Xavi Simons to Spurs: Game-Changer Nobody’s Talking About | The Overlap Breakdown

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Overlap Breakdown channel. Now today I'm joined by a very, very special guest in the Overlap Breakdown's own Neil Harris, who has featured on the channel before and we're here to cover one of the most exciting sort of transfers in this window, which is Xavi Simmonds to Tottenham Hotspur. So we're joined by a very special guest today, which is Neil Harris, who we've had on the Breakdown channel before for a podcast, but for those who don't know sort of what you've done in the game, can you please just explain to the audience who you are and what you've done for the last couple of decades. Couple of decades. Keep it down. First of all, thank you for having me. Yeah, so as I mentioned last time I was on the podcast, I was at Manchester United for 21 years as a youth coach there. Worked throughout all the ages and very fortunate to work with some special players. Left Manchester United last year and now been all around the world. Bit of jet lag kick today, come back from San Francisco last week. So yeah, I've been to America a few times, Asia, Europe. So just getting out there, delivering coach education now out to parents, to coaches, to players and things. I'm really enjoying, you know, sort of spreading the word really. And then I also am a scout in the professional development phase as well for a championship club now. And yeah, still coaching, still out in the grass for as long as these legs will take me. But yeah, no, it's been really, really good. And like I say, having the opportunity to do these things has been really good. Yeah, no, it's brilliant to have you back on the channel. We've been craving sort of an Umair replacement since he's been gone. But you know, there's not better people to do it with than someone who's so high up in the game as yourself and sort of the experience you've had. And I think Spurs fans, you're in for a treat because we just went through our notes sort of before and we've worked on this over the weekend, through the weekend. We've got a lot to talk about with Xavi Simmonds and he's probably one of the most, I want to say he's like, not gone under the radar, but I think 65 million euros is what they paid for him. He ranks there or thereabouts with one of Spurs' most expensive signings in their history. And I think that calls for sort of a serious sort of analysis on him as a player. So just right off the top, I want to mention before I throw it on to you, obviously you were a youth team coach and scout and stuff like that. But Xavi Simmonds is one of them players who obviously from a young age, he was known for being the superstar at 12, 13. I think he was one of the youngest players to sign a Nike Pro deal at such a young age. He had the spotlight. He was sort of the first person who come through in the social media world. I remember even when I was like 16, 17, seeing videos of him at such a young age for Barca, for PSG. And he kind of went back to his roots a bit, went to PSV, smashed it there, got a good development move to RB Leipzig. And now it looks like he's making the big jump into Tottenham Hotspur in a massive season for the club. New manager, Champions League, got the trophy under their belt. But I want to ask you just general overview, what have you made of sort of the research you've done on Xavi Simmonds? Yeah, so as you mentioned there, he's a player that we've sort of known about for quite a few years. And you forget he's only 22 really, given that he's obviously played in sort of three, four different clubs and obviously leagues really. I think it's a really exciting signing for Spurs. I think Spurs fans should be really excited by it. I think it's a player that they need. Obviously, I think Gibbs White was the first choice. I think maybe he lends himself a bit more physicality than Simmonds. But I think it's a really exciting signing for him. He's obviously got a really low centre of gravity. I think he's five foot eight, just above that. He's a ball carrier, which I like. I'm sure we'll come on to it in terms of his position shortly, but he can go both ways. He likes to create, he likes to link, he scores some goals, he likes to get a shot off. I don't think he'd come without his frustration for Spurs fans at times. I think they'll be excited by him at times, but I also think there'll be a little bit of frustration because I think he does try a lot of stuff, which as an ex-youth coach, I could liken him to somebody in the academy talent where we want to let the shackles go off. So I think that's the real thing for Thomas Frank and the other Tottenham players in the squad, is how do they allow him to be that sort of maverick at play without really forcing him into a position? So, yeah, I'm excited to discuss how we can see him coming into the squad. And I'd say a little bit like Bruno Fernandes in a bit, that obviously Bruno Fernandes has done it for a long time in the Premier League, but I think if you watch a lot of games of Bruno Fernandes, there's a lot of stuff that he tries at times that doesn't necessarily come off, but then when it does, it's of a really high level. And I sort of liken him a little bit to that in terms of, I think there'll be a lot of opportunities for him to try and do things. Not all of it will come off, but when it will come off and when it does come off from in the past, I think there's going to be some really high-level stuff to see there. Yeah, so I think we're going to move on straight away into talking about sort of what we've seen from Tottenham in their first three Premier League games under Thomas Frank, including the Super Cup as well. And