The 3 biggest problems facing Tottenham before the 2024/25 season ends | OneFootball

Undoubtedly, Tottenham will have a lot of work to do this summer. The pieces are clearly there for Spurs to return to being a top club in England, and they have shown resiliency in the Europa League with a semifinal berth on tap after knocking out third-placed Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt with a 1-0 win on the road (in one of the toughest stadium to play in Germany, I might add).

But even if Tottenham win the Europa League and qualify for next season's Champions League, this season won't be taken as a success with the team toiling in the bottom five of the Premier League. With a strong summer and a clear idea of which pieces to move forward with and which to discard, Tottenham can come back from this.

Before all that happens, there is still a major trophy on the line and five matches left to play in the Premier League. Here are the three biggest problems Tottenham have to look at in these final games and then work on solving in the summer.

Not enough attacking star power

Tottenham don't have enough star power to compete with the teams in the top four of the Premier League. Nottingham Forest are threatening Champions League football, but they might honestly be a one-off. The teams that consistently compete in the top four of the Premier League all have players who are among the best attackers in world football: Mohamed Salah, Bukayo Saka, Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer, and Alexander Isak all come to mind here.

Right now, Spurs don't have anyone. James Maddison has been the best of the bunch this season, and he's a step below the world-class level. And it looks like that's now the case for Son Heung-min as he approaches the age of 33 this July with Saudi Pro League rumors swirling.

Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, and potentially Bayern Munich loan signing Mathys Tel are all quality pieces, but Tottenham don't have any real stars who can hit 25-30 goal contributions in a season. They may not even have a player hit 20 in the 2024/25 campaign when it's all said and done, and, worse yet, they still don't have a real top striker after Harry Kane's departure to Bayern.

Tottenham are going to have to unearth a real star in the front line if they want to shoot back up the table. The game is driven by difference-makers in the attack, and while Tottenham have a handful of good players, those assorted pieces won't be able to come together without a game-changer. On the bright side, Tel and Johnson have shown signs that they have the potential to be that kind of player for Spurs in the future.

Big Ange is a lame duck coach

I don't think anybody seriously buys Ange Postecoglou as the future manager of Tottenham Hotspur beyond this season. His attitude has begun to grate the fanbase, because it's one thing to be cocky and downtalk the fans when you are winning: it is another thing entirely to behave in this manner when you are at the helm of a historically poor team despite consecutive transfer windows of investment that more prestigious managers did not receive in the preceding seasons.

Postecoglou's seat is hotter than any other manager in world football, and Tottenham have been looking at replacements for months. Coaches like Marco Silva and Thomas Frank have been closely linked to Spurs. It seems increasingly likely that Postecoglou will be out of Tottenham, and it says a lot that many fans feel even a Europa League triumph would not be enough to save the former Celtic coach.

Tottenham are in a situation where everyone thinks their manager will be out. That's an immediate issue. It affects the status of the team and the culture, and you get the sense that players like Cristian Romero are so openly talking about futures outside North London because the stench of Big Ange has permeated so strongly across the grounds that its hard to see the future clearly through this fog of actively dissipating excrement.

Crack in the midfield spine

Tottenham have such a porous and disorganized midfield, and while a lot of that can be blamed on Ange Postecoglou's elementary school tactics that often leave cavernous gaps in the system, Spurs have been missing a critical profile in the middle of the park.

Right now, Spurs don't have a midfield who can control play. They don't have someone who can dictate the game, playmake from deep, and shield the defense. Rodrigo Bentancur is their best defender in the middle of the park, and he's not a real anchor point. In Lucas Bergvall, Tottenham have a highly promising box-to-box player, and Pape Sarr is not half bad either. Then, of course, there's James Maddison as an attacking playmaker, and both he and Dejan Kulusevski are more than adequate progressors on the ball.

But Tottenham have a massive crack in the proverbial windshield - a piece of jagged, shattered glass that draws a singular line over what would otherwise be a perfectly suitable window. As ugly as that crack is and as much as Tottenham are currently hamstrung by their lack of a midfield controller who can facilitate play, I'd rather have to make one big replacement that would make a night-and-day difference rather than toying around with trying to make two or three tweaks to patch up a bunch of small cracks.

Tottenham already did well to bring in Archie Gray and Bergvall as young, future stars in the midfield, and, again, they have a few experienced players who are, at worst, good enough to be useful members of a rotation. But until Spurs get that stabilizing presence at the base of the midfield, they are going to struggle to compete with the best teams in the Premier League that do have a good base like crosstown rivals Chelsea and Arsenal.