This Is Why Spurs NEED Savinho & Marmoush

The year-long chase for Savino is finally coming to an end as Tottenham get their man, or should I say men, because Omar Marmouche looks to be following his Brazilian mate. But what can the City duo bring to Tottenham? From Savino's elite 1v1 ability to Marmouche's top tier ball striking and De Zerby's plan for both, I'm Jacob Orsfall, 442's resident tactician and this is why Tottenham desperately need Savino and Marmouche. Savino would likely be on the left wing in a De Zerby team, looking to get right toward the touchline, like seriously toward the touchline, to stretch the opposition's defence and midfield as much as possible. But what if I told you that wasn't the only path that we may see Savino going down at Tottenham? At Man City he played 23 times off the left wing, but also played 26 times at right wing, however his roles in both those positions were massively different. On the right he'd start high and arrive deep to create separation from his marker, his role was to quickly combine and drive in that inside right area. Pep looked to use his ability to come deep and drag players with him to create speeds down that right channel for other players. Which is something I think De Zerby will like, because that ability to combine in tight areas gives you solutions in high pressure scenarios, but that right wing Savino that does that is entirely different to a left wing Savino. Here he's right by that touchline, most players would typically take a touch inside or maybe on the outside close to their body in order to protect the ball as a priority, but Savino takes his touch away from his body and straight into a take on, beating his marker and allowing him to deliver early into the box. Now that's probably his best trait, that 1v1 ability from the Brazilian can be terrifying. And off the left, when he's wide right by the touchline, that's exactly what he wants to do. And he's able to do that because he's such a highly technical footballer that he doesn't require a touch to set himself up for the take on. His first touch can lead him into that dribble and that's dangerous. Because once he does that, he then has space by the byline to deliver into the box early with his next touch. Whether that's a cutback or a lofted cross, he has the pick of the bunch. On the right hand side, that's different. As you see here, he beats his man on the right and gets into that byline space, but his preference is to chop onto his left foot. And therefore, Newcastle can get back and close his angles off. Eliminating the effectiveness of arguably his best trait, which is those quick take ons and early deliveries, and some of them deliveries are top, top class, feels like a little bit of a waste. Because on the right, it's just not quite as effective. Now, Omo Marmouche is a different situation entirely because Savino is leaving probably because he's surplus to requirements. Whereas Marmouche, I think he's leaving because of more of a profiling issue. Man City need this number 10 to be a proper creator so that Erling Haaland can do all that beautiful forward aggressive attacking stuff. But Marmouche isn't a creator. He's a shooter. He's a ball striker. He's a goal scorer. So if he was to actually play for City, he probably fits in in place of Haaland, which he's obviously never going to do. However, if we look at Spurs attack from the Brentford game, there's a few things missing. And even if we scrap all of that and pull up their probably best attack at the current moment, there's still a fair bit missing from that team. You've got James Madison's slick passing. You've got Savino's brilliant crossing, and you've got Kudus' relentless 1v1 threat. But there's no shooters here. There's no ball strikers. There's no where the goal's coming from. I can't see who's going to score the goals here, which is where Marmouche is the number nine comes in and gives them new avenues. He can drift onto the blind side of his marker and has such a wide variety of finish. In this case, he decides to reverse it into the far corner. But he has just such a good ball striking technique that he can give you just a wide range of different ways to score goals and means he can finish chances, whether they're half or full chances and score goals, which is something, I mean, if you watch the Brentford game, Spurs need a lot more than that, but they do also need a ball striker, a goal scorer. Last season, Richarlison topped Spurs' Premier League goal tally. But as we know, a lot of them were then games were getting a little bit scrappy and he was coming off the bench. Equally, as we know with Richarlison, not to be too rude here, but the bloke literally cannot stay fit. You're not going to get a consistent stream of goals from the Brazilian because he's never there. He's always injured, which means for me, Marmouche as that leading player who can play majority of games and then has a nice creative supporting three behind him is so much better. I mean, if we look at his time at City, he managed 10 Premier League goals in just 37 league appearances. However, having a consistent goal stream is one thing. But as we know with Roberto de Zerbi, his football isn't just about direct goal threat consistently, trying to just get from one end of the pitch to the other as quick as possible. That's not necessarily Roberto de Zerbi ball. So what else can Marmouche bring that allows de Zerbi's football to work with him as a number nine? It's a big