Tottenham will reportedly start their new season under the management of Paulo Fonseca. According to Football London’s Alasdair Gold, Fonseca will be working with the new Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici. Both men will have the task of hiring a new group of assistants that will help to solve the area of concerns within Tottenham’s squad as well as providing Fonseca with tactical views.
Departed Deputy
Fonseca parted ways with his long-term assistant manager Nuno Campos this year. Both men’s history together dates way back to 2009. Campos started his career as an assistant to Fonseca when the former Roma coach was plying his trade at Pinhalnovense and has since followed him at Aves, Ferreira, Porto, Braga, Shakhtar, and finally Rome. He has been deputy for a total of 453 games. This will be the first time in 12 years that Fonseca will be managing without his deputy Nuno Campos.
Strengthening Weakness
Paulo Fonseca’s teams have been easy targets for strikers for all these years. Due to his progressive style of play, his defense has been a weak point of his game. Fonseca’s teams have a history of conceding mammoth number of goals, which was witnessed by the whole world when Roma played against Manchester United in the Europa League.
Fonseca’s defensive records speak volumes that he needs to concentrate more on defense. In his last two jobs at Shakhtar and Roma, his teams have conceded 112 and 139 goals in 139 and 102 matches respectively. His overall stats of conceding 606 goals in 594 games speak about his tendency to leak goals.
Need at Tottenham
Spurs are declining in terms of defensive performance. Under the management of Mourinho, they conceded 45 goals in 38 matches last season, which is 1.1 goals per game.
An assistant who could help Tottenham players and Paulo Fonseca to improve their defensive game is the need of the hour. The current option Tottenham has is Ledley King, who was just promoted last season for a coaching role under Mourinho. According to Gold, interim manager Ryan Mason is set to return to his previous position as Head of Player Development in Spurs’ academy.
If Fonseca plans to hire a specialist for this job and brings in defensive reinforcements for the coming season keeping CB a top priority in the transfer window, Tottenham could very well bounce back from the disastrous last season.
