Introduction
Tottenham, one of the finest clubs in England. Throughout history, even recent they always sat on the upper half of the table, with stable finances that have allowed them to make quality signings every year to strengthen the core of their team. Your challenge with this team, is to reach one of the top 4 spots in England, and detain a Champions League spot for next years edition, because you see if you do manage to miss out on Champions League and the financial income it provides, more than 2 years in a row, you'll find yourself in quite a huge debt bill to pay, and may even have to face Administration, depending on how much it is you actually have spent over the course of the years, therefore it's crucial you think about which areas of the team should be reinforced and if the depth allows you to compete sufficiently at all levels, and this is exactly what this guide will help you to do!Finances & Budget
Spurs are quite rich and stable, you have three choices of starting budgets; EURO Cup Qualifiers will give you 25m Euros and 1.98m p/w, Champions Cup Qualifiers 31m and 2.16m p/w, and finally the very dangerous Title Challengers budget 34m and 2.21m p/w. So as you can see the wage budget is quite high, you can shift that into transfer budget and enrich into a respectful amount that allows you to make very important signings from top teams, or first choice bids on any wonderkid you may be looking to sign as there are many commodities of such around for low amounts of money.Strongest Tactics
So you might probably be wondering what tactics fits best this group of players at this point, so we're going to analyze a few tactics more in-depth to see what does and doesn't work with the starting senior squad players at hand.4-2-3-1 Wide
Well, everyone seems to be running this tactic in the modern day, mainly because it is so versatile and it allows you to approach the game in the best possible manner with 6 players always behind the line of the ball, and 4 occupying attacking spaces centrally and laterally. Your key players in this case scenario would be Lamela on the right wind playing as an Inside Forward, Soldado/Adebayor up top Poaching or Target Man as lone Striker, Paulinho as the Ball Winning Midfielder, and Vertonghen as a covering Center Back, as you're going to want to cover up any mistakes your other defenders make, it is not recommended you play a high line holding the offside trap, as it is proven that you will leave a lot of space in your 3/4ths that will result on counter attack goal opportunities for the opposing team.4-4-Bloody-2
Here we go again, 4-4-2 the classic with the best of both worlds. Depending on how you use this you could be considered an ultra offensive team, or an ultra defensive team parking the bus. The pros of this tactic is that you're allowed to play 2 strikers simoltaniously, like Soldado and Adebayor, but the cons would be that your midfield is composed of only 2 players and may get overrun easily against teams who play with 3-4, therefore would not get keep much of the ball throughout the match.4-3-3
4-3-3 is a balanced formation that allows you to use your pacey wingers, and keep a solid midfield – this can be a Possession based tactic, if you decide to set such as your playing philosophy, and give you a Barca style of play, just like Pep Guardiola had. I recommend to use Complete Wing Backs to overlap the Wingers and either cut in and shoot or cross in, CWBs have been very effective for years now, and can net you quite a few “unexpected” game-winning goals.First 11 Positional Analysis
Goalkeepers:Michael Vorm, Brian Friedel, and Hugo Lloris, you're pretty much set in this repartment, Vorm is a Holland International, and he is only Lloris backup – who is in my regards one of, if not the best Goalkeeper in the game, because even if others may be better on One on Ones, he'll be secure to never let the ball loose infront of the goal, with his 17 Handling and high tendency to Punch away. But if you decide to make extra money from Vorm, there's always 43 year old experienced Friedel, although I won't sponsor this backup option...
Right Backs:
Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker are your main options, but you can adapt other players like EricDier or Capoue, in this case I do recommend to make a signing in this repartment, though it's up to you if you want to keep giving Walker more playing time to grow, or if you want to completely relegate him to the bench and sign someone that receives over 100k p/w and demands to play first team every game.
Central Defenders:
Vertonghen, Dier, Kaboul, Fazio, Chiriches, Kumalo, with 2nd options like Stambouli and Capoue – you're pretty much set with this defensive line up, I usually only keep 4-5 Center Backs, so if you want to sell someone to make extra cash you could think about selling Kumalo or Chiriches, as they tend to make individual mistakes more often than others.
Left Backs:
Ben Davies, Assou Ekotto, and Danny Rose – with other options like Vertonghen or even Naughton, as he can play both sides without any problems. Now, it's up to you if to keep Ekotto and Rose, but if you do decide to sell em' you could easily replace them with better wonderkids on the market from South America (Work Permit permitting), either way this is another section of the team that is well set-up to start with.
Right Midfielders:
Townsend, Lennon, Chadli, Lamela, or even Naughton, if you decide to play a more defensive set up with Right Midfielders that do both attacking and defending you have a good set up, as even some of the fullbacks are able to play further up naturally, giving you the depth you need for this role.
Central Midfielders:
Ryan Mason, Mousa Dembelè. Christian Eriksen, Chadli, Paulinho, Bentaleb, Capoue, Stambouli etc. You really have alot of options if you decide to bring up Mason and Stambouli from reserves. They are mostly playmakers though, so you might want to look for ball-winners like Wanyama, with high strenght and aggression to provide you some muscle in the middle of the pitch.
Left Midfielders:
Dembelè, Townsend, Chadli, Lamela, Danny Rose, Assou Ekotto, are some of the main mentions for this role – many of those that are able to play on the right are reversable to the left, but this can cause problems for their conditions if they don't get any rest, therefore I would recommend making an extra signing that can play both sides like Nagatomo etc.
Attacking Midfielders:
Mason, Dembelè, Eriksen, Townsend, Lennon, Lamela, Chadli, etc. This position isn't as covered as one may think, especially if you're playing 4231 and you need 2 Cms, 1 AMC and 2 Wingers, therefore you'd have to rotate and put player condition to risk – what you can do is sign more central midfielders to relieve a bit of the team, or bring up a few reserves like Mason, Stambouli etc and have them play DM – for someone playing 4141 or 4411 you have the right amount of players really.
Strikers:
Kane, Soldado, and Adebayor. Now, this is where it gets a bit tricky, 3 won't do at all, as only 2 are senior team quality, Harry is still unproven, and probably won't be fielded against the likes of Chelsea and Man City – therefore you'll need 2 more, I'd recommend signing Huntelaar and Wickham, as they don't cost much and provide exactly the depth you need – That is, if you need them for your formation, 3 Strikers are fine for a 4231, unless you're having disastrous injuries, then you might have to play Lamela there...
We've analyzed every role, and a few tactics already – but I think that overall the 4231 as said before fits this team best, for your starting line up you're going to want to use the big names, Lamela, Paulinho, Soldado, Vertonghen, Lloris, etc. Make sure you always look in your reserves to see how your youths are growing and if they can be given a first team position against Cups etc, mainly Dominic Ball, really great prospect that grows quite well into a multi-capped English International if given the chance to.
Weaknesses
The teams main weakness would be the lack of pure Strikers, injuries can really eat through your team as well so you should look to sign at least a backup for the Strikers, Center Midfield (Both AMC and MC), and maybe a Right Back.Conclusion
Spurs can be a very fun save, especially with the right signings – you can quickly dominate every competition you play in right in the first Season, or you can tumble down and get the sack before you even get an actual taste of the job. The players are very flair-y, and can provide a lot of great Goals for you to enjoy, I've had Eriksen strike a Free Kick from over 35 yards!It would be great if in the comments below you could summarize your own experience with the team, and if the guide was helpful, let us know!