Tottenham suffered their first defeat of the season on Sunday, having lost 1-0 at the hands of Newcastle United.
For the most part, the offensive play demonstrated by Spurs was stale, lacking imagination, and interestingly, it seemed to follow a very similar theme to their opening Premier League fixture against Aston Villa.
In both matches, Spurs played at home, conceded the first goal to a weaker team, and crucially, Christian Eriksen started on the bench.
The only difference between the two contests was that in the first, Spurs were able to fight back and eventually secure a late win, which Newcastle didn't succumb to this time around.
There have been various problems with the way in which Mauricio Pochettino 's team have played, but the most notable issue has been the lack of creativity in the two games until Eriksen has been allowed to enter the fray around the hour mark.
Expected Goals (xG) can be used to exhibit Eriksen's valuable influence.
xG offers an insight into the likelihood of a shot being scored by considering aspects such as difficulty and location, and it tends to provide an accurate summary of whether a team deserved fewer or more goals based on their chances.
xG can be captured on a timeline to showcase when a team's shots were taken to display periods of dominance, with the match versus Villa pictured below.
Eriksen was introduced on the 64th minute for Harry Winks , and evidently, based on the shots taken by Spurs, he impacted the offensive output of his team drastically. Spurs were hovering around 0.97 xG when he was brought on, and they ended the match with an xG of 2.57.
Then, against Newcastle, the general story appeared similar. The Dane was subbed on after 62 minutes for Kyle Walker-Peters , and evidently, the threat held by Spurs increased up until the final whistle, despite an equaliser failing to materialise this time.
The 27 year-old's passing network from the Newcastle fixture is pictured below, with him clearly responsible for probing and crafting out opportunities in the final third for his team. Eriksen has essentially been used as a quarterback of sorts when becoming involved after the hour mark, as a means of finding a breakthrough, but there may be too much reliance on his shoulders.
In his 30 minutes on the field versus Newcastle, Eriksen made 45 passes. That was ten more than Erik Lamela who started, and remarkably, it was also the exact same amount that Lucas Moura and Harry Kane posted combined, despite the pair playing the entire match.
Ultimately, when facing stubborn, well-drilled defensive teams, Pochettino appears overly reliant on his playmaker to fashion chances and dictate the team's offensive play, to the extent that when he's not playing, Spurs seem completely out of ideas.
Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso will go a long way to assisting with such ball progression long-term, but right now, the former is injured, and the latter is still learning the ropes behind the scenes.
Until the pair are fully available and embedded, it looks as though Pochettino may simply have to accept his dependence on Eriksen and play him from the first minute.
There is speculation surrounding a move, but even so, waiting until an hour has passed before introducing his inventive skills doesn't seem to be helping anybody.
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