3 reasons why Tottenham Hotspur will have a slow start this season

Tottenham Hotspurs under Mauricio Pochettino has only seen progress. The Argentinian has turned the tides at the North London club since his arrival from Southampton in 2014. If we plot a development graph since his arrival, we would see a steady inclination. Just after 24 months, he led Spurs to their highest ever Premier League finish in the 2016-17 season. And in doing so, he shut all the Gunners who celebrated ‘St Totteringham’s day’ for past 22 years. Although Spurs finished 3rd (still above Arsenal) in the league last season, they were lauded for their heroics in the Champions League when they topped their group consisting European heavyweights Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid. That accounts for something in such a short span of time. Not only that, the English FA should be thanking him for promoting a pool of English youths in the first team and many of them were a part of Gareth Southgate's plan in Russia.

While Spurs are used have a strong start season under Pochettino. They lost just once in their first five league fixtures last season and none in the season before that. However, despite all the positives, the Lilywhites might struggle at the start of the next season and here is why:

#1 World Cup after-effect

Spurs have a core number of English and Belgium players in their squad.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men were heavily involved in the World Cup. Not only that most of the players went into the latter stages of the tournament.

Playing in the World Cup may provide some phycological advantages and reaching the latter stages may boost the players’ confidence. But they can’t escape the enervation that comes with it.

Spurs have had a total of 12 players involved in the World Cup of which 9 reached beyond the quarterfinals. That means they were in action until mid-July. So, they will have less time for recovery than who went home by June end.

Not only that, Tottenham’s players played a total of 4816 minutes and covered a combined distance of about 515 Kms at the World Cup, which is more than any other Premier League club. While their rivals will start the season a bit fresher than them, Spurs will find themselves on the backseat here.

#2 Inactivity in the transfer window

Pochettino hasn't bought in any reinforcements yet.

Every other top side in the league has recruited at least a couple of players except Spurs. Jurgen Klopp is breaking the banks in the Merseyside while Mauricio Pochettino has chosen to remain quiet in the transfer window.

No doubt it’s always good to have some old bunch of players around for the new campaign particularly when you had a great season with them. But the problem persists, their squad depth will remain same and they won’t have back up for their fatigued players until they sign someone.

Besides, they genuinely need a central midfielder. Their current troupe includes Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and Moussa Sissoko; who all play the holding role, while Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Lucas Moura are attacking minded and ply their trade in the attacking third of the pitch more often. And Harry Winks is one for the future. So, Spurs certainly lacks a genuine quality central midfielder.

Perhaps the only positive thing in this situation is that any major departure seems unlikely and Heung-Min Son and Erik Lamela have signed long-term contracts.

#3 Tricky fixtures

Tottenham Hotspur faces some tricky fixtures at the start of the new campaign.

Let’s assume that Mauricio Pochettino will address the previous two issues or at least he still has time to do something about it. But he can’t do anything about the this.

As mentioned earlier, Spurs will have the most tired legs in their squad and their opening fixtures don’t do any kindness to them.

In their first five fixtures spanning over a month, they play Newcastle, Fulham, Manchester United, Watford and Liverpool. That’s two games against Premier League’s ‘top 6’ and a game against a promoted side.

In the previous two seasons, they had relatively kind opening fixtures. That led them to reasonable starts. In the 2016-17 season they won three of their first five fixtures and drawn two, and last season they won two and drawn two of their first five fixtures losing just one.

Pochettino was the reason that Premier League’s ‘top 5’ became ‘top 6’. He has managed to tick all the boxes with Spurs. All he’s missing is a trophy now. If he manages to drive Spurs through this few tough opening weeks, then the North London club could take a long shot towards the glory.