Last season Tottenham Hotspur may have won the Europa League but there is no hiding behind the fact that domestically, things were a complete write-off.
Former boss Ange Postecoglou proclaimed that things are always better in season three, but sadly for the craggy-faced Aussie, he didn’t see in his third campaign at the helm.
The writing had been on the wall for a while, really. Spurs were a mess at the back. It’s “who we are, mate” Ange also exclaimed when asked about his philosophy and high line. Yet, those who fail to adapt and change…ahem, Ruben Amorim, often fail.
The truth is that Postecoglou did not change his ways, leading to the concession of 65 Premier League goals, the fifth-worst record in the division last term.
With Thomas Frank now at the helm, he made an immediate attempt to improve the backline before anything else and that decision has been vindicated.
Spurs look like a different outfit now. They are more organised, more structured, and the numbers showcase that. They have kept five clean sheets already in 2025/26 across all competitions and have shipped just five goals. Only Arsenal (3) have let in fewer.
While Frank will take a lot of the plaudits, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero’s partnership has looked like one of the best in the division.
Why Van de Ven and Romero complement each other so well at Spurs
Since arriving in north London, Romero has attracted his fair share of criticism.
He’s too hot-headed, too rash, too ill-disciplined to ever be a competent defender. Those were the cries from certain sections of the media and fanbase. Alas, there is a reason that he is captaining the side and there is a reason that Real Madrid have reportedly courted him.
The Argentine is a typical South American defender. He’s brutish, has a never-say-die attitude and when faced with a striker, it’s not often they get the better of him.
Indeed, he’s only been dribbled past 0.3 times per match under Frank so far, winning 65% of his ground duels and another 65% of his aerial duels.
To put those numbers into context, he’s winning more aerial battles than Arsenal’s imperious Brazilian, Gabriel (60%) and a similar number of ground duels to William Saliba (66%).
Romero is the more aggressive of he and Van de Ven, but the Dutchman’s recovery speed and ability to sweep in behind his defensive colleague is why they work so well.
Last term, no player was quicker in the English top-flight than Spurs’ number 37.
Yet despite all of that, the club have a defender in their ranks who stands an excellent chance of disrupting this fine partnership. Step forward Spurs’ new Mousa Dembele.
Spurs have found the defensive version of Dembele
What a player Dembele was in his prime. Part of a very special Spurs team including the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, the Belgian was the glue that held everything together.
In the words of Kyle Walker, “Dembele was probably the best player I’ve ever seen play football” while Eric Dier, now of Monaco, stated that he was “a freak of nature”.
Shots
0.8
Key passes
1.0
Dribbles
2.9
Times fouled
1.1
Tackles
3.6
An all-action machine, it was nigh on impossible to get the ball off Dembele. He was a fine dribbler but he was also a duel monster.
From 2012 to 2019, no player in the Premier League had a better success rate for dribbles than Dembele’s tally of 77.9%. The next best during that time frame was Nemanja Matic on 73.1%.
As for winning duels, during the 2015/16 season, only three players, of which one was N’Golo Kante, won more tackles per match. Dembele won 3.6 while Kante topped the charts with 4.7.
Why is this all relevant now? Well, it looks like Spurs have found another duel machine, someone capable of dominating play in a similar manner, albeit from defensive phases of play.
That player is Luka Vuskovic. Spurs first reached an agreement to sign the centre-back in 2023 for £12m from Hajduk Split when he was only 16.
They had to wait until 2025 for the young Croatian to finally arrive but it was worth the wait. Vuskovic scored in pre-season against Reading and more than looks the part.
Now 18, the teenager has already made a habit of scoring regular goals. At KVC Westerlo in the Belgian top-flight last season, he scored seven goals in 36 outings.
Now on loan at Hamburg in Germany, he’s already showcasing why he’s so highly rated. The youngster has featured on four occasions, scoring once and breaking a little bit of history along the way.
During Hamburg’s clash against Union Berlin last weekend, he won a mind-blowing 18 aerial duels. To sum up just how incredible that statistic is, no player has won more aerial duels in a Bundesliga game across the last ten seasons and he is the first player to win 18 aerial duels in a single match in Europe’s top five leagues over the last five seasons.
While Dembele may not have been as menacing in the air as that, it demonstrates Vuskovic’s imperious duel-winning ability and his capability to overpower his opponents.
When asked what he thought of his teammate, Hamburg full-back Miro Muheim simply described him as a “monster” after the game. Rather apt if you ask us.
But, as the Athletic’s German Football correspondent, Seb Stafford-Bloor, outlines, the Croat is also “good with the ball at his feet”, emulating Dembele with that area of the game too.
Vuskovic has completed 85% of his passes in the Bundesliga so far and has also been successful with 100% of his dribble attempts, according to Sofascore.
Not just a beast physically, he’s technically brilliant, just as Dembele was from further forward. An exciting player no doubt, and one who could well make this Spurs backline even better.
You bet Frank can’t wait to get him back in the fold next season.