Tottenham’s weekend defeat was highlighted by a lack of options off the bench.
Tottenham Hotspur had an off day against Chelsea yesterday, but their lack of a ‘plan B’ was evident.
Chelsea sat deep once they had established a lead and shut down space surrounding Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli, denying them opportunity to operate.
Last season Spurs were often prolific, but had off days too, away at Sunderland and Gent being two instances of them failing to score.
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s solution with 15 minutes remaining at Wembley was to bring on £30 million midfielder Moussa Sissoko.
This was a substitution which filled nobody with confidence except perhaps Chelsea – and Sissoko managed only five touches.
It underlined the need for Everton midfielder Ross Barkley, who has been strongly linked to Tottenham all summer.
There have been questions over whether Barkley would make it into Tottenham’s first choice XI and those are legitimate, but yesterday showed that Dele Alli simply cannot be expected to perform miracles on a weekly basis.
Bringing Barkley off the bench late on would have helped Tottenham’s cause and put Chelsea further on the back foot.
The midfielder may be inconsistent, but he is creative, and is worth a gamble by Spurs.
Sissoko’s limp contribution should only underline the importance that Tottenham push on with their interest for Barkley.
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