Tottenham Hotspur players are dominating one key attacking metric, which makes their inability to score goals even more confusing.
Spurs had gone six hours of Premier League football without scoring a goal heading into the Aston Villa fixture this weekend. Of course, the Lilywhites finally ended that with the 3-2 result, but are still without a win.
That has been the biggest talking point of the first month of the season, especially given the huge funds that the Lilywhites spent in the summer.
| Incomings | |
| Andrew Robertson | Free |
| Marcos Senesi | Free |
| Martin Dubravka | Free |
| Jan Paul van Hecke | £52m |
| Mateus Fernandes | £85m |
| Sandro Tonali | £100m |
| Savinho | £85m |
| Omar Marmoush | £60m |
| Tosin Adarabioyo | £12m |
| Mykhailo Mudryk | Loan |
| Total spent | £394m |
| Outgoings | |
| Luka Vuskovic | £50m |
| Will Lankshear | £20m |
| Radu Dragusin | £21m |
| Alejo Veliz | £7.7m |
| Alfie Devine | £6m |
| Tynan Thompson | £8m |
| Manor Solomon | £7m |
| Cristian Romero | £34.1m |
| Ashley Phillips | £20m |
| Djed Spence | £30m |
| Kevin Danso | £25m |
| Pape Matar Sarr | £25.6m |
| Total received | £254.8m |
| Tottenham’s net spend | £139.2m |
The conventional wisdom appears to be that Spurs have lacked the cutting edge in attack to hurt teams, but that is debunked by one shocking stat.
Four Tottenham players top list of completed take-ons
Squawka provided the list of the 10 players across the Premier League who recorded the most take-ons per 90 minutes in the first four games of the season.
Unbelievably, all of the top four in the list are Tottenham players, with Mohammed Kudus, Savio, Mathys Tel and Omar Marmoush performing the best in the metric across the division.
Kudus completed 5.8 take-ons per 90 minutes, while Savio had 5.4, with the two wingers sitting a long way above the others. Surprisingly, Mathys Tel was in third place with 3.5, just marginally above Marmoush at 3.2.
Tottenham need a goalscorer to match the chaos on the wings
There is no doubt that Savio will be near the top of this list by the end of this season, with take-ons being his biggest strength. His biggest weakness, unfortunately, is end product.
Tottenham are near the top of the rankings for take-ons, touches in the opponents’ box, and chances created this season, but lack one fundamental skill – putting the ball in the back of the net.
The solution to that problem feels unclear at the moment. If Spurs had Harry Kane up front, they would be near the top of the table. The likes of Solanke, Marmoush, Tel and co just haven’t shown that clinical knack for finding the back of the net, perhaps hinting at the position of Tottenham’s next big-money signing.