Edmond Tapsoba. The perfect CB for Tottenham?
Intro.
Just like everything else at Tottenham Hotspur at the moment, the defence is a mess. With investment desperately needed, I thought i’d take a look at one CB that has been one of the most consistent performers in Europe over the past season. Edmond Tapsoba. And why I think he’d be a good addition for Spurs in the summer.
Analysing his play style and data.
Tapsoba is an elite ball playing CB blessed with physical attributes that makes him the dream modern day CB. Standing at 6ft4 (1.94m) the Burkino Faso international is an imposing dominating figure in physical battles, he uses his long arms well to overwhelm players and throw them off balance. His speed and acceleration is good, playing as a wide CB in a back 3 Tapsoba can hold his own in a foot race vs quick attackers. He uses his steps really effectively to get from point A to B to be ready when he’s in striking distance of the attacker to get his body across or make a tackle.
He’s also reliable player in terms of availability and keeping fit. Out of the 33 Bundesliga games this season he featured in 31 of them and completed 28 full 90s, in those games he’s played as a LCB in a back 4 and 5 despite being right footed but predominantly since the arrival of Xabi Alonso he’s found himself on the right of a back 3 being given the task to progress the ball through carries and passing. That being said let’s talk about his passing.
As mentioned at the start of the piece he is an elite ball playing CB and the eye test is backed up in the data. He plays crisp and punchy passes that slide across the ground like when a stone is thrown in curling. My favourite pass type of his is when finding the outside to in run in behind from either Frimpong or Diaby, where the passes are usually played from the right half space and are pinpoint landing in the natural stride of the wide players meaning they don’t have to break their momentum and carry on attacking and running at defences at break neck speeds. This makes me wonder if Tapsoba could play the role we see Ben White play for them lot at RB last season. Tapsoba is also able to break lines comfortably finding central midfielders well and playing on to their back foot where they can turn in a quick motion. Despite his top progressive line breaking passing ability he doesn’t always force passes and his decision making is good of when to play these passes. He’s clearly very comfortable on the ball with his passing very rarely lacking quality when under pressure from an opponent.
The data backs up all the above. He’s a high volume passer attempting an average of 71.62 passes p90 which puts him in the 91st percentile completing an average of 62.14 of them p90 which puts him in the 89th percentile. The data also shows his passing is consistent across all ranges boasting a 90.8% completion rate for short passes, 92.3% for medium range passes and 65.6% for long range passes. He completes 5.05 passes into the final third p90 and 5.82 progressive passes completed p90, if we are to compare this to Tottenham’s right sided centre half Cristian Romero he completes 3.49 passes into the final third and 3.77 progressive passes p90. Their roles and responsibilties for their teams maybe different but if they were to feature in a back line for Tottenham, it would be the best ball playing capabilities we’ve seen at Tottenham since the days of our beloved Jan and Toby.
As well as being a progressive passer of the ball, Tapsoba is also an adept ball carrier for Alonso’s Leverkusen. Averaging 1.50 progressive carries p90 and 0.94 carries into the final third he’s a player that can sustain pressure on defences and drive them back. When carrying the ball he has a very upright posture which limits him in terms of being able to beat multiple men due to his touches being fairly heavy when carrying and his upright style means he may not be able to weave in and out compared to someone like Romero, but usually with an upright and open body posture, head up and his good decision making and timing on the ball teams are more worried about the pass he could be eyeing up.
So much on his ball playing capabilities but a defenders main job is to defend, which Tapsoba just like everything else does well but there is definitely room to approve. Being 6ft4 and 85kg he physically overpowers attackers with ease. As mentioned at the start he uses his long strengthy arms to leverage himself and get his body across players and by that point the contest is over. Out wide his strong core and upper body allows him to be dominating in shoulder to shoulder battles, often seeing players bounce off him pathetically. He doesn’t find himself in many 1v1 defensive which is reflected in the data, averaging 1.71 tackles p90 which puts himself in the 65th percentile, but he does win 1.01 of tackles p90 which puts him in the 61st percentile not great but not bad. One weakness I noticed in his defensive ability was he at times can be caught quite square and vulnerable, leaving a weak leg out or just an easy player to go past. A good example of this would be the penalty he gave away vs Monaco.
He covers his team mates really well notably vs Köln where he played CCB, he eliminated any danger that was posed to his wide CBs. His positioning is good allowing him to make clearances in the box with his feet or compete in aerial duels, that being said statistically he is mediocre in the air winning 1.80 headers p90 but also losing 1.30 headers p90. To my eye before i looked into his numbers, I felt Tapsoba was fairly comfortable in the air able to win them from defensive and attacking set pieces but also statically when being pinned or back tracking. If you compared his numbers to the Spurs CBs that featured most this season (Lenglet, Dier, Romero, Lenglet and Davies) he would rank 4th out of the 5 caveat to that is that he lost to Davies in Aerials won percentage by 0.01% so it was fine margins.
Why should Tottenham and Tapsoba be united?
A mass exodus of Spurs players is expected, noticeably in the defensive department where Dier, Davies and Sanchez all may have new clubs come the first game of the season. New faces are needed desperately Spurs haven’t had two good CBs in the starting 11 since the days of Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld. Now would also be a good time for Tapsoba to take a step up to the Premier League at 24 his best years are upon him and he could comfortably feature in many of the current top seven clubs.
At Spurs next season, I could easily see him fitting into a potential Arne Slot side or even a Ruben Amorim side if Tottenham fail to land the dutchman. His on ball capabilities and defensive prowess is something Spurs are crying out for, so minutes would come at a guarantee if he made the switch to North London. With Spurs also looking to have more of a attacking approach next season regardless of the coach, we will need players that are comfortable on the ball all over the pitch in all positions something that Tapsoba is.
Valued at £26m on Transfermarkt, he seems a bargain but don’t be surprised as his contract is up in June 2026 to see Leverkusen ask for £45-£60m for a vital piece of their starting 11.
Any elite side looking for a young athletic, versatile, ball playing CB should be knocking on the door of Leverkusen and Tapsoba, I just hope it’s Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Thank you for reading, TSS✌️
*Games watched:
RUSG (H), Köln (H&A), Ferencvaros (A), Monaco (A), Roma (H&A)
