After another disappointing result that all but signaled the end of Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League qualification hopes, the club – for the second season running – find themselves in the frustrating situation of already looking forward to next season, with over a month of the campaign left of this season still to go. Saturday’s 1-0 home loss to Aston Villa – managed by former manager Tim Sherwood – meant that they failed to make up ground on the top 4, and are still 7 points behind Manchester City, who occupy the last Champions League spot, and have a game in hand.

From a tactical standpoint, there were a few oddities that need to be pointed out. With Jan Vertonghen out with illness, Federico Fazio partnered Eric Dier in the heart of the defence, with Danny Rose on the left, and Vlad Chiriches shifted out on the right hand side. Given the strength and bullishness of Christian Benteke up front for Aston Villa, it did make sense on paper for a tall lad like Fazio to come in and try to negate the in form Belgian, even though he was badly beaten in the build up to the first goal. But why on earth was Chiriches playing right back? The Romanian is a centre back by trade, with a classy performance against Burnley last week proving that. However, stationed on the right, his distribution from the back was poor, and his forays down the flank were wasteful more often than not, unsurprising for a player who is used to playing in the middle. With Townsend further ahead of him, always looking to cut in, there was a complete lack of width at times down the right hand side. Against teams who aim to sit deep and be compact, the strategy is to always try to switch the play from side to side, and stretch the defence with wide players trying to beat the full back on the outside and get balls into the middle.

DeAndre Yedlin did eventually come on, but is was too little too late, as the American failed to spark a comeback on his debut. It does beg the question however: Why didn’t he start the match? The pace of Yedlin would’ve been a brilliant weapon to counter the power of Gabby Agbonlahor, who could’ve doubled Villa’s lead on the stroke of half time. It also would’ve made more sense from a psychological standpoint. Why throw the guy on in such tough circumstances, when the team is already suffering? It must’ve been overwhelming for the youngster to come on, with the burden of expectation on his shoulders, and on his debut for a new club in a new country. He needed that time to get his feet under the table, and get comfortable, but instead he was thrown right into the fire, something that seemed to plague him for the whole of the 10 minutes he played.

I, just like many others, have been mightily impressed with Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason, two players who have stepped up and truly validated Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to promote them to first team regulars ahead of experienced players such as Paulinho and Mousa Dembele. However, last night, they got away with murder. The reason they’ve caught the eye is due mostly to their performances in the big games, where their tenacity and tough tackling style have helped Tottenham win the midfield battle. While they do fall into the category of “Mauricio Pochettino players,” it’s ironically against the smaller clubs where their limitations are being found out. When teams sit deep and are hard to break down, the lack of creativity from the pair of them is startling. Against the top teams, their tasks are more limited to stopping the opposition, but when the roles are reversed, and they are up against hard workers, and defensive teams, they haven’t been able to adapt their game, and contribute in driving the team forward and creating chances. This puts so much pressure on the shoulders of Christian Eriksen, and when he doesn’t deliver as he didn’t last night, the whole Tottenham attack looks ponderous.

Another flaw in their game (this one pertains more to Mason, as he is the more attacking of the two), was their lack of appreciation of space in attack. Too many times Mason looked to hold his position in the middle of the park as opposed to getting forward and making those hard runs in the middle of the box. Without him exploiting those spaces, the ball would end up being played backwards, or someone like Harry Kane would have to drop deep to pick up the ball, something he did far too often, meaning that there would be no focal point in attack Without looking to make any premature comparisons, Frank Lampard was, and still is a player who had great technical ability, but it was his knack of making the right runs, and being in the right place at the right time to score goals that made him such a legend at Chelsea, and still a key player at Manchester City. . In this frame below, you can see now that as Townsend picks up the ball, Mason is about 30 yards out from goal. Surely he has to be driving forward and taking up that position at the edge of the box, looking to raid the space Aston Villa have left. Instead he doesn’t and Townsend has to try pick out Harry Kane or Christian Eriksen, both of whom are marked, and he eventually flashes the ball across the face of goal, and it goes out of play. I like Mason, and think he has the potential to be a top player, but unless he can develop the mental side of his game, and become a more cerebral player the way Lampard did, he will stagnate in his progress, because he has all the technical elements of his game down

