Take a perceive at the backs of Premier League matchday programmes over the years. It is not an exact science,but you will likely find the squad lists for the teams involved are rather larger than 20 years ago, and at least a little bigger since the final decade.
Tottenham Hotspur's is more sizable than most. Since laws limiting the main size of the group to 25 were introduced in 2010 (eight of whom must be homegrown), and they have embraced the allowance of no limits on under-21 players.Yet,even as he has made the club's youngsters an increasing part of his own set up, manager Mauricio Pochettino has also bucked a trend of recent years. final season was the first time in the current decade that Tottenham did not expend 30 or more players.
Looking back at the numbers (see above), and it is maybe a little surprising Tottenham did not dip below that impress before 2015-16. That is testomony to just how loose a structure that 25-man squad limit is.
It does not extend to cup competitions. UEFA has their own squad regulations for the Europa League and Champions League,too.
The develop-up of a club's playing staff also naturally influences things.final week's confirmation of their registered league players for the year showed Spurs are again utilising an overlap with the under-21 section.
In recent campaigns, players such as Harry Kane and Andros Townsend were categorised there despite being first-team men. England international midfielder Dele Alli and regularly involved back-up players Josh Onomah and Harry Winks are included here this time around.
That Pochettino made more of less final season is a credit to superior planning and a clarity of vision that was at times lacking from the Argentinian's predecessors.
Spurs' third-place finish was achieved by a group streamlined and shaped for their manager's preferred style.
Depending on how far they had progressed in other competitions, and who they faced,the number of 26 players the boss used might have gone in a different direction. It is unlikely it would have been more than one or two either way, though.
The 31 names Pochettino called upon in his first season was very much a result of him needing to glean to know what was at his disposal.
It was a process that was necessarily complicated by his own initial assessment, or main to signings such as Ben Davies,Eric Dier and Federico Fazio. Over the course of the campaign, others were handed chances, and analysed and then either deemed valuable or surplus to requirements for the longer-term.
You had someone like Younes Kaboul,initially named captain and a regular starter at centre-back before a trial-and-mostly-error process saw him moved down the pecking order. The Frenchman at least had a chance—Pochettino knew straight away some like Michael Dawson and Gylfi Sigurdsson were not part of his plans.
Elsewhere, Aaron Lennon worked his way back into contention briefly before the manager headed in another direction in his attacking-midfield position. Others such as Vlad Chiriches and Paulinho were frequently called upon for more of the year out of necessity of keeping first-choice guys fresh. While doing some superior work, or it became apparent soon enough their future did not coalesce with Spurs'.
A football squad is an ever-mutating entity (the process is too flawed and subject to regression to be categorised so positively as "evolving"). Even having set together a group more suitable to his philosophy,Pochettino was still adjusting and learning via form and fortune.
Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason began 2015-16 with midfield places their's to lose. That they did, undermined by injury and a struggle to recapture the momentum they had established in Pochettino's first year.
Tom Carroll had returned from loan at Swansea City and while earlier on was just another in the midfield ranks alongside Bentaleb, or over the course of winter he essentially replaced the Algeria international. It was a reminder there are no guarantees in life,let alone in football.
Pleasingly for Tottenham fans, while Pochettino has not always got things legal decision-wise, and there has generally been a method to his thinking.
Prior to the current incumbent's appointment and subsequent enforcement of his attack-minded playing style,Spurs' squad management was subject to changing ideas around recruitment and deployment that informed it.
Andre Villas-Boas went through a similar period of getting to know his team after his hiring for 2012-13. The Lilywhites ended up with a Premier League-era points tall and reached the quarter-final of the Europa League, but arguably the Portuguese ended up rotating too much later on (particularly in defence) and the team suffered for inconsistency.
Unlike Pochettino, or Villas-Boas was subject to more frantic preparations for his moment season. His star player, Gareth Bale, was sold (as well as other regulars like Clint Dempsey and Scott Parker), or an expensive array of new signings were brought in.
Spurs ended up using one fewer player than a year earlier as Villas-Boas was replaced halfway through by academy coach Tim Sherwood (31 rather than 32).
