Better late than never, Tottenham's senior players are stepping up

AFC BournemouthArsenalAston VillaBrentfordBrighton & Hove AlbionBurnleyChelseaCrystal PalaceEvertonFulhamLeeds UnitedLiverpoolManchester CityManchester UnitedNewcastle UnitedNottingham ForestSunderlandTottenham HotspurWest Ham UnitedWolverhampton WanderersScores & ScheduleStandingsFantasyThe Athletic FC NewsletterPodcastsBetter late than never, Tottenham’s senior players are stepping upMicky van de Ven has demonstrated leadership in the weeks since Robert De Zerbi took over Michael Steele/Getty Images Share articleIt has been clear from watching Tottenham in the last few weeks that the mood has changed. The results on the pitch tell that story clearly enough. You can draw a clear upwards line from the narrow defeat at Sunderland, through the painful draw against Brighton, the narrow win over Wolves and the emphatic one at Villa Park on Sunday night. The challenge, of course, is to keep that line trending upwards for the last three games. Do that, and Tottenham can finally stop worrying about trips to Lincoln, Preston and Wrexham next season. At the centre of this is Roberto De Zerbi. He is the protagonist, the man who arrived in April with the goal of turning Spurs’ season around and keeping them in the Premier League. He is the man who has reset the mood and brought everyone together again. Any explanation of their apparent upturn — we can reassess how real it is late on Monday night — must start with him. But there is a limit to what De Zerbi can do. He is not out on the pitch running, pressing, passing and tackling. Like any manager, all he can do is show the players the way and hope that they follow it. So any story about Tottenham in the last few weeks which ends with De Zerbi, his tactics, his speeches, his passion, is incomplete. De Zerbi himself is a necessary factor but not a sufficient one. Any full story about Spurs over the last month has to take in those with agency on the pitch: the players themselves. Not just in the sense of their movements or tactics, either, but something more fundamental than that: their buy-in to the new manager and his ideas. Speak to any manager, and they will tell you that it is the most important currency at any football club. Without it, it is impossible for anything to get off the ground. No one can look at the story of Tottenham’s season up until 31 March and say that this was a club awash with buy-in. Both Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor struggled to get the players committed to their particular styles. For far too much of this year, the players looked lost, unsure of themselves, lacking conviction when it mattered. Big moments were rarely seized. Setbacks turned into collapses. And most damagingly of all, the players often looked as if they knew that ultimately the manager would take the blame for things going wrong. The dysfunction of the club and the unsuitability of the manager were excuses for them to hide behind, which they were not reluctant to do. Even Spurs’ senior players, the ones they should be relying on in a crisis, were nowhere to be seen. None of Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, or Micky van de Ven could be said to be having a good season until De Zerbi arrived. Rodrigo Bentancur was not playing well when he picked up a hamstring injury. Dominic Solanke missed the first half of the season but did not truly recover his rhythm. James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski have not played one single competitive minute between them. No wonder that many Spurs fans’ favourite players one month ago were Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall. This last month has seen something that few would have predicted: a total resurrection of the commitment of those senior players. This has been evident everywhere you look. And not only on the pitch. Take the Brighton game, for example. Bentancur and Yves Bissouma were integral for Spurs, starting together for the first time since Bilbao. They wanted the ball under pressure, they moved it forward, and they gave Spurs a foothold in the game. But there was another moment too, long after both men had gone off. During a break in play in the second half, Bissouma and Bentancur came off the bench to give tactical instructions to their team-mates. Soon after, Xavi Simons put them ahead. Of course, that game ended in misery, with Spurs pegged back in added time, but there was a clear sense of commitment from the players that had been lacking before. No one would argue that Porro or Van de Ven were having great campaigns up until one month ago. Their performances and attitude had been widely questioned for months. But those two now look suddenly back to their best again. Spurs kept a rare clean sheet at Molineux, their first since December, and they were seconds away from following it up with another at Villa Park. But their improvement under De Zerbi owes even more to their defensive work than to what they have done with the ball. And Van de Ven and Porro, along with Kevin Danso, have been integral to it. Porro had been a warrior all night at Villa Park, and towards the end, with Spurs defending their 2-0 lead, he won a series of consecutive 50-50s on the right side of the pitch. At the end of the sequence, he celebrated as if he had scored a goal. And at the end of the game, he was celebrating the win with the away end, a far cry from the often-frosty relationship he has had with fans this season. Even the players who have not been fit to play have been involved. De Zerbi has made a point of including Maddison on the bench in recent weeks. Maddison only had ACL surgery nine months ago and has returned to training, but has not played yet. But De Zerbi has spoken about the importance of Maddison’s experience and personality with the rest of the group, a clear way he can help the team even before he can get on the pitch. Anyone who knows Maddison will tell you that he is a people person, someone who others gravitate towards, with a positive personality that can glue dressing rooms together. Vicario has not even been fit enough for the bench under De Zerbi but he too has been present, cheering the team on from the sidelines, living the results just as he would if he were out there. Put it all together, and it almost feels as if, over the course of the last month, Spurs’ senior players have finally started to rise to the challenge they face. Following the clear instructions of the new manager, to which they are fully bought-in, they are working hard, pulling together and taking responsibility on the pitch. They are the ones with agency after all. And now they have to do it again on Monday. Spot the pattern. 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