we've seen sort of, we were talking before about a mix of sort of the 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1. They changed the personnel quite a lot. So I think against Burnley, they went with Graeme Bergvall in the sort of the two, with one ahead. Against City, they sort of bulked out the midfield with Benson Corp, Poligno, Sarr and so on. But in terms of Thomas Frank and what he's done so far, using the blue counters before Spurs fans get all mad at me for using the red counters... I like it. Using the blue counters, can you kind of illustrate where you think he would probably play his best football under Thomas Frank at Spurs? Definitely. So at the moment, this has been the set-up, as you mentioned there, obviously there's been a couple of different players, Graeme Bergvall. The last two games, obviously very exciting against City, and then obviously Bournemouth was a little bit of a disappointment. Bournemouth were outstanding on the day, for anybody that watched the game, by the way. But yeah, it was a Sarr, Poligno and Benson Corp set-up, so not the most adventurous in there, but obviously Sarr's looking to get forward here. Brennan Johnson off the left, who obviously scored the goal against City. Richarlison's been up front, so if we move him into sort of more attacking positions in here, and obviously Kudos, who I think is an outstanding signing for them in here. And then obviously, as they've been going up the pitch, they've had Jed Spence, who obviously, congratulations to him. Yeah, very good call, well deserved. And I think for people who, you look at his journey and what he's had to been through, loans and stuff, and I think Kane obviously said it in his speech after the game, about, I know you've been through a lot and things, so congratulations to him here. I think it depends. It depends if Thomas Frank is feeling a little bit more adventurous. Does he think about going to a 2 and Simmonds in the 10? Still keeping, obviously, Brennan Johnson, obviously you've got Tell as well in there, and Kudos. Personally, for me, I think the 10 position is very, very difficult with Premier League, possibly for somebody of his stature as well. We've had a look at his sort of 1v1 battles, in possession, out of possession, and obviously from a physicality perspective, he isn't the greatest. I think if he can unlock these areas, fantastic. What I personally think may happen, I think either they stick with the three players that we just spoke about there, I think he may replace Johnson initially in here. I think what the idea might be that is to keep him out wide, obviously a little bit less physicality. Granted, they might be coming up against some physical full-backs, potentially, but I think offensively, if he can then look to start getting in these positions in here, sort of organically as the game's progressing, if Spence, or obviously with Doggie when they play, if they can start creating that sort of vertical winger mark, it allows him to come into these areas, and I think we'll come on to some stats in a minute, but when you look at him, I think that's where he'll do his best work. I think he'll look to connect with Richarlison or with Solanke. For me, the dream as an attacking coach would be that, wow, if we can get Kudos in here alongside him and a triangle behind it, and obviously Poro or potentially Sar sort of fill in those gaps. If you look at Brentford, if Frank's Brentford at times, they would play with the front five, they would get bodies forward, obviously talk about Mbuemo, obviously Tony when he was there, Visser, et cetera, so he does like getting players forward, so I think Tottenham fans, if you could get a Xavi Simmonds, a Kudos here behind a Solanke or a Richarlison, with players in here, I think that would be really, really exciting for them. You've got to make sure that Paulina, Pentecourt or Sar, whoever's in there, will obviously have a lot to do, and then potentially, if they are going to go really, really expansive with Poro getting up there, I'm not too sure, maybe they'll swing round, I'm not too sure, but that for me, I think him moving in there organically to receive the ball in these areas would really unlock, obviously, as we know, drifting off that left-hand side, you see Gakpo do it really, really well for Liverpool at times. Yeah, great example. It's really, really tough then, does the full-back follow him, do the centre-halves come out to press, is somebody going to go with the runner? I think that potentially, because of his physicality, when we look at some of the stats in a minute, of his areas where he likes to connect and play and get shots off and stuff, I think that, for me, would be a real dream spot for him. Yeah, I'm going to move on into exactly what Neil just said there. So we've got Xavi Simons' open play touch map from the last season in the Bundesliga, so 24-25 season, and we can see that his most touch-heavy zones are 12%, 10%, and then we've got 9% and 8% in this left channel, but then also a little bit narrower. And to add on to that, we've actually got his chance creating carries map, which are obviously decisions or passes or shots he's taken on the carry, dribbling with the ball and then executing that final ball or taking a shot off the cuff. And a lot of the arrows are sort of making these diagonal avenues from outside to inside, so it's the same thing as sort of, can we move him there organically, as Neil was saying, brilliant terms in terms of getting him in there, but then one thing you actually spoke about really nicely to me off-camera was that you like how much radius he's got in terms of he can do sort of all the angles, and I think when you put someone in the pocket, especially