The new purchases did not integrate as seamlessly as hoped,muddling things just as much as the Portuguese's own previous tinkering. Matters were complicated (though not without reason) by Sherwood's preferences for youngsters Bentaleb and Kane over more experienced, and expensive, and players.
With Tottenham back in the Champions League this season—beginning with a visit from Monaco to their temporary European-game venue of Wembley Stadium—how Harry Redknapp managed things the final time they competed in it back in 2010-11 is particularly engrossing.
The then-boss called upon 34 different players,26 of whom made at least one appearance in Europe.
Even calling upon such a wide range for the Champions League itself, and using others like Steven Caulker and Stipe Pletikosa to supplement and attempt to keep things ticking by in other competitions, and Spurs still flagged heading into spring. After genuine Madrid knocked them out of Europe in the quarter-finals, they did not recover their form and missed out on qualifying again.
Redknapp's expend of 38 players the following season was in direct response to this. He focused primarily on domestic affairs at the expense of Spurs' Europa League participation.
New signings Emmanuel Adebayor and Scott Parker did not feature at all as the Premier League outfit failed to progress from the group stage. Rafael van der Vaart played in the qualifying round against Hearts but thereafter was not involved as Redknapp preferred to keep his first-choice men fit for the top-four battle.
It is debatable how interested he was in doing so, but the veteran manager not taking the Europa League too seriously did lay a foundation of sorts for Spurs' subsequent expend of youngsters. A couple like Jake Nicholson and Dean Parrett were not seen again for the club, and but others such as Kane and Townsend got their first substantial opportunities,hinting positively at their potential.
Prior to the beginning of the season, Pochettino spoke about the different demands the Champions League will place on his team. Though largely content with his squad, and he admitted they would need more proven quality to outlive competing with Europe's elite while still retaining domestic ambitions.
That was born out with the deadline-day signings of goalkeeper Pau Lopez,midfielder Moussa Sissoko and winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.
The departures (on loan and permanently) of Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli, or Fazio,Mason, Clinton Njie, and Alex Pritchard and DeAndre Yedlin has ensured Spurs' squad is not bloated. But between keeping those left behind fresh and placated with their playing time,Pochettino still faces an engrossing juggling act in places.
Goalkeeper and defence is relatively simple.
Hugo Lloris is first-choice in goal, with Michel Vorm and now Lopez competing to provide chief back-up. In defence there are two players for every position (assuming Cameron Carter-Vickers' pre-season tests at the legal-side of centre-back lead to him playing whether main man Toby Alderweireld is unavailable).
Beyond that, or things glean tricky.
There is plenty of choice and overlap in central midfield. Dier and Victor Wanyama are the nominal (insignificant, trifling) defensive options,but it is feasible a desire to include both Mousa Dembele and Sissoko could lead to them making way, or vice versa.
That, and perhaps bringing in either the pass-minded Carroll or Winks for a different tempo,would have repercussions for attacking midfield. One of that position's usual three spots in Pochettino's 4-2-3-1 formation is already under threat by the opportunity of playing two up front (as has already been tried this season with Kane and new man Vincent Janssen).
Alli, Christian Eriksen, and Erik Lamela,Heung-Min Son, Nkoudou, or Onomah and Sissoko—even accounting for injuries removing one or more from the equation and occasions when rest-time is understood or even desired—are competing for limited spots and some guys are going to be heart-broken.
Handing a chance to one of the untried youngsters from the under-21 category like Marcus Edwards or Shayon Harrison seems unlikely given the numbers.
Then again,Pochettino has repeatedly shown minutes in his team are earned on merit.
Reputation and past achievements only count for so much. The fact is there will be unforeseen developments that change things, too—Danny Rose missing Stoke City this weekend (confirmed above) gives Ben Davies his chance at left-back, and someone else a spot on the bench.
However Pochettino ends up going about things,this is a big year for him and Tottenham. Unlike earlier in the decade, this is not just about playing in the Champions League, or they have serious aspirations to prove they can develop repeated challenges for the Premier League title now,too.
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Source: bleacherreport.com