Pedro Porro must improve or face Tottenham axe v Everton after Vitalii Mykolenko update
Tottenham Hotspur head into their clash with Everton knowing that a win over the Toffees will see them sit in the Champions League places on Christmas Day.
Ange Postecoglou’s side are in some decent form, having won both of their last two matches but if there is one team in the division who have been more impressive in recent weeks it has been the Toffees who have won all of their last four games.
Sean Dyche’s side have received a big injury boost as well with the Everton boss suggesting that Vitalii Mykolenko could return from injury for the clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday 23 December.
Confirming his return on the Toffees’ Twitter account (21 December) he said: “Mykolenko is back in the thinking. Seamus is touch-and-go – he may need a few more days in training. Young is making progress but won’t be available for this one.
“Doucoure, not for this one. We’ll see, he’s making good progress – he’s a good healer.”
The Ukrainian international has been in the form of his life this season, scoring twice from left-back in 12 league appearances. In his last outing against Chelsea, he managed five passes into the final third and was accurate with 100 per cent of his attempted crosses [Fotmob].
In possession the 24-year-old has been one of the Premier League’s best fullbacks this season, having a higher successful take on record per 90 minutes than 91 per cent of his positional peers [Fbref].
When Mykolenko advances up the field, he very rarely is tackled, only losing possession in 33 per cent of his dribbles. Tottenham’s defenders will have to be at their best to ensure that the left-back doesn’t cause them too many problems.
If Spurs allow the Everton man to get near their goal he could prove to be the difference as he has been lethal in front of goal. He placed in the 90th percentile of fullbacks for shots taken per 90 minutes and is taking his chances, overperforming his xG by 57 per cent.
The man that will likely be tasked with thwarting the Ukrainian will be Pedro Porro and Tottenham will need a much improved defensive performance from the Spaniard if they want to claim all three points in Saturday’s clash.
While Porro impressed going forward against Nottingham Forest, he only managed to win three of his seven duels both in the air and on the turf at the City Ground and in total he was dribbled past twice.
Similar was true in Spurs’ defeat to West Ham United. Once again the 24-year-old picked up an assist going forward but he only came away with possession in 42 per cent of the 12 duels that he contested during the contest.
Even though Porro has won more tackles than 91 per cent of Premier League defenders, he has only managed to tackle an average of 50.7 per cent of the players who have tried to dribble past him, a figure which places him in the 35th percentile of defenders [Fbref].
On top of that, the Tottenham star loses more challenges than 97 per cent of his positional peers. Against a player with the attacking threat of Mykolenko, Porro has to improve this record otherwise the Ukrainian can hurt Postecglou’s side.
If Tottenham have genuine ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League this season, these are the sort of games that they simply have to win. If Porro is off the pace defensively against the Toffees, it could cost Spurs the top four in the long term.
Should Porro struggle in the opening exchanges, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see Postecoglou make an early change.
In other Tottenham news, Spurs have to move on from Lloyd Kelly following recent comments from the billionaire Bournemouth owner