In the first part of my potential Spurs defensive midfielders series, I profiled three of the more obvious moves Spurs could make in the transfer market in Denis Zakaria, Florentino Luis & Ibrahim Sangaré.

In part 2 I will profile two more potential players who could make their way on to Spurs’ radar to fill the position at the back of midfield. There will be more to follow in the coming weeks.

The criteria is simple — of players 24 and under I have drawn up a shortlist of players (with help from some of your twitter recommendations) and then consulted the video to dive a little deeper into the qualities of each player.

Following the three obvious choices from part 1, I have gone for the ‘slightly less obvious yet still quite obvious choices’ in Kalvin Phillips and Florian Grillitsch.

Kalvin Phillips, 24, Leeds United

The Englishman as been impressing in the Championship under Marcelo Bielsa as Leeds United seek promotion at last to the Premier League. Phillips has been a key cog in the Bielsa machine, with his ball winning and distribution qualities essential to the manner in which Leeds play. His performances have been enough to have him mentioned as a possible inclusion in the national team squad, despite playing in the second tier.

Phillips is defensively very active and out of the selected candidates to fill the DM role his 9.4 duels per 90 so far this season is at the upper end of the spectrum. At 64% success, this is also comparable with the other DMs I will be profiling.

In possession he is a plays a key part in Leeds ball progression with 7.7 progressive passes per 90, and this brilliant graphic (below) from @thehalfspace on Twitter demonstrates just how he tends to do it with a variety of long diagonals to both flanks. Because of this ambition in his passing range his accuracy is 85%, down the bottom end of the scale in comparison with the other chosen DMs but certainly not a poor return.

Phillips rarely carries the ball with 0.5 progressive runs per 90 and 1 dribble per 90, which at 47% success is probably the reason why.

Video analysis quickly shows a player that is phenomenally proactive and aggressive off the ball, which is no real surprise considering his presence in a Marcelo Bielsa side. He is superb at getting close to opponents and locking on to them before winning the ball, he does not allow players any space to breathe and you can see why Bielsa would be a big fan. One aspect of the Bielsa style of play is the strict man marking he employs across the pitch which makes it quite difficult to assess Phillips ability to screen and cover the space in front of the backline — he is tasked with remaining within pressing distance of his opponent which means he can get drawn out from the DM position as per his instructions.

His tackling style is aggressive and there is a question mark whether a lot of his tackles would result in more whistles from Premier League referees, and there is no doubt that he could not get away with quite so much in European competition. What he doesn’t appear to have in his locker is the highly useful ability of being able to manoeuvre his body in between opponent and the ball to recover it cleanly and establish possession and counterattack opportunities, he is simply content to make tackles, disrupt opponents and break up play.

On the ball he is comfortable in possession and puts a nice stroke on his passes, and as per the image above is capable of playing long accurate switches of play to both sides. Those switches can be a little too floated however, allowing an extra second recovery time for opposition defences. Whilst these switches of play are extremely useful and would certainly be an entertaining thought for players such as Son, Bergwijn and Lucas, a more important question for Spurs development may be how could he consistently bring Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso into play in the centre of the field.

One question mark surrounding Phillips is whether he could translate the form he has shown in the Championship to the Premier League as well as European football — it certainly doesn’t preclude him from consideration and he is probably operating at a far higher level than certain Premier League players, but he would still require to adapt quickly to the demands of the league. Another question is whether he could continue producing away from the unique coaching of Marcelo Bielsa.

This pitfall has not always been negotiated by players that have looked like potential superstars under the Argentine, yet they struggle to recreate that form elsewhere. The upside of being coached by Bielsa is that he should have developed a greater tactical savviness and game understanding under the legendary coach. One such adaptation would be to change from a less aggressive man marking system to one of Mourinho’s ‘positional’ roles with a more flexible approach to man and zonal marking.

Florian Grillitsch, 24, Hoffenheim

Florian Grillitsch is an Austrian midfielder who has made the spot at the base of Hoffenheim’s midfield his own. The 24 year old offers a diverse skillset both sides of the ball which would present some interesting possibilities in a Spurs midfield.

In terms of defensive activity, this season his defensive duels have dropped quite markedly to 6.48 per 90, whereas he was putting up over 9 in the previous two seasons. He has however improved his success rate to an excellent 66%. He is a prolific interceptor with 5.2 interceptions per 90, and has put up over 6 per 90 in past campaigns. Why his output has changed this season is unsure, and could be simply a change in role or system, but one thing for certain is he has the potential to be a prolific ball winner at the base of the midfield.

In possession he adds some ball progression with 7.4 progressive passes and 1.3 progressive runs per 90, as well as a 60% success rate with his 1.3 dribbles per 90. He does not tend to give the ball away with his passing a great deal, averaging just under 90% with his passes. Interestingly, he weighs in with 1.7 through passes per 90 at 50% accuracy, an extremely high volume for a DM and is the joint second most accurate in the league for through balls.

The video confirms a player that mixes both an ability as a ballwinner with technical quality when in possession. He is mobile across the ground and is particularly good at counterpressing turnovers where he is very quick to switch to a defensive mindset. Whilst mobile, he is not the most athletic, agile player with quite an upright posture and as such is more of a functional tackler — he wins the ball through block tackles and toe pokes to dispossess opponents, but like Phillips does not quite have the flexibility and wiriness to step in between opponent and ball to recover it cleanly for himself.

Where he does excel however is his anticipation to position himself correctly to intercept passes and loose balls, as well as intelligently closing off passing lanes. When he intercepts the ball often his first touch is well timed, away from pressure or first time passes to get his team on the move quickly after winning the ball.

He has the desirable quality of press resistance to his game where he is able to evade pressure using short dribbles and well thought out touches to keep the ball safe side and a reasonable amount of strength to hold opponents off. He doesn’t quite match this with a high level of acceleration to dribble away into space and advance the play quickly himself, preferring to pass the ball calmly out.

He possesses a good passing range over a variety of distances, including the quality to play line breaking passes by wrapping his foot around the ball using disguise. Whilst fairly one footed, he has a nice ability to play well weighted passes with the outside of his boot which gives him a certain amount of variety and unpredictability. This passing range and quality accounts for his high volume of through balls, where he is adept at chipped, curled passes in behind to forward runners in some ways similar to the recently departed Christian Eriksen (although obviously not quite as good). It doesn’t take much to imagine Dele being a willing beneficiary of this passing quality.

Adding Florian Grillitsch to a central midfield that boasts Giovani Lo Celso and (fingers crossed) Tanguy Ndombele seems like it could be a whole heap of fun in possession, whilst offering more security out of possession particularly in defensive transition that Spurs have sorely missed of late. At 6ft 2 he has the height for set pieces that Jose Mourinho typically demands, as well as being mobile and able to put out fires through both winning tackles as well as stepping in to intercept loose passes and second balls. At 24, he should be approaching his peak years which makes him an attractive proposition for a team who desperately need stability in that area of the field — Mourinho would ideally seek someone who could step in and perform straight off the bat.

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