The signing of Victor Wanyama last summer was not the most exciting acquisition for Spurs in recent years; Alli, Eriksen and Alderweireld instantly come to mind as being ‘better’ buys. However, it was definitely one of the smartest. I say this because I believe he is a vital piece in the puzzle that Pochettino has been building and allows many of our more positionally-flexible players to use that versatility to great effect – mainly Eric Dier, Mousa Dembele and the three attacking midfielders behind Harry Kane. Without those players and their own versatility, Wanyama’s signing would have served a single purpose – competition with Dier for CDM. With it, we surprise teams on a weekly basis because they have no idea how we’re going to line up. We immediately start on the front foot and surprise them with out set up. Oddly, the Wanyama-Dier combination that seemed so negative and stilted at the start of the season has become a huge offensive asset.

On face value, Wanyama is a very good defensive midfielder. A very good tackler, strong and fit with stamina and a surprising burst of pace. His performances against City and Chelsea in particular were immense and for £11 million he was an absolute steal in this market. On the whole, despite a little dip that coincided with our poor form around October-November, he’s had a very good season; Pochettino clearly agrees as he’s started more matches for us than any other player. But this isn’t looking at the bigger picture.

Compare Poch’s Spurs pre-Wanyama to this season. Last year, we were rooted to 4-2-3-1 every match. Personnel might change, but we essentially had a very good Plan A and nothing else. It was a legitimate criticism. Well, it was remedied by signing Big Vic and by grooming most of our squad into flexible footballers. This season we’ve played 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 3-4-2-1, 4-1-2-1-2 and 4-1-4-1 or even some weird hybrid of all of them! Us fans know these players better than most and when we read the team sheets even we have no idea how we’re lining up! It must be a nightmare for the opposition. Instead of only planning how to combat three roaming midfielders behind a target man, they’ve got to work out how to stop marauding fullbacks/penetrate three defenders instead of two/work out what Dembele’s going to do/plan for a narrow Tottenham/plan for a wide Tottenham/decide who to double up on out of Kane, Alli or Eriksen (delete as appropriate). Pochettino clearly loves versatility; you can add Son and Lamela to our ‘roaming threats’ list.

Dembele, Dier and our two centre backs are crucial to this system as they can both alter how they’re playing during the game. If we’re under the cosh, Dembele can drop alongside Wanyama (see Chelsea), yet if we need some impetus he can drive forward (see Arsenal). If he needs to go wide, fine. Big Vic will stay rooted to the middle. Dier, Alderweireld and Vertonghen are all familiar with full back roles (even if they don’t like it there!) which means that Walker and Rose can be full backs, wing backs or straight up wingers depending on what Poch wants, as they’ve got adequate cover behind them. Essentially, signing Wanyama has allowed the same level of positional flexibility to our defence that we have had to our attack for the last couple of seasons. It has allowed our entire team to contribute to offensive play.

I think we’re now finally seeing the benefit of this. It took time – and certainly hasn’t been there for much of the season, arguably due to injuries to – but hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. There’s definitely a case that it’s too defensive to include Dier, Wanyama, Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Dembele in the same XI. But on the other hand it means Rose and Walker can be included alongside our attackers, so we’d have a nice balance in our outfield positions – 5 defending, 5 attacking. And, as I’ve tried to explain, 4 of those 5 defenders contribute to (often initiating) our attacking moves.

Of course the huge irony of this article is that, if you were to ask me to name the ‘best’ Spurs team out of our current squad, I don’t even know if I’d include Wanyama in the team! As defensive midfielders go, I think Dier has a higher ceiling and was better last year than Wanyama’s been this year. When we line up 4-2-3-1 I don’t think there’s a place for Big Vic. But despite that, what I love is that I don’t think anyone can really tell what the ‘best’ Spurs XI is at the moment. It adapts to the team it’s playing. Leicester last season and Chelsea this year show the value of continuity, but I think we will need to rotate to ensure our high energy, high pressing game doesn’t have a negative affect with the multitude of fixtures we’ll have in the second half of the season. Time will tell if we discover what our best team is and whether the results will follow. Till then, let’s keep guessing who’ll play next.