TTLB Opinion: Why Tottenham Hotspur should go all out to sign Eberechi Eze

The English international is not a luxury player; he is more of a system unlocker who is going to bring a sense of unpredictability to the current system complemented by possession control. See, the thing about Eze is that while he loves to go on his adventurous dribbles, he doesn’t just glide past his marking men – he tries to draw them in before he manipulates the spaces at his disposal and then shifts his markers (and opponents’ system) out of shape. And when the North Londoners do face a hybrid mid-low block, the Englishman goes on to create chaos without compromising positionally.

Eze knows (more like has that intellect) to operate fluidly between the No. 8 and No. 10 roles, and given how the Australian head coach moves his midfielders to float, Eze would come as an ideal option.

But it’s not just all flair; he complements his highlight reels with goal-scoring abilities, and you could see that in his goal-scoring record with 12 goals and 11 assists this season.

And these numbers are more system-relevant than they look; the North Londoners at this moment need a player who can take up the creative reins from James Maddison, who has been struggling with inconsistency and injuries. Eze will also bring that tactical possibility to drink into a wide overload trigger (somewhere Postecoglou has unsuccessfully tried using Maddison).

Where does Eze stand against Maddison?

Let’s start with a few obvious ones: the 1v1 dribbling capacity of Eberechi Eze is elite, while that of Maddison is not as impressive, given how the latter tries to slow tempo while carrying the ball, whereas the former is smoother with his capacity with the ball at his feet. The former Leicester City midfielder is mainly a ten who has had past success in a free role, but he has mostly been used as an LCM under Ange at N17. Eze, on the other hand, can take on multiple roles in that second and third phase from LCM to CAM and also as a left winger.

We all know that Maddison is more of a traditional playmaker, while when you compare that with Eze, he is more of a disruptor with the ball (more vertical and less predictable), which makes it difficult to systemically neutralise him. The Tottenham number 10 needs his teammates to make the right runs, and for Eze, he creates the spaces for others to attack.

Author Opinion

Let me set something straight: with Eberechi Eze we are not just talking about improving the starting eleven at Tottenham; it’s more about broadening the North Londoners’ offensive identity. We have seen enough this season to know that Ange Postecoglou’s system stalls in some games, and at the moment Tottenham revert to crossing patterns and long-range efforts. But Eze changes that. He has the capacity to tilt the pitch with every carry and gives the Lilywhites a left-sided creative presence to balance the overload-heavy right. He not only brings a goal threat but also has that chaos resistance and rotational freedom across the 8-10 zone.

Now if Daniel Levy wants this current side to compete with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City (both of the clubs have 2–3 ball-dominant creators per system), Eze is the bridge.