if you watch the sort of players that Manchester City have had, they need sort of that always on the swivel both angles, and he's probably one of the better players I've seen of doing that. 100%, so I love players who can go both ways, you know, in the previous podcast I spoke about Ravel Morrison and things like that, people who can drop their shoulders and go both ways, and I think that for me is a critical point here, is that yes, if he's coming in receiving either diagonals or receiving it in there, he can turn, he can swivel to go both ways. If we look at his heat maps and things from Leipzig, he doesn't tend to go out that way with the dribble, so he does always want to come inside Bundesliga high, high level, but I think in the Premier League that will get shut down a little bit, so he might have to have a plan B and he might have to go on the outside potentially there, and I think something we looked at and we discussed was that a lot of the runs, because of the split striker that Leipzig had, there was the ability for one of the strikers to make these runs in here, and a lot of his passing was going in there, but that still left a Cesco or somebody else in there to receive. If Spurs are going to make the one, I'm not too sure Solanke is going to make those runs, I think Solanke likes to come and show, but Charlottesville potentially maybe. But it's here, isn't it? But it's here, who's going to be occupying here? Now, Kudos obviously could potentially be coming in here, we could have people breaking the box from there, obviously Bergwald, if he does come into the team, Bergwald does like breaking forward from deep, etc, but I'd just be a little bit worried that his main success or his main passes are those, whereas I think he's going to potentially have to be trying to play through here, or potentially if Richarlison Solanke can draw those in, can Kudos be coming in there and be slid to finishing there from there? But it's exciting, I think it's exciting for him. I've got that exact, so Neil was referencing this line-breaking passes graphic we've got from Xavi Simmonds, and we can see sort of that same thing from his open play touches, etc, which is all of these sort of slipped balls into sort of the side of the box, and as we were mentioning, they played with two strikers at Leipzig, and obviously naturally as two strikers, you have one drops, one runs, one spins, one moves inside, and I think you might lack that little bit of box occupation maybe, at a team like Spurs, you play with one focal point. One thing I will say is I watched the Bournemouth game, and Bournemouth had a really, really nice pressing trap against Spurs, so we can imagine if the red team is Bournemouth, what they were actually doing is they were trying to lock off somewhat Tottenham's right-hand side, and they were almost forcing them to play through with Jed Spence, Brennan Johnson, van de Ven. Now obviously Jed Spence is a right-footed left-back, and that is a golden ticket sometimes in terms of accessing that midfield area, and using sort of your instep, but Brennan Johnson's not as comfortable in them situations that we're talking about, aggressive fullbacks against you, on your back, making these decisions with only half the pitch really to play with, and yeah, so we can see Spurs attacking third so far this season, albeit it's only been three games, they have had 58% of their attacks come down the right-hand third, basically, and Xavi Simmonds will be looking to aid that inability to play, not just through the left-hand side, but also the middle channel, and as we're saying there, if we take the Bournemouth game, for example, where they are locking, if he comes inside, this is a much more favourable pass for Jed Spence than it is to wrap it into the feet of someone who's on his back, so I think we'll mention his ability on the transition in a minute, but how crucial is it that Spurs' balance in terms of the team, we have Koudous who's more inside, but then Xavi Simmonds now can provide the inside, Spence is comfortable doing this, how important is that to Spurs? Huge, and I think if you look at the most successful teams obviously over the last few years in terms of Liverpool and City, even when obviously Liverpool ran them close, was the ability to switch play a lot of the time, and I think what you're alluding to there is that Spurs maybe were a little bit, these aren't the most creative of players in here, Koudous certainly is, so I presume that was the reason why they're trying to stop Koudous getting on the ball or force him in there, and like you say, I think they were quite happy with the ball being travelled over to them, I think what that allows it to do now is that you've got two real danger men, two real ball carriers, two people who can occupy really good spaces, I worry a little bit about the creativity, so have they got the ability to switch and to recognise that, but you spot on a right-footed left-back coming in there, also what you could have here potentially is Richarlison or Solanke, who I think both are very good with the back-to-goal, particularly Solanke, if they can open up this passing lane here into Solanke, it allows Xavi Simmonds to be now moving and travelling without the ball, that's setting off there for him to either finish, to put somebody in here, and I think if you look at, I've watched a few of his goals, he has a very good open-foot finish, he curls the ball into there, he can go across the keeper as well, so I think if you can open that passing lane for Jedspens to play those balls in there, I think that really opens a few avenues and lanes for then Simmonds to come and link and play off there, and then you get that creativity with