Who is Tottenham’s second most important player?

Harry Kane is the single most important player at Tottenham, but who is the second most important player for Jose Mourinho’s squad?

There is no question that Harry Kane is the best and most important player at Tottenham. The ranking of players after the English hitman is much more complicated. It’s quite an interesting though exercise to identify the second most important player to Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff.

Let’s start with a few players who won’t be considered. Giovani Lo Celso hasn’t been a starter at Spurs for a long enough period of time to really impact this debate. The talented Argentine might ascend to the spot behind Kane by season’s end, but he can’t reasonably be placed there yet.

Some Tottenham supporters might push for Hugo Lloris to receive the honour. He is, after all, the club’s longtime captain. Despite that fact, he still isn’t dominant enough from the keeper position to be the club’s second best player. He’s a good player at this stage of his career, but he’s nothing near world-class. That is the standard required for a keeper to be a club’s second best player.

In reality, there are only three players who deserve consideration. Heung-Min Son, Dele Alli and Toby Alderweireld all mean a great deal to the squad on a consistent basis. No member of the trio is a perfect star, but all deserve to be considered above average regulars, at the very least.

Alderweireld is the first player who deserves to be eliminated. He’s a hugely influential figure at the back of the Spurs’ defence, but age is starting to take its toll on the Belgian veteran. He’s not quite quick enough to really operate at a world-class level. He’s still a really good player, but he falls well short of being elite.

That leaves Son and Alli as the last two men standing in the debate. Both men mean a great deal to Mourinho’s squad. On his day, each has the attacking prowess to torment Premier League opponents.

In the end, Son gets the nod because he is the more consistent player of the two. His lack of defensive ability makes him a flawed player, but there’s little question what he’ll provide on the offensive end of the pitch. He’s going to run his socks off and try to get shots off at every opportunity. Whether Kane is on the pitch or not, he gives Tottenham a scoring threat they desperately need.

Interestingly, if Dele played up to his best more often, he’d be the easy choice. Unlike Son, he gives Spurs a significant boost on both ends of the pitch when he’s at his best. The challenge for Dele is raising his average performance. He suffers through too many anonymous matches to be considered Tottenham’s second best player.

Son is a crowd favourite and he also deserves to be called Tottenham’s second best player at the moment. It’s a fluid ranking that may change a lot as the season progresses, but right now, the talented Korean is right behind Kane in the list of important Spurs.