Who are our best defensive midfield pairing?

The weekend Premier League fixture against Sunderland away at the Stadium of Light may see us get an indication of who Pochettino sees as our strongest midfield pairing. It's tough for fans to know considering we haven't seen one of the options available play yet.

Benjamin Stambouli is an unknown factor, just as Etienne Capoue was when we signed him from Ligue 1 last summer. Arsene Wenger has long used French players who have had little problems adapting to the Premier League.

There is a reason why they take less time to adapt then others. Of the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 players, the French are physiologically, the hardest working. They have the highest total distance run and distance in high intensity (sprint + high speed) of the four divisions.

The number of challenges is also relatively high, second to only the English Premier League (EPL). Players also make the most number of touches per ball possession. They are already better equipped physically to make the adjustment and Stambouli looks to be another for whom the transition period may be brief.

James Eastham is a French football scout, analyst and writer who has watched the 24-year-old. He had this to say about Stambouli.

"He’s a pretty big guy, about 6ft, and with a strong build, and is a powerful operator in the middle of the pitch. On the ball you would describe him as good rather than excellent – he has a decent passing range without being outstanding, and can beat a man when necessary - but generally keeps the team ticking over without getting forward too often."

One of the problems Mauricio Pochettino sees at Tottenham is the speed with which the ball is distributed forward. As we fans are well aware our play had become laboured, almost as if we were waiting for teams to put eleven men behind the ball before we would consider an attack. Passing the ball among ourselves was the name of the game, great for individual player passing statistics but nobody actually tried to create anything.

Now we have three creative players and a striker who interchange, it's important they get the ball forward fast to them to have a greater affect on games. The role of the two defensive midfielders is to win the ball and pick out the right ball to set us away on an attack. We need more than winning the ball and playing a 5-yard pass and for that a player has to have vision.

All vision is is constantly looking around to see where everyone is, sounds simple but it's amazing how little players actually do it. Andres Pirlo is so good because he does it constantly, if any footballer wants to improve his game, it's probably the biggest thing he could do, as a study into that very fact within the Premier League revealed.

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Professor Geir Jordet of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences used the Sky Sports' PlayerCam function and examined 55 Premier League midfielders' head movements. He discovered that the more players scanned their surroundings, the statistically more successful they were with their passes.

"The visually most active third of the players completed almost twice as many forward passes as the least active players."

It's not rocket science is it, it's pretty obvious and quite incredible that players aren't trained to do it more, instead of allowing them to act on default. It's just one aspect of football coaching that is way behind the times. The brain in football coaching is the next frontier and Tottenham need to be leading the way to gain an advantage and improve the players we have.

Eastham continues with his assessment of new defensive midfield recruit Stambouli.

"Arguably his strength is his work off the ball and he will suit the high-intensity pressing style with which Spurs head coach Mauricio Pochettino achieved success at Southampton. He plays with great intensity and energy, pressing well and having the stamina to put the opposition under pressure over 90 minutes. A lot of players need time to adapt to the pace and physicality of the Barclays Premier League. Stambouli will need time like everybody else, but he is well equipped already on based on what he has shown in Ligue 1."

If he already has the stamina then he could possibly make his debut at Sunderland. If he did who would he be alongside though, Capoue, Bentaleb, Dembele, Paulinho, or will he come off the bench. We have quite a few options to choose from.

Capoue has been a first choice for pre-season and in Premier League games so far but as Jamie Redknapp points out, operates at a slow pace. Bentaleb is learning his trade and gets caught on the half-way line a couple of times each game, yet is playing balls to wide men and has created a couple of chances with his passing. Dembele is defensively solid but slows the game down and his passing statistics show he passing backwards almost as much as he does forward, with his favourite pass being to Capoue when it should be to one of the four attacking players. Paulinho hasn't been fit yet so very hard to know how he is going to play this season.

We have bought a UEFA Europa League winner and a French Ligue 1 winner to help add the right mentality to the squad. Sambouli burst onto the scene in France the way Bentaleb did for us last season reports Eastman.

"At Montpellier he was a member of the side who caused a massive shock by winning the 2011/12 Ligue 1 title. At the start of that campaign Montpellier were more than outsiders, they were not on anybody’s radar as potential title-winners. Stambouli was a fringe figure during the first half of that season but broke into the team midway through the campaign and went to play an important role in their shock title. That was the season in which he became known to French football fans."

It is very hard to assess a player and You Tube is not the place to be doing so, you only see the good and not the bad, but focussing on the good he appears to be an all action midfielder who has improved his passing range since he broke into the side.

Now that the international break is out the way and all the players are fit, it will be interesting to see which combination Pochettino feels is our best and plays in most of the Premier League games. Sunderland may give us an indication of that. However with players having played international football and undertaken travelling we may have to wait a little longer.