86% pass success and 4 tackles: Can Lewis Holtby make himself a Tottenham Hotspur regular?

Can Lewis Holtby find his way into the XI?

Lewis Holtby has struggled to nail down a starting spot in Tottenham’s first team due to the talent ahead of him. Despite this, the German midfielder has fought his way back into Andre Villas-Boas’s plans and has featured a lot since missing the first two games of the season.

He played an hour against Hull City in Spurs’ 1-0 win over Steve Bruce’s side at White Hart Lane and impressed throughout, scoring the third highest amount of points on Squawka’s Performance Score for the home side (39).

The 23-year-old completed 86% of his passes (54/63) and found a team-mate with three of his four crosses. Of those 54 passes, three of them were key passes. Another striking number that pops up from his statistics is that just eight of his passes were played from inside Spurs’ half of the field.

Holtby also won all four of his tackles which were spread out around the pitch, which shows how much he ran. His Heat Map and Action Area Maps also prove that.

In terms of attacking intent, he had one shot on target – from distance, that was saved comfortably. But that shot displayed the confidence Holtby has now gained thanks to more minutes on the pitch.

His defensive work rate was fairly decent, too. To add to his four successful tackles, Holtby made one interception on the edge of Hull’s penalty area and one clearance on the edge of his own area.

Due to the other midfielders at Spurs, Holtby will find it difficult to squeeze his way into the starting eleven but if he performs consistently like he did against Hull City on Sunday, Villas-Boas will find it hard pushed to find a reason to keep him out of the side.