The Athletic’s Jack-Pitt Brooke believes that Thomas Frank has a big Joao Palhinha-shaped problem in the middle of the park for Tottenham.
Thomas Frank has said that he is pleased with the impact Palhinha has made at Spurs, and one can certainly understand why.
Tottenham have become a defensively resolute team with the Portugal international mopping up in front of the back four, having kept five clean sheets in their eight matches across all competitions.
However, even though Palhinha produced an excellent finish to help Spurs salvage a point against Wolves, the 31-year-old has been accused of being one of the main culprits behind the Lilywhites’ lacklustre offensive display.
Jack Pitt-Brooke questions the use of ‘one-dimensional’ Joao Palhinha at Tottenham
The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke believes that we now have enough evidence from Tottenham’s home games against Wolves and Bournemouth to conclude that Frank’s men have a systemic issue in creating chances.
The journalist believes that the main problem lies with the decision to partner Palhinha with Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield, suggesting that the on-loan Bayern Munich man is not able to progress the ball.
Pitt-Brooke wrote: “While Bournemouth are clearly a better side than Wolves, you could easily spot some similarities between the two matches, including in the starting midfields that Frank selected. Against Bournemouth, it was Palhinha, Rodrigo Bentancur and Pape Matar Sarr. For Wolves, it was Palhinha and Bentancur plus Lucas Bergvall.
“With Palhinha and Bentancur sitting in front of their defence, Spurs struggle to progress the ball through the centre of the pitch. It feels as if those two players are there for other reasons: to foil attacks, to keep a structure out of possession, even to attract opponents to create space for teammates. But it leaves Tottenham unable, or unwilling, to play through the middle.
“This is not to criticise Palhinha, who has brought a lot to the team since joining on a season’s loan from Bayern Munich. He is one of the league’s best midfielders against the ball, as he showed in the 2-0 away defeat of Manchester City a month ago.
“Spurs would not be able to win games like that without him. He can be an exceptional game-manager, as he showed when they held on to beat Villarreal 1-0 last week in the Champions League. He brings a sense of focused protection that this team desperately lacked last season.
“But that does not mean that Palhinha is always right for every game. Especially not at home, alongside Bentancur, in a match when Tottenham have to take the ball and do something with it. That is a game for Bergvall, for Sarr and, when they get fit again, for James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski.
“But it is not a game for Palhinha, who just looked, not for the first time, a bit imprecise and one-dimensional in the heart of Saturday’s midfield battle. Sometimes, the ball came to him, and he lost it. Sometimes, Spurs just bypassed him and went wide instead.”
Thomas Frank fired a warning about Spurs fans turning on him
Following the Lilywhites’ draw against Wolves, Gary O’Neil insisted that Tottenham have not shown an ability to break down low-blocks under Thomas Frank.
Pitt-Brooke agreed with that criticism and warned the Dane that Spurs fans will start questioning his methods if he does not demonstrate an ability to convincingly beat teams who are at the bottom end of the table.
The Athletic journalist added: “We are still in the very early days of the Frank era, and the overall picture is good, but it feels as if this season will stand or fall by these home league games against non-elite sides.
“Frank was brought in from Brentford to raise Tottenham’s floor, rather than their ceiling. But if they struggle to convince in a match like this, fans will ask what the plan is for such games, and how Spurs can better impose their will upon them. And whether Palhinha, the indispensable man for the harder games, the man who rescued a point against Wolves, is always the right answer on a night like this.”