The Dutch striker has failed to make an impact at Tottenham but both his current and former coaches believe he has the application to turn his fortunes round

Everyone remembers what Vincent Janssen did in the second half of last season, not least Mauricio Pochettino. It was what persuaded the Tottenham Hotspur manager to take the centre-forward from AZ Alkmaar to White Hart Lane in a £17m deal. Janssen caught fire after the winter break in the Netherlands, scoring 21 goals in 17 league matches to help AZ to a fourth-place finish and qualification for the Europa League. It was form that catapulted him into the national team and on his first start, he scored a penalty in the 2-1 win over England at Wembley in March.

The 22-year-old finished the season with 27 league goals and the competition’s golden boot, plus three more in the Europa League and one in the Dutch Cup. Perhaps the most satisfying moment was the hat-trick he scored in the 4-2 home win over Feyenoord, the club that had released him from their youth system in 2013.

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What are less well remembered about Janssen’s annus mirabilis are the difficulties he experienced in the first half of it. The early months, following his €100,000 move from Almere City in the second division were particularly trying. Although he scored twice in the Europa League, he failed to find the net in his first seven league games. On two occasions he was left out of the starting lineup.

It is no great stretch to see the parallel with his travails at Tottenham, even if they have seemed rather more grave. Janssen has scored only four goals for the club so far and all of them have been from penalties – in the EFL Cup against Gillingham and Liverpool; in the Premier League against Leicester City and in the FA Cup against Wycombe Wanderers. At times Pochettino has preferred Son Heung-min up front and at others he has left the Dutchman out of the matchday squad altogether.

Janssen’s confidence looks shot. Although his general play has sometimes been good, he has taken the safe option too regularly in the attacking third, the surest sign of a loss of self-belief. He continues to be dogged by the question of whether his lack of a burst of pace is a fatal flaw to his prospects in English football. The hope is that Janssen can find the spark as he did at AZ and make a contribution to the business end of Tottenham’s season, and as they fight for success on three fronts: the league, Europa League and FA Cup. This is the period in which the depth of a squad is crucial and when a manager needs his fringe players to step up.

Janssen’s initial drought at AZ was a mystery, especially as he had scored 10 goals for the club in pre-season. Fred Grim, the Holland assistant manager, was in charge of the nation’s under-21 team at the time and remembers watching Janssen closely. To Grim, who had also been Janssen’s manager at Almere, the problem was that the player had been too eager to make his mark. “At Almere, Vincent was always in early,” he says.

“He was always doing extra things – power training, sprint training, explosive training and, also, practising his finishing to make it easier to stay cool in the box. That was very important because he wanted it so, so much that, sometimes, he was a little bit wild [with his finishing].

“In the early days at AZ his family was important for him. His mother was a world champion swimmer, as you probably know. But when you work hard and you do every day what you have to do, then it will come. You have to be patient and, in that period at AZ, he was patient.

“I know Vincent and I know he wants to score the normal goals [in open play] for Tottenham. He wants to be important for the team and for the crowd. That’s what he wants and, yeah, maybe he wants it too much and then, that’s also a little problem. He has to find a balance.”

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Pochettino has wondered whether Janssen’s chance in his starting XI, after the injury to Harry Kane in mid-September, might have come too soon while the manager has acknowledged – together with many others – how tough it can be for a young player to make the transition from Holland to the Premier League. It might have been preferable for Janssen to have moved first to Ajax, say, but AZ were demanding too high a fee.

There are several clubs in mainland Europe that are keeping a watch on Janssen’s situation, with a view to making a bid for him in the summer while Tottenham continue to be linked to the Southampton striker Jay Rodriguez, with whom Pochettino worked at St Mary’s. Pochettino, though, has also spoken of his admiration for Janssen’s application; how he continues to bust a gut in training and that is something guaranteed to play well with him. Pochettino says that players are paid to train.

Janssen is a fighter who did not wallow after his rejection by Feyenoord. Rather he redoubled his efforts at Almere, having made the decision to step back with the intention of then stepping further forward. Grim had scouted him and brought him to the club, where he watched him play and score regularly.

“What is important is to say that I have a lot of confidence in Vincent,” Grim says. “At Almere he also had a little period where it wasn’t going so well, even though he was playing really hard and doing a lot in games. His contract was ending and I extended it during a period when he was not in his best form. He needs confidence.”

Grim says Janssen remains a pivotal player for Holland – they travel to Bulgaria on 25 March for an important World Cup qualifying tie – but before then the question is can he drive an upturn in his fortunes at Tottenham?

“Of course, in England, you look to the goals but Vincent is always important for the team,” Grim says. “I have seen a lot of his games this season and he is giving pressure, running, pushing, always busy. At AZ he scored no goals at first – or only a few – and after the winter break he scored a lot. It will come for him at Tottenham. It will come. I know that, for sure.”