With the summer transfer window coming around the corner, Daniel Levy has already started compounding of possible targets that would bring some quality and depth into the current roster, and one of the players that the North Londoners have been looking at is Manchester United academy graduate Angel Gomes.
There is a need at Tottenham to bring in a creative outlet given how the Lilywhites have struggled creatively in the ongoing campaign, where we saw Ange Postecoglou’s side not getting on top of mid-low blocks, and this also saw the Australian trying to find solutions with makeshift players like Dejan Kulusevski down the middle. You complement this with the consistency and injury struggles that James Maddison has had, and suddenly the need for a new creative midfielder comes up.
Now what are the things that Angel Gomes does bring to Hotspur Way?
Tottenham Hotspur lead the race to secure Angel Gomes next summer.
Tottenham Hotspur lead the race to secure Angel Gomes next summer.
Now Angel Gomes is not just a flair player (as many would expect); he is more of a tactical playmaker that has a big engine, and we have seen the Manchester United youth product going through a complete transformation at Lille, where we saw him go from a floating No. 10 into a press-resistant maestro who has the capacity to carry the ball through traffic, link play in the tight zones, and control the tempo against compact opponents.
At the moment what the Lilywhites need is someone that has the capacity to operate in that left half-space (where Maddison is playing these days) with the ability to turn under pressure, feed the channel runners and rotate with the No. 6 without losing balance, and Gomes does offer that. He is reliable in possession and has that cleverness about him when he rotates zones, and he does not shy away from the physical side of the game.
His awareness is a huge advantage when teams sit off in a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 low block, and this is where Tottenham have consistently struggled all season.
How is he different from James Maddison?
Maddison has had injury problems at Tottenham.
When we sit down and compare both the players, the most obvious difference is in how they move and how they look at that left #8 role. If I am comparing, we know that Maddison is a final-third specialist; he is someone who loves to receive the ball high with his angles towards the goal and with runners ahead of him. The former Foxes maestro’s game is built around playing those vertical passes and disguised balls into the box and then has that ability to come into shooting zones very late.
Then Gomes, on the other hand, is more of a controller, given he plays from deeper pockets and helps build a sense of rhythm going into the final third and operates more as a tempo-setter than a killer passer. If I am talking tactically, then Gomes can work in a double pivot or as a left No.8, while Maddison (if you are to get the best out of him) almost always wants a freer, more advanced role. This means Gomes could complement Spurs’ emerging midfield core (the likes of Bergvall and Gray) but not necessarily replace Maddison outright, but his presence gives the Lilywhites a structurally safer, fitter, and more flexible alternative if Maddison’s injury issues are to continue.
So in a way, Maddison is your chaos in the final third, while Gomes brings clarity in the middle third.
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Author Opinion
If you were to ask me, Tottenham do not need to find the “next Maddison”, but they rather need to make a midfield that doesn’t collapse every time that Maddison is unavailable, and Angel Gomes fits this need perfectly – he is young, tactically intelligent, and versatile enough to take on multiple responsibilities when needed, but we need to remember that he won’t deliver 15 assists a season, but what he will do is unlock the system so that others can, and in a roster still searching for fluency, he could be an absolute find.