Out of options: Pochettino must show faith in Llorente

We’ve all been there. An incident or a moment that haunts you for the remainder of the day. Be it an argument, confrontation or even a decision made through the course of an afternoon, no matter how hard you try it can’t be shaken off, you just can’t stop thinking about it.

Often, only bed and sleep provide a real solace in such times, but there, sandwiched between sheet and duvet, the mind can run free, undistracted by other menial tasks. Everyone has experienced it, lying awake at night pondering ‘what if’, ‘if only’ and justifying actions with ‘it was someone else’s fault, really’.

It is surely the fate that met a dispirited Fernando Llorente on Sunday night as his entire six foot plus frame clambered into bed. While JOTB can confirm we DO NOT have cameras in the striker’s bedroom, we’d be willing to chance our arm and guess he didn’t drift off into a dreamless sleep.

It was far from the ideal return to the Tottenham team for Llorente last weekend against Fulham, when he made just his first Premier League start in over a year, and only his second ever since signing for Spurs at the beginning of last season.

With Harry Kane ruled out until March, Heung-min Son at the Asian Cup and Lucas Moura also unavailable, Mauricio Pochettino had little choice but to rely on Llorente. The Spanish striker has been starved of minutes, goals and confidence since leaving Swansea – what he needed was an early strike to soothe his, and his team-mates’, trepidations.

However, his goal after 17 minutes at Craven Cottage did anything but calm the Spaniard’s nerves. While there was certainly a large chunk of misfortune with the incident, Llorente’s flat-footedness, slow reactions, and lack of foresight were the mark of man desperately short of playing time. As the ball flashed off his knee and past Hugo Lloris in the Tottenham goal, you couldn’t help but feel for the guy.

Luckily, second-half goals from Dele Alli and Harry Winks saved the 33-year-old’s blushes and ensured Spurs continued to distance themselves from the chasing pack of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Yet, it did little to mask just how utterly terrible Llorente was. Void of self-belief before the game, his own goal only served to further exacerbate his fragilities as he missed several chances, including a point-blank header which skewed off his shoulder.

There was also minimal link-up play between himself and Alli and truthfully, there were almost no positives from his horrendous performance, save from the ‘it can only get better’ school of thought.

But will it? A question surely haunting Tottenham fans as they head into one of their biggest games of the season, away to Chelsea in the semi-final of the League Cup. Llorente, it could be argued, is damaged goods and too big a risk for a game of this magnitude even with the injury-ravaged state of affairs in north London.

The reality is, Spurs don’t have many other options given that Winks, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen are the currently the squad’s only match-fit midfielders. Yes, Lucas looks likely to be available again for Thursday’s clash, and Eric Dier’s return against Fulham was a welcome relief for Pochettino, but neither will have fully regained their fitness and sharpness, and with the Argentinian’s squad spread so wafer thin at present there seems no alternative to starting Llorente against Chelsea, and most likely over the next few weeks.

In this case there is no plan B, no second strategy, not even an emergency option – Llorente will start and Tottenham must accommodate him.

As a striker, the Spaniard will not perform that same role that Kane offers. Llorente will not drop deep, play through balls for his team-mates, or manage to create chances for himself. He is a traditional, almost non-existent in today’s game, target man, who will look to hold the ball up, operate between the posts and flourishes when presented with headed opportunities in the box.

For Tottenham to have any success over the coming weeks Pochettino will need to adapt his side’s style to maximise Llorente’s strengths. Obvious as it may seem, that means more aerial balls into the penalty area from wide positions, encouraging deep crosses from full-backs, or even wingers playing on their naturally-footed side to generate more accurate delivery.

Central players such as Winks and Eriksen will have to operate closer to the striker, feeding off his knock-downs and flick-ons, and when the ball is in wide positions, gamble on late runs into the box for crosses that may evade Llorente. The latter, at least, it appears will not be an issue for Spurs, who scored both goals on Sunday from well-timed midfield runners latching onto headers inside the box.

It may not be the pretty, fluid football that we’re used to seeing from Pochettino’s side, but it’s needs must – and Tottenham really do have a great need for results. Over the next six weeks, while Spurs will be without Alli and Kane, they have to contend with the vital League Cup clash on Thursday, a fourth-round FA Cup tie against Crystal Palace (and potential a fifth-round game, too) and the Champions League double-header against Borussia Dortmund.

“So much of Pochettino’s success this season, even arguably, of his reign as Tottenham manager, will come down to the next few months.”

Given the hype and attention Pochettino’s lack of trophies whilst at Tottenham has generated, he will surely see these cup games as hugely significant and it is unimaginable that they are eliminated from three competitions in such a short period of time.

As for the league, in the next month and a half Spurs face their London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal, both of whom are aiming to overhaul Tottenham in the Champions League spots.

There is a certain irony that all of Pochettino’s plans have, to an extent, been leading to this moment. Resting and rotating throughout the season, perfecting tactics, highlighting and improving on individual weaknesses in his players – it has all led to this point in the season, these high-pressure games where the margins between success and failure are so minimal.

But without Alli, Son and Kane his tactical approach (in an attacking sense, at least) goes out the window, and so much of Pochettino’s success this season, even arguably, of his reign as Tottenham manager, will come down to the next few months. No pressure Llorente mate.

While Sunday’s performance really was abysmal, Tottenham fans would be remiss to forget the forward’s record in the earlier part of his career, when he was a regular for Juventus, a guaranteed goalscorer at Bilbao and even a World Cup winner with Spain.

Ancient history, some will say, and given that Llorente’s turns 34 next month he is far past his prime. While this is undeniable, it was only two seasons ago that Llorente netted 15 Premier League goals in 33 games for Swansea, a side who played to his strength and got balls in the box for the 6”4 striker.

Perhaps there is still a reliable frontman lurking deep down inside Llorente, and is it really so surprising he was poor on Sunday with such little real competitive football in recent seasons? Before the Fulham game, Llorente had played just 36 minutes of Premier League football all season and his only starts were in the FA and League Cup fixtures against Tranmere Rovers and West Ham respectively. In short, it was no shock that he was so awful at Craven Cottage.

Actually, I take it back. Maybe Llorente did sleep soundly on Sunday. After playing his first 90 minutes in 11 months he could well have slept through to Tuesday.

On Thursday, however, he’ll need to be wide awake, fully attentive and raring to go. Pochettino has no other option that to play him – he’s about to discover whether there’s life in the old striker yet.