With Ange Postecoglou out the door, Daniel Levy has been faced with a peculiar position where he not only has to find a new manager but also manage the transfer blueprint as per what the incoming man at the helm would prefer. And that is always a tricky position given how it can go either way, but that being said, the 63-year-old club chairman has found a way to capitalise as he looks to bring Brentford manager Thomas Frank at the helm at N17 and then complement it with bringing Bryan Mbeumo from Gtech community stadium this summer.
Now bringing in Mbeumo is not just ensuring that Thomas Frank can lay forward his philosophy to the squad more easily but also about acknowledging the fact that he is one of the more intelligent and versatile forwards in the English top tier at the moment.
Mebumo has a lot of traits that he can replicate at Tottenham, and that starts with how he is tactically disciplined and possesses that elite pressing ability, which most of the time comes good given his intelligent movements. He also has that two-footed finishing ability which could become critical in the offensive situations.
The 25-year-old has the capacity to play anywhere along the front line and also do so while maintaining positional discipline, which makes him one of the most underrated multi-purpose attackers in the Premier League. The French-born attacker is not another gamble because he has proven his credentials in the Premier League and is familiar with Thomas Frank’s tactics and, more importantly, the Dane’s positional flexibility, which makes him perfect for the system that the North Londoners are looking to implement at N17.
Let’s get more into the Thomas Frank factor
The Lilywhites will have an immediate inside advantage to sign the 25-year-old given Mbeumo’s established relationship with Thomas Frank, which goes beyond the last five years, and that may help speed up the process of agreeing to personal terms with the French-born Cameroon international. And then, as I stated earlier, the fact that he knows how to play under Frank can help the Dane construct a tactical structure that is comfortable for Mbeumo to deliver from day one at Hotspur Way. And moreover Frank’s appointment will also be seen as an identity shift at N17 as Daniel Levy adapts smart and system-led football, which is becoming a norm these days.
But Mbeumo has something that the current roster lacks
If we dip into the current roster at Hotspur Way, we see that at the moment the North Londoners do not have anyone who is pressing intentionally, and by the way he goes about it, Mbeumo prides himself on triggering the press from the front. Is it something? When he curves his run, he angles his body to force a pass outside, and then how fast does he recover into the mid-block when it doesn’t work out? Now what is the level of off-ball work rate and intelligence that players will need to have under Thomas Frank? And if we are talking outside of Son, the Lilywhites lack that quality.
There is more, if you look at the last seasons then you see that the 25-year-old also has the ability to play either in a two-man frontline (in Brentford’s 3-5-2) or also out wide in a 4-3-3, and considering that in Thomas Frank’s systems they have to transition quite quickly in different phases of possession, he has that understanding of when to tuck inside and when to open up wide to create space for attacking fullbacks (Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie).
More Tottenham Hotspur News:
- TTLB Opinion: Is Postecoglou the reason behind Maddison’s underwhelming season at Tottenham?
- TTLB Opinion: Tottenham target Branthwaite and Guehi – but who makes more sense?
- TTLB Opinion: Should Tottenham be worried about Van de Ven to Real Madrid or is it all agent talks?
Author Opinion
In a way, signing Bryan Mbeumo goes beyond just signing a player; suddenly this, to me, is about creating the Thomas Frank version of Tottenham, and given how successful he has been under the Dane at Brentford, he could be the link between identity on the tactical board and implementing that at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
At the moment all reports suggest that Manchester United are leading the race to his signatures with Levy working on signing Semenyo instead, but I think Levy should go all hard to secure his signatures.
