Premier League crisis club of the week: Tottenham Hotspur - again
Another week, another Tottenham crisis.
And this time the crisis is a rather perfect summation of this series.
Tottenham Hotspur were on cloud nine just one week again having beaten Manchester City 1-0, and then it all came crashing down.
Here's how:
What's the crisis?
This time the crisis is thoroughly losing to Leicester City in the Premier League 4-1, dispelling any good feeling around Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
During that horrid defeat, Spurs' best midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur also suffered a season-ending injury too...
That's on top of their captain and first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris also suffering a serious injury earlier in the week...
When it rains it really does pour in north London.
On this edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey & Toby Cudworth discuss the Premier League's managerial merry-go-round with the latest on the situations at Leeds United and Southampton. Also on the agenda, Man Utd contract talks, Mason Mount's future, Andrey Santos & more!
If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
Why are they in crisis?
So how did Tottenham manage to lose 4-1 to Leicester City (a team who have been woeful this season)?
Four words: their defence is dreadful.
Antonio Conte has relied heavily on defenders like Eric Dier and Ben Davies over-performing when the going's been good, but when they revert to type (being slightly below-average Premier League defenders) things tend to go very wrong. Very, very wrong.
Add into that the fact that the two in midfield literally only works when Rodrigo Bentancur is fit and firing - both of which he won't be for the rest of the season - and the fact that Lloris is injured, and it's easy to see why Spurs shipped so many goals at King Power Stadium.
What can they do to rectify it?
There's a few things that can be done:
1) Ask someone to politely give Bentancur their anterior cruciate ligament for the sake of the Tottenham.
2) Play three central midfielders to protect the incompetent defenders.
3) A longer-term fix is to buy a new world class centre-back. Cristian Romero is great, but he needs someone that can play alongside him. Maybe Alessandro Bastoni?