The last issue pertains to Harry Kane, as well as the two wingers, Nacer Chadli and Andros Townsend. Both Townsend and Chadli had poor games yesterday: their touches were loose, they struggled to beat their full backs, and showed only glimpses of the quality they have. The most disappointing however, was the lack of service to the striker. I personally, am not a fan of having inverted wingers. It is a system that has come into fashion in recent years, but unless you have wide players who can come in off the flank and conjure up pieces of magic, or grab you 10-15 goals from getting into more central positions, what you are really doing is clogging up space in the middle, and making your full back do all the work down the line. When I watch Tottenham in attack, it just amazes me that they put in as little crosses in as they do. They have Harry Kane up front, a tall strong player who is lethal when the ball is played into the box, and whose winner against Arsenal shows what he can do in the air. Tottenham are a team who are associated with passing football, but if they were failing to get into Harry Kane’s feet, why shouldn’t they have taken the aerial route? The long ball tactic is nothing to be ashamed of, and if you have it as a back up plan, you might as well use it. Manchester United have done this with Marouane Fellaini, and it has paid dividends in recent weeks.

These two frames epitomised the problem. In the first frame, circled are Townsend on the right, and Chadli- who has the ball- on the left. Why they have decided to depart their positions and play centrally I have no idea. Apart from now leaving the wings wide open and making the Villa defenders’ job easier, they’ve forced Harry Kane to take up a deeper position, where he can’t have an affect on the game. Kane should be the one trying to get up against the centre backs, while Chadli and Townsend should be providing an outlet on the wings. The knock on effect this has is exemplified in the second frame. Eriksen has the ball on the left hand side, but he can’t put the early cross in because the main man Harry Kane is only now making his way into the box. This then gives the five Villa defenders in the box time to organise themselves and get into their shape. Although Danny Rose did get a shot on eventually, which Kane got a toe poke on, this was one of many examples of Spurs failing to get their main man fully involved.

Roberto Soldado did come on midway through the 2nd half- a change I’d been hoping that Pochettino would make at the interval- but he did so in a role that baffled me. Firstly, I had been expecting Soldado to come on for Mason, with Eriksen playing alongside Bentaleb in a 4-4-2, with Chadli and Towsend still on the wings, and Soldado playing off of Harry Kane. Instead, Eriksen was pushed out to the left, and Kane played as a number 10 with Soldado as a traditional number 9. Soldado has proved during his brief cameos this season, as well as during last six months of 13-14 that he is better at dropping deep, working the channels, and creating chances for others. On the other hand, Harry Kane’s every touch inside the box this season seems to have turned into a goal. However, with the two playing in each other’s preferred role, it wasn’t surprising that Soldado was almost anonymous up front, while Kane failed to influence proceedings in the hole.

Although these tactical errors can be fixed with time on the training pitch, the affect this result will have on the mindset of the player may be too damaging to come back from. After last week’s 0-0 draw away at Burnley, the players will have been disappointed, but will have been buoyed by the knowledge that City’s poor form meant that they still had a chance of closing the gap on fourth place. A win on Saturday would’ve seen them reduce the deficit to 4 points, and would’ve made the clash on May 3rd between the two teams that much more significant. Between then and now, Pochettino will know how essential it will be to pick up 6 points from their next two matches (away at Southampton and Newcastle), and at the same time, will have to hope that Man City somehow drop points from their next two matches, both of which will be played at the Etihad.

Going forward in the future, there are a few key areas that have to be addressed. For most fans, the most essential of those would be recruiting a top class centre back, one who can be a leader and organise those around. Watching Tottenham at times, there is a frightening lack of composure and structure at the back, something that has been exploited over and over by teams who aren’t renowned by their attacking prowess. The best teams in the premier league, and around Europe all have warriors and leaders at the back, players who are vital to the spine of the team, and drive their team forward in the difficult moments. Sir Alex Ferguson himself always said that defenders set the tone for teams, and it’s no surprise that he has had settled defensive partnerships such as Bruce- Pallister, and Ferdinand- Vidic at the heart of some of the most successful periods of United’s history. Of the current crop, Jan Vertonghen would appear to be the ideal man to step up and take charge, but it is clear watching him that he isn’t as committed to the cause as much as he was during his debut season. Eric Dier has the makings of a future captain, but as of now, him as well as other centre backs Younes Kaboul, Federico Fazio, and Vlad Chiriches don’t inspire too much confidence. FC Koln’s Kevin Wimmer has been linked with Tottenham, but many will question whether a 22-year-old will be able to step up and take charge. If they don’t go out and sign their own John Terry, or Vincent Kompany, or Laurent Koscielny, they will continue to see their top 4 qualification hopes slip away from them.