challenge for me. De Zerbi's build up creates these sort of fabricated transitions where the opposition and then Tottenham's attack is left in a bunch of 1v1s with the opposition's defence on the halfway line with massive space to attack in the opposition's half. Now, we've already talked about Savino and how he can operate in sort of tight conditions and find you some nice solutions, which will be really valuable, I think, in those 1v1s if he receives defeat. But Marmouche also has some really nice ball carrying over big distances, which I think will work when getting from the halfway line to the final third. His burst of acceleration in that open space whilst keeping the ball close to him allows him to push defences back, but also keep separation from his marker, which is nice for Tottenham to have and will be important for them, I think, when they are breaking through, when they get those self-made counter attacks, so to speak. But from Savino, we'll probably need a little bit something different in those types of areas. Now, in pre-season, Tottenham have used that sort of 3-1 setup with two players operating ahead of that 3-1 in the pockets. The reason I mention that and I mention the build-up and I mention the midfield and we come back to Savino is because for the midfielders to get into the pockets, the opposition's midfield needs to be stretched by width-holders on the wing, which is how I see Savino at Tottenham. Someone who isn't just a width-holder, but someone who's basically in the stands, is that far wide, looking to stretch that opposition defence and then create those little pockets of space for other players. Because if one of those pocket players gets on the ball, the opposition defenders have to move narrow to win that ball, meaning Savino will instantly have separation from his marker and will be able to manipulate the defender with small touches before bursting to the byline. For Spurs, that's so useful. Not only for the pocket players, not only for Savino, but also for the right winger and the centre forwards. But I've got a question. I have to lean in for this one. What if Kudus and Savino switch wings? Does that still work for De Zerbi? Because it's something that may well happen in the season. Well, with De Zerbi's six-man build-up looking to bait the press, as we've already established, I think Savino could have a role to potentially play in this. When I look at the midfield that Spurs have right now, it is so much better than last season's, don't get me wrong. And I'm not being a Debbie Downer here, but for me, Tonali playing as the sort of deep pivot player, the number six sort of role, I don't necessarily think he's always going to be the best case for Tottenham, because I still don't think he's the most secure player in possession. And at times, I'd actually rather him be someone who's breaking the line with darting runs into the sort of attacking line of Tottenham's team, which is where Savino in this position dropping into that mid-third of the pitch adds value, because he simply finds solutions to evade pressure and get out of those tight conditions. Now, I'm not saying we're going to play Savino as a number six. Do not get me wrong. Don't get me twisted for one second. But what I am saying is that I think he could drop in at times when, let's say, Tottenham are trying to play in transition and he comes to get on the ball. Or let's say Tottenham are trying to use a little bit more rotation in that midfield area. I think Savino could be someone who arrives deeper, gets on the ball turns and gets Spurs going forwards. Like here, with City under pressure and a defender arriving on his back, Savino arrives deep and instantly takes progressive action with a step inside, and then he drives forward the ball before slipping Haaland through on goal. At Spurs, he'd be slipping through Omar Mahmoud, and I think as much as it's not earning Haaland, that's still a really nice dynamic. These positions where Mahmoud is running onto a ball inside the box aren't his favourite shooting positions, but his finishing variety means even then he can score in those situations. So especially after a pretty toothless performance against Brentford, I think the creativity of Savino and the goals and shooting potential of Mahmoud should be really, really exciting for Tottenham fans. However, I do also get the reservations around Savino because of his lack of goal output at Manchester City. But if we compare his shot map last season against his Girona shot map, you see at City, more shots came off the right. Whereas Girona, where he scored a fair few, most of his shots appear on the left side of the box. That's because he was primarily a left winger in La Liga. Now Pep looked to use him as a right winger potentially because of that ability to evade pressure, be a little bit more secure in swinging crosses to Haaland, things like that. But at Tottenham, he will be a left winger, where he can arrive and shoot across his body, which I think is probably his favourite shooting sort of technique. So I do think under De Zerbi, he'll be on the score sheet a little bit more often. Maybe not 15 goals, but a nice little handful, which will be good for them. Now I want you to answer this question. Are you subscribed to 442? Next question. Why aren't you subscribed? Because we'll be back again next week with some more analysis and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. So I'll see you lot in the next one. See you in a bit.