Kudos moving in there, potentially Bergwald, Sarr, etc, from there, and we talk about the squad now, they've got obviously Tell to come back, well he's fit, but obviously maybe not first choice at the moment, and Kulicheski, I think we looked before, I think he's out until maybe January, but for me Kulicheski is a wonderful player, I think that, the phase two of Thomas Frank is, where does Kulicheski fit in now in that, because obviously he occupies this area in here, does he then potentially go a little bit higher up, which I think we spoke about would be really exciting, does Kudos do that, how does that free up Kulicheski to potentially play there, so I think again it's really, really exciting for Tottenham in there, but I think also, if he could go with the two in there as we spoke, and get him in there, and be able to link, I think that would really, really help, in terms of the distances with Richarlison and Solanke and things, I'm a big believer, you've got to have your 10s and your wide players with the shoulders facing towards the goal, so if he can be in here and he's facing goal, he can then slide people in here and stuff, and obviously Poro loves to get forward, he's got a great delivery on his crosses and things like that, I'm pretty sure if I were Thomas Frank, and I'm pretty sure Thomas Frank who loves crosses, he's already getting very excited about sliding crosses into Poro, to get the crosses in, for obviously Solanke and Richarlison who are both good in the air, to get in there, so I think offensively, I think it really opens up a few exciting avenues for Tottenham. As you just said there, offensively it's a really exciting sign, and one thing I think he does for Tottenham is, we mention X Factor a lot on here, and we're talking about them off the cuff players, you likened him to Bruno Fernandes. Coutinho a little bit. Yeah, sort of inside off the left, yeah, that's really good, sort of ball striking in this space as well, across the face, I think as we were mentioning before, if he were to play left wing, which is where we can move him inside more organically, you made a really good point to me before, sort of if Spurs are defending low, and we've seen Spurs already under Thomas Frank defend low, if we are against a forward five, and that full back, his full back, you use the examples of your Ben Whites, your Kyle Walkers, players like that. Bradley. Yeah, Bradley, very sort of punchy, physical, sharp players. If he gets dragged here, this is not somewhere where we'd want him to be, we'd rather him be sort of floating and in the press. So I think, yeah, do you want to just sort of explain the defensive situation? If you watch him for Leipzig, and I watched him for Holland, he is a very aggressive player, so we talk about him maverick-esque, but actually without the ball, I think at times maybe, not his attitude has been questioned, but sometimes his desire at times, but I think recently, I think his players do, they mature. If you actually watch it, he does like to press, he does like to be aggressive, I think it's just when it comes to that physicality. So I think, on the interception potentially, that's his key from there, but I think he would have to be backed up high. So again, in a low block, he might have to just sort of do one and a half jobs, do two jobs potentially, because I think if he went tight, and they get out from there, I think that's potentially, like you say, he's in a little bit of problem, because he's obviously running towards his goal, 65 million pound attacking player. You don't want him that deep. We want him in here, but that's maybe where the Bentecourt, Paulina and Sarr sort of thing helps there, then that Bentecourt can also cover over there, obviously Jed Spence is, you know, he's very athletic and things like that, so that might be an idea, you know, when you look at Salah at Liverpool, his conversation with Slott, you know, at the start of last season is, you're not coming back, you're up there, don't even worry about it there, we're going to have athletes and Gravenberch and McAllister, so Bosley can do that, so maybe Frank's thinking of a real, more industrial midfield, because he wants to keep his creative players free, you know, so like I say, it's just really, really interesting, but I don't think there's an issue in terms of his desire to press, he's not a luxury player in that regard, he definitely does work hard and things, just back on the offensively thing, I watched the Leipzig v Bayern Munich game recently, I was going to add, this is what I was literally just going to move on, the first game of the season, 6-0 down, and I watched it to the end, and his desire, even at 5-0, 6-0, was outstanding without the ball, but with the ball as well, offensively, he was actually, if we're saying that this is him, he was actually coming and getting the ball off the goalkeeper, so they were going high, he was coming and splitting it here, so the potential for him to play in the centre midfield, if they can get maybe the industrial players around him, and obviously Paulinho is a very, very good defensive player, not too sure about his ball playing and things, so you might need him to come and get on the ball a little bit deeper as well, potentially, when they've not got it, but then interestingly, in the recent Holland-Poland game, the 1-1 game, he was playing on the right-hand side of a midfield three in here, and at times I quite liked him as well, because he was naturally running at people, yeah, we see a lot of times, obviously these inverted wingers now and things, and I do believe there will be a cycle, eventually, where he'll go traditional there, I do think now that the defending aspects of teams and