Tottenham Hotspur have been a club who have found themselves in a situation of almost there, but not quite during the past few seasons now. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, after a number of seasons finishing midtable, Tottenham started to climb their way up the table, with players like Luka Modrić and Gareth Bale leading the team to a UEFA Champions League spot, the first time ever in their history. After a few seasons of teetering between 4th and 5th place, Mauricio Pochettino came in and was able to elevate Spurs even further, leading the charge for a title race in 2015/16 (ultimately finishing 3rd behind Leicester City, and Arsenal), and a strong second-place finish in 2016/17 (eight points ahead of third-placed Manchester City). In 2018/19, after making headlines for being the first team and only to not sign a single player in the summer transfer window, they made the finals of the Champions League, ultimately losing by two goals to Liverpool.
This constant reoccurrence of Spurs being just on the brink of success only to lose out has obviously been frustrating for fans, and watching teams around them become stronger and more ambitious has not helped. The firing of Pochettino saw José Mourinho and his tactics come in, and he has averaged 1.76 points per match, with 11 wins, four draws, and six losses. It is still a bit early to tell if Mourinho will be able to do what Pochettino couldnt and get the club over the finish line he had only managed 21 matches before football was stopped due to COVID-19.
Before the pandemic, he managed to sign three players in the January transfer window, his first for the club. One of these signings was Steven Bergwijn, a 22-year-old coming from PSV, who primarily plays as a winger. The Dutchman has only played seven matches for Spurs (in all competitions), however, these seven matches plus his time at PSV can tell us a lot about what type of player he is. This tactical analysis will look at Bergwijns strengths, weaknesses, and what he brings specifically to this Tottenham side, who so desperately want to get over the line and win a trophy.
Bergwijn is an attacking player, his main position being the left-wing, but he has quite a bit of appearances under his belt playing as both a right-winger and a striker as well, something that Tottenham desperately need.
Playmaking
As noted earlier, Bergwijn is one of those wingers whose position is the opposite of his dominant foot, as he is a right-footed winger, playing on the left-wing. Bayern Munich succeeded for several seasons with both Frank Ribery (right-footed winger playing on the left-wing) and Arjen Robben (left-footed winger playing on the right-wing) excelling in these positions. Mohamed Salah (left-footed winger playing on the right-wing) and Raheem Sterling (right-footed winger playing on the left-wing) are examples of current players in the Premier League who are inverted wingers.
Bergwijns advantage when it comes to playmaking is because he primarily plays as an inverted winger. His position as an inverted winger allows him to create chances for himself and his teammates using a couple plays highlighted below.
