Each of Janssen’s three goals for Spurs have come from the penalty spot.
Tottenham Hotspur signed misfiring striker Vincent Janssen because of his character and personality rather than his goalscoring ability, the club’s former head of player identification has told Sky Sports.
The Dutch international striker arrived from his homeland in the summer for £18 million, per the Daily Mail, to take some of the pressure off the shoulders of talismanic striker Harry Kane as Spurs prepared to do battle on both domestic and European fronts this season.
However, Tottenham’s best laid plans rapidly went awry with Janssen struggling badly to adapt to the nature of the English game, scoring only three times in all competitions despite ample game time due to Kane’s prolonged absence between September and November.
In particular, the 22-year-old has failed to impose himself as a poacher in Spurs’ system, often finding himself absent from goalscoring positions and unable to gobble up the kind of six-yard box tap-ins that Kane has made his forte.
And Rob McKenzie, formerly the head of player identification at White Hart Lane, says the club decided to take a punt on a striker with just one season of top flight football with AZ Alkmaar under his belt because of his ability to rise to challenges.
“I would argue that Vincent Janssen’s personality, robustness and his ability to deal with the challenges that he had faced in his career were as important, if not more important, than his goalscoring record in the Eredivisie,” McKenzie, who also worked with Steve Walsh to construct Leicester City’s title winning team, told Sky Sports.
“As a youngster who had been released by Feyenoord, he demonstrated the mental resilience to overcome that disappointment by experiencing a continual increment in game time, level of competition and output across a three-year spell, which culminated in him becoming the starting striker for the Netherlands.”
After a difficult first six months at White Hart Lane, Janssen will have to tap into that mind-set once more at Spurs.
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