For all the tactical intelligence, composure, and consistency that Mauricio Pochettino has brought to Tottenham Hotspur over the last four years, there is a sense that his side are too predictable in their competence. It sometimes feels as though Spurs are too organised for their own good, the Argentinian’s methods too closely followed by a collection of players dedicated to a system that aims to eliminate the randomness and unpredictability of the Premier League.
But football matches are chaos. Only a small number of variables can be realistically controlled while the score lines are often decided seemingly arbitrarily, with goals coming from unforced errors, individual moments of quality, or just plain against the run of play. Tottenham under Pochettino have rarely seemed to appreciate the importance of embracing the non-tactical aspects of goalscoring, explaining why they so often draw games against bottom-half opposition.
At times in 2017/18 it was easy for Premier League sides to pack the middle of the pitch and grind out results, so easy was it to understand the attacking rhythms that Spurs would use. Their highly structured short passing, revolving around Christian Eriksen, can be counteracted by a deep-lying defence. Spurs were crying out for a nonconformist presence at the front end of the pitch.
Lucas Moura is just such a player. The Brazilian has an erratic playing style, often drifting away from his base position and dipping in and out of games, yet it is these qualities that make him an important counterweight to the rest of the Spurs team. Lucas can become a crucial player for Pochettino precisely because he is such an un-Pochettino player.
Lucas Moura runs past Smalling and slams the ball home across De Gea's outstretched right hand
#MUNTOT
His two goals against Manchester United were richly deserved for a superb all-round performance alongside Harry Kane. Nominally a centre-forward for this match, Lucas frequently drifted out to the right flank, the exact opposite diagonal movement he was making in Spurs’ first game of the season against Newcastle United. His jerking runs in possession, breaking the lines and breaking the Pochettino rules, have injected a maverick energy into Tottenham’s attacks that helps them to become less predictable.
With a player like Lucas to worry about, the likes of Dele Alli and Eriksen are inevitably afforded more room by defenders; opponents can no longer stay in a rigid formation, tracking the usual give-and-go moves of Tottenham’s narrow attackers. It is arguably the final piece missing from the Spurs front line, although a lack of squad depth in key positions still prevents them from being serious title challengers at the moment – and at least until Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City come to the end of their current cycle.
In retrospect Lucas Moura’s £23 million fee looks like a bargain. He played more minutes for Paris Saint-Germain than any other player in 2016/17, only losing his place the following campaign after Neymar arrived from Barcelona for a world-record fee. Six month into his Spurs career, it looks as though Lucas has finally settled; as the antidote to Tottenham’s predictability, as the chaotic winger who rejects Pochettino’s tactics, he looks set to become one of his manager’s most important assets.
