Tottenham Hotspur had a frustrating outing in the Premier League as Unai Emery’s Aston Villa came and took all three points from N17 this weekend.

But while the North Londoners had a lot to resolve and get back to the drawing room, the build-up phase of play under Thomas Frank has taken another dimension.

If we look at the Lilywhites’ build-up play against Aston Villa, there was this change in centre point, one that is predicated around Rodrigo Bentancur.

The veteran midfielder was charged with fulfilling more than one task-based role (with the variations based on the speed of the play and positions). And the Uruguayan efficiently controlled much of the rhythm from that first phase.

He was tucking in at the back when needed, dropping deep in the middle or playing left-back to create space. And most of the time, he framed the first phase in ways that provided the hosts with quite a lot of advantage most of the times (in different senses).

Rodrigo Bentancur was key to Tottenham Hotspur first phase build up vs Villa.

So when the ball was with Vicario, Bentancur went into that left channel a few times, almost replicating a left-back role. And it was no coincidence. It does...