OPINION
Alan Smith claimed that there were no game-changing players available on Tottenham’s bench during their 1-0 win over Brighton.
The Sky Sports pundit made the claim when Spurs were struggling to break the Seagulls down despite dominating possession, and implied that all Mauricio Pochettino could do at that point was change his team’s shape.
“You look at the Tottenham bench and not a lot of choices in terms of game-changing swaps,” said Smith while commentating of Spurs’ clash with Brighton (21:09, Sky Sports Main Event, Tuesday April 23rd).
“He could do something in terms of changing the shape Pochettino.”
While Spurs did end up getting the win due to a bit of magic by Christian Eriksen, Smith’s remarks should still have Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy squirming in his comfortable seat.
This is because Smith’s verdict on the bench was spot-on and showed the uphill battle Pochettino faced to achieve success at the London club due to not having a tremendous amount of quality in depth.
Spurs’ bench for the game against Brighton had Paulo Gazzaniga, Ben Davies, Juan Foyth, Davinson Sanchez, Oliver Skipp and Vincent Janssen; and would you back any of those players to come on and get their side a goal? Unlikely.
This means Pochettino’s hands were tied during the match as with his team failing for large portion of the game to make their possession to count, he didn’t have the options on his bench that looked capable of changing that.
If Spurs had failed to win against Brighton, then Levy would have taken the blame for not handing Pochettino the tools, rather than the manager being at fault.
This is a reflection of Levy not opting to sanction cash being spent on new players in the last couple of windows, and shows that if Spurs are to progress, then that needs to change in the coming summer.
With that being said, the Spurs chairman had it made very clear to him on Tuesday that Pochettino needs some new players adding to his squad in the next window.