Tottenham have not started the season badly at all. They find themselves in fourth place after ten games. This is, of course, that elusive Champions League spot that they have been chasing for years and only making once.
However things are not all good at White Hart Lane, Andre Villas Boas’ men may have lost Gareth Bale to Real Madrid but they splashed out mega money on a plethora of attacking talent including Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Christian Eriksen and Paulinho to add to the likes of Jermain Defoe, Andros Townsend and Aaron Lennon.
Despite this they have scored just nine goals in the Premier League, not even averaging a goal every game with only six teams scoring less goals, including those toiling in the bottom three.
The goals are not forthcoming so the internal enquiry begins; maybe it is the tactics being deployed, and maybe it is the personnel.
One man who could solve that problem, and is likely to be available this January is AC Milan forward Stephan El Shaarawy.
The Italy forward has only played twice this season due to a combination of injury and falling out of favour at the club, and with the 2014 World Cup looming on the horizon, he will want games.
With only two played this season it is hard to judge him on 2013/14 however in 2012/13 he was fantastic. He scored 16 goals in 37 games, with the overwhelming majority of those coming in the first half of the season, before Balotelli arrived from Manchester City, making him the third highest scorer in Serie A last season. While Soldado scored more at Valencia this was also more than any player at Spurs last term, bar Bale.
In addition 66% of his shots hit the target, extremely economical, and better than Soldado this season who manages 59% on target.
The 56 chances he created also led to four assists, and his pass completion his as high as 84% while 79% of the 43 tackles contested were won, so he obviously has the ability to be more than just a goal scorer.
El Shaarawy is certainly a talent, and would definitely add quality to the Spurs squad, however if it is not the players at hand, but more the tactics being deployed by Villas-Boas then it will not matter who they sign, the goals will still be in short supply.
One accusation being aimed at Spurs is that they are trying to cram all this amazing talent into the same team and it is not clicking, another is that Villas Boas is not letting these creative stars create and restraining them somewhat.
If it is the case, and the low goal count is purely tactical, then there is little point adding yet another a £20 million superstar into the current mix.
However if it is the players that are underperforming in the Tottenham attack then the Italy international could be the one to fire the club into the Champions League.
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