There have been quite a few problems for Tottenham Hotspur to contend with this season, but injuries have been by far and away the most significant.
More specifically, injuries to the backline, as while the absence of Dominic Solanke, for example, is far from ideal, the North Londoners have still managed to score the joint-second most goals in the Premier League.
However, with Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero out for practically the entire campaign, Ange Postecoglou has been forced to rely on a combination of 18-year-old Archie Gray, Ben Davies, Radu Dragusin and, recently, Kevin Danso.
Such a situation has understandably impacted the Lilywhites domestically and in Europe, so much so that Daniel Levy and Co may rue losing an experienced centre-back last January who’s won comparisons to stars like Virgil Van Dijk and Gabriel Magalhães.
Spurs' January 2024 departures
So, back in Postecoglou’s first winter window with Spurs, the club saw several players leave, such as former captain Hugo Lloris.
The World Cup-winning Frenchman made 447 appearances for the North Londoners across 11 and a half years, but on January 31st 2024, he moved to LAFC on a free.
Since switching to Major League Soccer, the vastly experienced shot-stopper has made 50 appearances and won the US Open Cup last year, beating Kansas City 3-1 in extra time.
A former Tottenham ace who has endured a more middling time away from North London is Japhet Tanganga.
The reliable if unspectacular defender joined Millwall on a short-term loan on January 18th, and after making 18 appearances for the side, in which he scored twice, he made his move permanent in the summer for free.
This season, the 25-year-old has made 34 appearances for the club, once again scoring twice.
While he’s clearly settled in, he did have a horror show against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup over the weekend, scoring an own goal and deflecting the ball into Daniel Munoz for his strike.
With all that said, there’s another former Spurs defender who first left the club last January and has also won comparisons to Van Dijk and Gabriel.
The former Spurs star compared to Van Dijk and Gabriel
So, while Sergio Regulion, Ashley Phillip and even Djed Spence all went out on loan last January, the defender in question is someone with far more experience at the domestic and international levels.
After spending nine years with Spurs, Eric Dier finally left the club last winter, and while his move to Bayern Munich was initially a short-term loan, it was later extended to cover this season as well, meaning he did not return to North London.
Now, it would be fair to say that towards the end of his time at the club, the 49-capped Englishman was not seen as a top-class defender, but under Thomas Tuchel last season and, to some extent, Vincent Kompany this year, the 31-year-old has reminded people that he can still be a useful player for a top side.
For example, the “monstrous” star, as dubbed by journalist Dan Kilpatrick, has already made 35 appearances for FC Hollywood and now looks set to be a part of the squad that reclaimed the Bundesliga title from Bayer Leverkusen and has been likened to Gabriel and Van Dijk.
The comparisons stem from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions across Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, across the last 365 days and then creates a list of the ten most similar players.
Non-Penalty Expected Goals
0.05
0.07
0.11
Passing Accuracy
91.8%
91.7%
89.6%
Expected Assists
0.03
0.03
0.03
Through Balls
0.04
0.03
0.04
Tackles
1.15
1.05
1.14
Errors Leading to Goals
0.04
0.03
0.04
Successful Take-Ons
0.07
0.09
0.08
In this instance, it concluded that the Brazilian was the sixth-most similar centre-back to the Englishman in last season’s Champions League, and the Dutchman is the seventh-most similar overall for the last year.
We can get a better understanding of this by looking at the underlying numbers in which the trio have ranked closely over the last season and a bit, including but not limited to non-penalty expected goals, passing accuracy, tackles, through balls, expected assists and more, all per 90.
Ultimately, while we are not suggesting that Dier is anywhere near the defender the other two are, the fact that he’s been compared to them indicates that he has found his fee again since moving to Bavaria.
So, with how badly Postecoglou’s defence has been hit by injuries this season, we reckon a part of him wishes the Englishman was still at the club.
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