It’s been an interesting start to the season for Tottenham Hotspur this year.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have looked incredible in moments, such as the wins over Manchester United, Aston Villa and Manchester City, but have looked tepid in others, such as the defeat to Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Galatasaray last night.
Now, the Australian did put out a heavily rotated side last night, and once the likes of Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski came on, they looked a lot better, but it’s a sign the squad isn’t deep enough.
The North Londoners need to find themselves another prolific attacker who can challenge the former Bournemouth star for starts, and the good news is they were linked to the perfect candidate in the summer, someone who has been likened to their tormentor last night, Victor Osimhen.
Spurs' attacking options
So, before we get to the player in question, let’s look at some of Spurs’ current attacking options, starting with the man of the moment, Solanke.
The Englishman joined the club for £65m in the summer, and while he endured a slow start to life in North London, he has started to look like the player we saw last season in recent games.
In all, the former Liverpool prospect has racked up a reasonably impressive tally of six goals and two assists in 14 appearances for his new side, which makes him the second-highest goalscorer at the club and the joint-most productive with Brennan Johnson.
1
Johnson
7
16
2
Solanke
6
14
3
Maddison
3
14
3
Sarr
3
16
3
Son
3
10
The former Nottingham Forest ace also endured a slow start to the campaign, but following his match-winning goal against Coventry City in the League Cup, he has been in sensational form and now has seven goals and one assist to his name in 16 appearances.
Unfortunately, not all the club’s attacking talents have been as productive, with Richarlison scoring once and providing one assist in seven games and Timo Werner producing the same underwhelming tally in 12 appearances, making it clear that Postecoglou needs to be supplied with more talented forwards to take his squad to the next level.
Fortunately, Daniel Levy and Co should already be familiar with one player who’d be the perfect addition, a player who’s been in electric form, who would genuinely rival Solanke and has been compared to Osimhen.
The sensational attacker Spurs should sign in 2025
So, the player in question is none other than RB Leipzig phenom Loïs Openda, who was linked with several clubs over the summer, including Spurs, over a potential transfer worth around £84m.
Now, that is an enormous sum of money and would represent a record for the North Londoners, but the good news is that his release clause will reportedly drop to just €80m – £68m – in the summer, so if they can get through the season, they’ll be able to get their hands on a sensational talent for a cut-price fee.
With that said, before we examine his unreal attacking output, let’s address this comparison to Osimhen.
It stems from FBref, which compares players in similar positions in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, in the last 365 days before creating a list of the ten most comparable players for each individual in those competitions.
This method has concluded that the Nigerian poacher is the second most similar striker to the Leipzig star, and to get a better understanding of how that conclusion was reached, you can examine some of the underlying metrics they ranked closely in, including but not limited to expected goals plus assists, shots and shots on target, passing accuracy, key passes, shot and goal-creating actions and successful take-ons, all per 90.
Expected Goals + Assists
0.93
0.84
Shots
3.94
3.86
Shots on Target
1.97
1.63
Passing Accuracy
66.4%
66.9%
Key Passes
1.17
1.05
Shot-Creating Actions
2.80
2.45
Goal-Creating Actions
0.43
0.36
Successful Take-Ons
0.67
0.73
Aside from his similarities to the Serie A winner, Levy and Co should also be looking to sign the “terrifying” attacker, as journalist Seb Stafford-Bloor dubbed him, for his sensational output.
In just 59 appearances for Leipzig, he has scored 34 goals and provided 11 assists, which equates to an outrageously impressive average of a goal involvement every 1.31 games.
Ultimately, to really progress under Postecoglou, Spurs need to add more genuine world-class attacking talent to their ranks, and based on his form in Germany and Lens before that, Openda looks like the perfect candidate.
Brennan Johnson 2.0: Spurs want to sign dream £30m Werner upgrade
The exciting winger would be an excellent addition to Spurs’ squad.
ByJack Salveson HolmesNov 6, 2024