Chadder View: Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur must start for Ange Postecoglou when fit
Matthew Chadder is a lifelong Tottenham fan who grew up just down the road from his beloved club in North London. He’s now putting his passion for Spurs into words with a daily fan view for Tottenham News…
At the beginning of the season, the Tottenham midfield under Ange Postecoglou looked well and truly settled.
It was hard to imagine anyone coming in and displacing any of Spurs’ three starting midfielders.
The combination of James Maddison, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr was working wonders in the middle of the park as the trio helped Postecoglou to an undefeated start to life in England.
Tottenham sat top of the Premier League after 10 games, with all three midfielders playing their own unique part in Spurs’ impressive start to the season.
Maddison was of course the creative outlet, the playmaker in the team. Sarr’s energy was infectious and his running in midfield was essential to help keep Postecoglou’s high-press system ticking. Meanwhile, it seemed as if Bissouma was winning every single one of his tackles.
It was a perfect balance, but with injuries and suspensions reigning supreme at Hotspur Way in recent months, Postecoglou has been forced to try various midfield combinations, never having his three first-choice midfielders from the beginning of the season available at the same time.
Chelsea in November was the last time the three players started together, and might perhaps be the last time the three of those players ever start together as the Australian’s first-choice midfield, with Rodrigo Bentancur now proving he deserves to be in that mix.
Bentancur was our best midfielder last season, in my opinion. However, after some horrible injury luck, I worried that he might not return as the same player once he did regain his fitness.
Well, how wrong I was.
Even after the better part of a year spent on the sidelines, Bentancur has looked more or less like his old self in his first few matches back in action, emphasised by his equalising goal at Old Trafford.
The goal was a reminder to Postecoglou and supporters that Bentancur, who was perhaps a forgotten man in the early part of the season, is a world-class player who has to be in Postecoglou’s starting lineups, even when every midfielder is available again.
Bissouma heading to the African Cup of Nations might be a blessing in disguise for the Uruguay international, who now has the chance over the next few weeks to show Postecoglou just how good he is, something we Spurs supporters are already aware of.
The Mali international has gone off the boil in recent months, and Bentancur could soon take his position and make it his own alongside Sarr and Maddison.
Who knows, as good as we looked at the beginning of the season, perhaps we will now go up a level with Bentancur in the team?
In other Tottenham News, Fabio Paratici has recommended the club to sign a Brazillian midfielder from the Serie A.
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