Tottenham Hotspur are struggling for options at the top end of the pitch after recent injuries to some of their biggest stars in North London.
England captain and goal machine, Harry Kane, ruptured the tendon in his left hamstring back on January 1 when stretching for the ball. He later required surgery and has not been seen on the pitch since.
Heung-min Son then stepped up into the role of chief goalscorer in Kane’s absence, doing a fine job of consistently finding the back of the net in a Lilywhites shirt.
However, the South Korean then fractured his arm against Aston Villa earlier this month, also requiring surgery and a lengthy spell out.
With no other natural strikers or players in the double digits for goals this season, Jose Mourinho has opted to go for makeshift options of Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn.
The Spurs head coach claims that the one positive from this is that the wingers will be better for the experience once Kane and Son are back.
He said (Football London): “You can always learn. And in this job, I think the accumulation of experiences, if you think about it, not just to accumulate but to think about that accumulation of experiences, are only making you better,” he said.
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“I think with the players, it is a little bit of the same. For example, for Lucas, for Bergwijn, for these wingers to be playing the way that they are playing, and are probably going to play until the end of the season, is going to make them better players when they come to the inside.
“They are normally external players, they are players that normally play in the corridor. In this moment, they are learning with the difficulties, they are learning how to play inside.
“So I believe they are going to be better wingers in the future because then they can mix their game in the corridor and their game when they come to the central areas. So it is an accumulation of experience, sometimes very hard.
“It would be easier for us to have Kane, Son and Sissoko plus Lucas, Lamela and Bergwijn but I think in the end, we have to see the positive side.
“They have to learn. That is what I am saying, they have to learn, instead of being quite automatic when you are born a winger and you die a winger, you do all your career.
“When you do all your career playing hundreds and hundreds of matches in the same position you become a specialist but it is quite automatic.
“We are talking about a young guy but Tanganga’s experience in his formation at the club was as a centre-back. Now with me he played left-back, he played right-back, he played centre-back in the last 20 minutes against Chelsea, but in a back three.
“This is an accumulation of experience. This is what I call tactical culture. A football player is not just about technical quality or the physical condition. It has a lot to do with tactical culture.
“Our wingers are going to be better wingers when they go back to their normal position.”
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