Tottenham’s approach to squad building has changed over the past few season as they look to sign players with potential and room to grow.
Plenty of youngsters have made their way through the door at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Ange Postecoglou looking to improve along with them towards a better overall team.
The initial aim will be a consistent place back in the Champions League, which will require consistency in the Premier League.
On top of that, there’s a need to win a trophy at some point to end a barren spell without one that is slowly approaching 20 years.
There have been promising signs of that alongside some negative inconsistencies, but improvement is still required.
For some individuals, such as summer signing Dominic Solanke, there is hope that plenty more is to come.
Glenn Murray praises Dominic Solanke attributes for Tottenham
While a big fee was spent to sign Solanke in the summer, Tottenham haven’t quite seen that in a return with goals.
The England international has just two goals to his name in the Premier League, though he has faced a disrupted campaign through injuries.
It’s not just the goals that the 27-year-old is there for, with former Premier League striker Glenn Murray explaining as much on BBC Radio 5 Live.
He said: “For me, Dominic Solanke offered so much more other than goals at Bournemouth. He is very selfless, he does a lot of defensive running and that for me is why Ange was attracted to him.
“The goals will come in a Tottenham shirt.”
While there is hope that Solanke will certainly start bagging the goals soon, that isn’t often enough to play for Postecoglou.
The Tottenham head coach has a very specific style, where the minimum is doing a task with full effort and responsibility.
With the striker role having to cover so much ground, Solanke is the perfect option to do that, while goals are the end product.
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Tottenham’s goal statistics make for clear reading
While goals may be a point of contention with Solanke, it’s not an issue for the team overall in the Premier League.
Before facing Aston Villa, Tottenham had scored 18 goals in nine games, which is on par for two goals per game.
That put Spurs around the same place is title challengers Liverpool and Arsenal for goals scored, while only just being behind Manchester City.
The bigger issue has been the concession of ten goals so far, which is more than one per game and could be costly in big moments.
While that would suggest a more defensive approach is required, we all know that Postecoglou won’t change from the way he knows.
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