So Spurs have finally made a signing, first one in about a year and it was a big one! Ajax defender Davinson Sanchez (assuming work permit is granted and he passes a medical Monday) will sign for a fee believed to be in the region of £37m.
Due to the monster fee being paid there well be a high level of expectation on a player who has in fact only just turned 21 so my purpose of this blog really is to cool for some patience from fans. This lad has played one full season in the Dutch league (decent standard but not the Prem) and a Europa League campaign which saw him and his side face some big sides as they made their way to the final.
He is a player who has blistering pace and his club used that to great effect by playing a high line and relying on him to cover in behind. As we all know Spurs under Pochettino like to play that high line and when at White Hart Lane this worked with teams feeling hurried but at Wembley Spurs have seemed very lapse at the back, organisationally poor and that is down to the larger space in behind when the player push up to keep that high line.
In signing a player who plays as a central defender blessed with pace I believe we will see the team move to playing a back three on a more regular basis with the young man learning his trade from Toby and Jan (could there be better players to learn from) and in turn healing us keep that high line and defend against the ball in behind / over the top.
He is only 21 however so like I have said before we need to be patient. He is going to make mistakes but he is going to learn from them and with this signing we will, in my opinion improve defensively at Wembley.
There is still time before the window closes for us to add to our squad and I wonder if a fast right back is on the cards. If we are playing a back three then the pace and width in the team needs to come from the full backs / wing backs and although Trippier is an excellent crosser of the ball he does not have the pace of a Kyle Walker and his understudy Walker-Peters is also not electric when it comes to pace.
A lot as always will depend on who is available but judging by Pochettino saying he wanted four players in total we could see a few more new faces before the window slams shut.
-SJ