the tactical aspects of the team and individual tactics of full-backs and maybe sixes or where centre-backs are leading them to and things like that is obviously difficult now, so potentially there's an option also for him to be on a more natural side of his right-hand side, potentially to be sliding or sort of linking with player there, so again, going back to it, I think Tottenham have signed a really versatile player, I think the Gibbs white one would have given him a bit of physicality, would have given him obviously Premier League proven, would have given him some other different things, but I think Xavi Simmonds gives him that real versatility for him to play in certain games or certain positions. Yeah, I just wanted to, just one thing we wanted to mention was obviously we spoke about him sort of Spurs on the ball on the halfway line and I was just thinking then, we were mentioning sort of if a team goes sort of full-court press against Spurs and they're building 4-2, so they've gone man to man, they've got one in the hole, they've got the wingers high and wide, centre-forward end, they've got all these players jumping up, one thing I was just a bit curious about was actually we mentioned this just before we come on, Spurs are playing a lot more direct now, if we watch the second, oh sorry, the first goal against Manchester City, they had this sort of build-up mechanism where it was going to the right and then Sar was coming over, winning these knockdowns and then they were attacking fast, Johnson was coming in here, one thing we actually mentioned was if we're still going long, if Sar is going to be the one who's maybe sacrificed in a central area and he does actually play in the heart of things, which again we're not convinced he should be, do you like him sort of, if we're going from end to end, if the keeper plays long into a Solanke or a Charlottesville, we want to talk about his carrying and you mentioned he's a very sort of punchy carrier, some of the decision-making issues which I want you to speak about, but these knockdowns and then driving, can you please explain to me sort of Xavi Simmonds on the transition, the pros and cons? Yeah and if you obviously think about Frank's team with a Watkins or a Tony in the past as well, they would get it forward and then midfield would back up from there, like I say he's a ball carrier, when I watch his ball carrying, I think he's first, when he gets the ball, he's got that low centre of gravity, he's very, very good at getting out of tight situations, I think sometimes what maybe lets him down is the next phase of it there, so when somebody's engaging him again, I think that's where that, and I do like that, that maverick sort of youth player in him, he wants to take the next player on, potentially somebody's made a run and maybe the decision needs to be played a little bit quicker from there, but I do think that him bringing the ball up the pitch and if he can start combining, connecting with players in and around him, a little triangles and diamonds, I think him being a central area, carrying the ball is massive, Liverpool have spent a lot of money bringing in Wurtz who, a similar player, I think Wurtz is just maybe a little bit obviously ahead of him at the moment, but even look at Wurtz, the first three games, it's not been criticism, but they're like, oh he's finding trouble in that, he's finding his way out and things like that, so because the Premier League now is so congested in there, but again if you, I go back to the Modric's and the Dembele's and the Coutinho's and stuff, when they had their success, it was driving the ball from deep Foden, driving the ball from in Banano Silva and things like that, if you can receive the ball in deeper line positions like you said on the transition and carry the ball up the pitch, it's huge, you look at Son for the last six, seven years, what he's done in terms of bringing up the pitch, Salah, Mane, you know all these players, obviously what United are trying to do now with Kunya and Weno, be having players who are comfortable on the ball, dribbling, carrying the ball up the pitch, so it doesn't have to be passing all the time. Sometimes we can. 100% we can go over, get the transition, pick the ball up, facing goal, and now we're driving at it there, so you know I think again, it'll be really, really interesting to see how we can get on the ball in those areas, but like you said, there's nothing to say that if it's a deep line ball into there, he again, transitions to receive that ball off him, so probably not standing here already, because again, it's a lot of traffic, but if he's on the move there, it's a trigger, as that ball's moving, it's there, you know again, we know when teams have got good possession, that should equal forward runs, you know that's a rule of thumb for any coaches, but you know, for any young coaches listening to this now, if your team has good possession, that allows your other players to make forward runs, so if he's got good possession, hopefully there, the ball goes into Slanky or Charleston, and he's receiving these balls in here now, and again, you know, if Kudos is reading the same, they can really break with pace and attack, and I can say, you add telling to that and things, there's some real, real quality on the transition and things, it's just whether there's enough creativity from the middle of the park to get them onto the ball. No, brilliant, absolutely pleasure to have you on there, that was quality, so yeah, thank you very much for watching this episode of the Overlap Breakdown, if you did enjoy, please don't forget to like, comment and follow the channel, and we'll be back next week with some more analysis, thank you.