We really are a one-man team

Everyone is going on about Harry Kane obviously, we all know that his goalscoring abilities since the end of August have been extraordinary, but for me, that is not the most impressive aspect of Spurs right now. Pochetino obviously cannot be ignored, without him who knows where we’d be – one nation under Poch, for now and forever. But there is something about him that makes this Spurs team what it is.

In the summer we strengthened, yes Llorente was a nice little bargain to end the window,
but we bought 2 central defenders too, and that when we already have the best centre back pairing in the Premier, if not the world. That seemed strange – everyone else was – and usually is, buying up the latest attacking talent, the next Ronaldo, or now Neymar, because those kinds of players score the goals and wow the fans and that is how you win games, and the money game of course. Financially it was another astonishing window in terms of deals, but Levy’s prowess as a negotiator is news to nobody.

I’d like to talk about Poch being a defender. In his career he was a centre back, that’s the
part of the game he should know best – and it shows. The best centre back pairing on the planet has become what will one day be the best back three in the world – imagine Ledley King playing between Alderwiereld and Vertonghen – that’s basically what we’ll have when Sanchez is telepathically linked with Toby and Jan like they are with each other. Looking at it on paper it is an exquisite plan, and you can imagine Poch drooling all summer thinking about it – and now we’re starting to see it come to fruition.

Seeing us demolish Huddersfield on Saturday was wonderful of course, another brace for
Harry that some argue should’ve been a hat-trick (I reckon it was beautiful to watch such a well-taken strike whether it counted or not) and Moussa Sissoko scoring a fourth to round things off to open his account. Slick passing, great prowess going forward as usual, but it all stemmed from the back. In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was Poch. Spanish ball playing defenders at that time were the ones who made Spain the world beaters they were from 2006 – 2008, Poch may not have been captaining Spain at that time, but seeing the way our back three played on Saturday, there was a gloss about us that was straight out of that era.

I confess I am also a defender myself so yes I am biased and although I also love watching
goals getting banged in as much as the next man, the passing out from the back, the strength and resilience of all our defensive players together was a joy to behold. Dier and Winks did their respective jobs like clockwork and the triangle of telepathy among the back 3 was clearly in development, the slide-rule passing, the intelligent runs. We have 3 out of 3 at the back now at Spurs, each one of the three has the passing ability of a central midfielder and the vision. Each is a colossus in his own way and together they represent the pinnacle of defending brilliance. If I were Poch, I’d be a happy man. Bring on Real Madrid