final ball still leaves much to be desired, but you don’t have to be Pep Guardiola to recognise the improvements in his positional play and his ability to read the game. No longer is he continually bounding forward losing the ball, then having to hurtle back to desperately scythe the opposition down.

His forward runs are now better timed, probing, and increasingly effective. If Kyle Walker ever returns from where ever he is, having two full backs capable of over-lapping at such velocity will bring balance and a serious attacking threat.

Then there’s Stambouli, the Frenchman who sounds like an Italian turnover. Clearly a plan B to the plan A of Schneiderlin has similarly to Davies and Fazio, played a bit-part role this season. To some extent this is frustrating.

[linequote]Capoue is showing glimpses of the potential that had us all wooing after his first few appearances for the club[/linequote]

Instead of bringing in a new player to improve our first team, the powers that be have again opted for another indistinguishably talented midfield squad player. Although, it’s early days, he could turn out to be the new Dave Mckay, you never know.

What is definitely positive though, is the fact that Pochettino has again worked to improve on what we already had, in this case, Etienne Capoue. While Capoue hasn’t been spectacular, he has been consistent, and for a player whose Spurs career appeared to be over before it had begun, he’s again showing glimpses of the potential that had us all wooing after his first few appearances for the club.

The signings of Fazio, Davies, and Stambouli have turned out to be less than instrumental so far. Thankfully this has been masked by the improvement in our players from last season, thus preventing questions over the value of signing the trio. Encouragingly, it appears that Pochettino has the ability to improve our current crop without having to bring in his own players. This bodes very well for the future. But let’s not get too excited yet, we’ll know a lot more about how far they’ve come after the City game next weekend.