Matthew Chadder

Sun 18 June 2023 14:44, UK

It is hard to deny that up until his injury, Rodrigo Bentancur was the best-performing player in the Tottenham midfield.

In fact, Tottenham’s season began to truly unravel after the Urugyan’s injury. Quite literally as soon after.

Bentancur had put Spurs ahead at Leicester on 11 February before the home side turned it around to lead before the midfielder was then forced to leave the pitch injured. Tottenham would go on to lose that game by four goals to one.

And the injury would turn out to be much more serious than any fan could have feared as it was revealed Bentancur had ruptured his ACL with a return date not known, but certainly not before the end of the season.

Prior to the injury, Bentancur was untouchable in the Spurs midfield and at times arguably the second name on the team sheet, after Harry Kane of course.

He had scored five goals and provided two assists from central midfield in his 18 league appearances and at times was the glue keeping the side together. Once that glue was removed, Spurs very quickly became unstuck.

With his return date still not known, Ange Postecoglou will be preparing to begin life without the box-to-box midfielder however should not forget about the 25-year-old with the stats suggesting he can thrive in the Australian’s Spurs midfield, perhaps even more so than he was doing under Antonio Conte.

As per FBREF, Bentancur’s numbers demonstrate his all-around brilliance. He was in the top one per cent of midfielders for the percentage of his shots he was registering on target (50 per cent) and the top four per cent for goals per 90 (0.27).

In terms of his numbers in possession, he had a successful take-on percentage of 64.3 per cent, placing him in the 86th percentile, and showed his involvement all around the pitch, making 16.98 touches per 90 in the defensive third (83rd percentile), 39.68 per 90 in the midfield third (73rd percentile) and 10.92 in the attacking third (35th percentile).

Considering these numbers are comparative to all midfielders in the league, both attacking and defensive, it proves the brilliant box-to-box ability of the former Juventus man.

His defensive numbers are also extremely impressive as he was in the top 50 per cent of midfielders in the league for tackles in all three of the defensive, midfield and attacking thirds – sitting in the top 10 per cent for tackles in the attacking third. He was also in the top one per cent of midfielders for shouts blocked per 90 (1.48) and top five per cent for the percentage of dribblers tackled per 90 (61.1 per cent).

Bentancur is a far more well-rounded midfielder than Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp, who he would be competing with for a place in Postecoglou’s new-look midfield.

In fact, it is a shame for the new Tottenham head coach that he has to start life at the club without Bentancur.

The former Celtic boss’ admiration for combative, all-action midfielders who can get forward should make the midfielder’s inclusion in the team an easy one upon his return from injury. Spurs fans will just have to hope he can show the same levels of performance he was and the ACL injury hasn’t set him back, as it so often does to players.

In other Tottenham news, another one of Spurs’ swoops from Juventus has been made permanent.