Frank must drop "painful" £25m Spurs star who's holding Xavi Simons back
Last season, Tottenham Hotspur were made to bemoan defensive injuries. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven missed extensive periods through injury. As did full-back Destiny Udogie.
Is it any great surprise, therefore, that Ange Postecoglou’s backline looked such a mess? Perhaps not, but the Aussie was still stubborn enough to refuse change.
Thomas Frank certainly seems more flexible with his style of football but one of the first things he has corrected is that leaky backline.
Only three teams, Arsenal (3), Manchester City (6) and Sunderland (6), have shipped fewer goals than Spurs (7) in the top-flight this term.
Yet, are things beginning to unravel in similar circumstances to Ange? Like the club’s former boss, Frank has now suffered his first big injury blow at the back.
Romero limped off during the warm-up of their game with Aston Villa and after initially being selected, was not fit enough to start. Without their captain, the Lilywhites suffered a 2-1 defeat.
Frank won’t fret quite yet, but he must find a way to get more of a tune out of his attack. Big-money summer signing Xavi Simons will play a big part in that.
Why Spurs need to see improvement from Xavi Simons
Even before James Maddison suffered a terrible ACL injury during pre-season, Frank and Co had made efforts to bring Nottingham Forest talisman Morgan Gibbs-White to north London.
We all know how that saga ended but Spurs’ pursuit of a new dynamic number 10 seemed cursed at one point.
It looked for all the world as though they were set to sign Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace. A deal was agreed and he was allegedly on his way to Spurs. Instead, a last-minute U-turn saw him head to boyhood club Arsenal. The solution was Simons.
The Dutchman had been courted by Chelsea but it was the Blues’ London rivals who eventually concluded a deal, snapping him up for £52m, a move that made him Spurs’ fifth-most expensive signing of all time.
This was an exciting acquisition. After all, he did score 11 goals and register eight assists for RB Leipzig in Germany last season.
Sadly, we’re yet to see the best of him in white. He is yet to complete a full 90 minutes in the Premier League and his only goal involvement, an assist against West Ham, came on his English top-flight debut. The Netherlands maestro has not scored or assisted since then.
Simons in the PL
Opposition
Mins played
Goals or assists
West Ham (A)
71
1
Brighton (A)
29
0
Wolves (H)
78
0
Leeds (A)
74
0
Aston Villa (H)
79
0
Stats via Transfermarkt.
For such a big-money signing, Frank needs to see more from him but it’s not as though he isn’t trying. Perhaps there’s a simple solution to all of this; Spurs need better players in their forward line.
How Spurs can get more out of Xavi Simons
How supporters must long for the days of Harry Kane and a prime Heung-min Son.
The duo aren’t showing any signs of slowing down away from Spurs with Kane simply in the form of his life this campaign, netting 19 times in 11 games for Bayern Munich.
As far as Son is concerned, he’s been lighting up MLS with his displays for LA FC. The South Korean has nine goals and three assists in his first ten outings for the club.
So, to see where the Spurs forward line is now will no doubt make a few fans hide behind the sofa. Combine the loss of Son with injuries to Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski and you have a real patched-together front line.
Dominik Solanke has played just 31 minutes of league football due to injury in 2025/26 while Richarlison has only beaten the goalkeeper once in his last seven Premier League matches.
As for the French youngster, Wilson Odobert, he is yet to score at all across ten games in all competitions.
With such a glut of misfiring players, is it any surprise that Simons has endured a difficult beginning at Spurs?
Simons’ last two seasons
Stat (per 90)
2024/25
2025/26
Assists
0.3
0.3
Chances created
2.1
1.7
Passes attempted
46.2
33
Forward passes
12.2
9.3
Sideways passes
22
15.5
Data provided by Opta.
A look at the numbers tells us that the Dutch midfielder is struggling without a fluid forward line. Worryingly, he’s playing fewer passes per 90 minutes than he did last season at Leipzig. That ultimately means he’s creating fewer goalscoring opportunities for his teammates.
He needs the players in front of him to make better runs and there is no better example of that than the aforementioned Odobert.
The former Burnley man, signed for £25m, is still a particularly raw prospect. He’s exciting and fleet-footed but he needs to be doing more to help Simons out.
The big-money summer arrival traditionally operates in the pockets of space on the left-hand side and it’s on the left flank where Odobert tends to operate. The clip below demonstrates precisely what we’re talking about.
Mathys Tel has the ball on the edge of the box and all he needs is for a few defenders to be dragged away by an overlapping run from Odobert to potentially feed Simons in acres of space.
What does the Frenchman do? He surges right into the area where Tel is aiming for, reducing the space and cutting out a chance to get a shot or pass away.
Had Odobert made an overlapping run, he’d have created more room for Spurs’ number 7 and potentially even received the ball himself. As Jamie O’Hara said after the game, he and Tel can be “painful” to watch.
The 20-year-old is a marmite figure. He did a fair bit right against Aston Villa, completing four of his five dribbles but he needs better end product.
He missed an OPTA-defined big chance on Sunday and only completed one key pass. If Odobert can marry his trickery with the ability to make better runs and make himself an option for Simons then things will improve.
Until then, however, it would be better if the Netherlands star operated from the left flank instead or someone like Brennan Johnson operated there.