I like Tottenham Hotspurs. I play them on FIFA13. I root for them to win against any other team in England.

And they’ve done some great things in the off season. Picking up Paulinho? Great move. Their midfield is stacked, whether they play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, they’ve got both great starters and top class depth in the midfield. And I hear they’re close to picking up a speedy winger for some depth on the outside, which is important, because they could look downright sluggish if Aaron Lennon or Gareth Bale weren’t available.

But, c’mon guys. Everyone and their uncle knows that the difference between their fifth place finish last year and getting into the top four (which has some big implications) was the lack of a top striker, someone capable of scoring twenty goals a season.

Nothing has been done to fix this.

Sunderland, a mediocre team who were almost relegated, bought the en fuego American, Jozy Altidore (yah, Jozy!). Spurs… nothing.

The nearly as mediocre Norwich City bought the highly touted (and awesomely named) Ricky Van Wolfswinkel (I told you his name was awesome). Spurs… nothing.

Atletico Madrid, in Spain, pipped Spurs to one of their targets, the clinical veteran, David Villa. Spurs… nothing.

Mario Gomez left Bayern Munich and bought up by Fiorentina for a cut rate price. Spurs… nothing.

Little ol’ Swansea in Wales seems about ready to lock up the highly touted Wilfried Bony. Spurs is about ready to lock up… nothing.

Now, their number one striking target for the last couple of years, Leandro Damiao, is making eyes at Napoli. Ugh.

Tons of lesser teams have bought quality strikers, while Spurs are still dependent on the lazy Emmanuel Adebayor and the hard working, but insufficiently prolific Jermaine Defoe. Ugh.

It appears they might wind up overpaying for Christian Benteke, who wowed the league in his first season in England, but could turn out to be a hugely expensive one season wonder, but, for heaven’s sake, pull the the trigger on someone!

Fix this. Fix this now.

Caveat: I am a Tottenham fan and don’t want to see Bale leave the Spurs at all.

That said, it does not make sense for Bale to leave for Real Madrid so long as Cristiano Ronaldo is there.

Both players need to have the team formation built around them and the roles of the other players determined in light of supporting their attacking moves and compensating for their defensive deficiencies.

At Madrid, Ronaldo is a one touch, penalty predator who charges into the box from wide, similar, in truth, to Robert Pires in his prime. He doesn’t track back and doesn’t stay wide, so needs a fast, powerful fullback behind him who can cover the entire left side of the field on his own, because Ronaldo does not adhere to any tactical role except for getting on the end of crosses and through balls in order to score.

It’s easy to say, ‘just put Bale on the opposite wing from Ronaldo, no problem.’ But it’s actually a huge problem. With two wide players roaming the field at will, it opens up huge gaps, particularly on the wings, with opposing fullbacks and wide players doubling up on both Madrid fullbacks, who will be isolated by the unconstrained nature of Ronaldo and Bale. Central midfielders can help cover, but that then opens up gaps down the middle.

One anarchic player, if he or she is of sufficient genius to make it worthwhile… well, accommodations can be made for genius, but it is not possible make that allowance for two players without completely disrupting the team’s shape.

Bale, if he transferred, would either quickly be marginalized (brought in for games when Ronaldo was being rested) or else put in a constrained role that did not play to his strengths. Either way, the swashbuckling attacker who is taking the world be storm, would sink beneath the waters.

If Ronaldo were to leave Madrid, absolutely, Bale could go. He could be plugged in, playing as close a like for like as you are likely to see for the departed Portuguese winger-cum-striker, with little tactical tinkering necessary. But until that happens, Bale needs to stay where the team will be built to emphasize his strengths and accommodate his weaknesses. Right now, Madrid is built to accommodate someone else.

Welcome to Manchester United, David Moyes.

And Everton, say goodbye to Marouane Fellaini, Leighton Baines, and top six finishes. And probably Ross Barkley, too. And Kevin Mirallas if Moyes decides he wants a new winger.

I mean, besides, obviously, qualify for the World Cup.

And my ‘one thing’ is kind of an overarching thing that will involve a lot of moving pieces. But to put it simply: build the United States Men’s National Team around Jozy Altidore.

He will be 24 in 2014 and 28 in 2018, so we can at least expect him to be around and performing in the next two World Cups (and possibly on the bench in 2022). So he’ll be approaching his peak at next World Cup.

He’s scoring goals left and right in Holland. And while the Eredivisie may not be the best league, it still produces quality play and players and no one else looks likely to be producing at a comparable level in a comparable (or superior) league.

If we’re going to score goals and win games – not just now (when older players like Dempsey can take up the slack), but in two years (when Dempsey and, if he’s back, Donovan, will both be on the wrong side of thirty) – USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann has to find a way to get Altidore to start scoring and producing for the national team. It’s not optional. He can’t say, well, he’s just not able to produce for us, so we’ll do something else. No. There is almost zero chance of an attacking player in his mid to late twenties stepping to a high enough level to win us some games against the world’s best by then (not impossible – someone like Terence Boyd or even Juan Aguedelo could improve dramatically and also begin playing for a higher tier league, but it seems unlikely that it will happen soon enough).

So build the team around Altidore. AZ Alkmaar, like many Dutch teams, play a 4-3-3 with a attacking central midfielder that makes it something of a hybrid betweena 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1. Either way, Altidore is the man in the center. And while other players are by no means afraid of taking shots, the wingers/wide forwards and attacking midfielders have a brief to supply service to Altidore.

Now, I haven’t seen enough his club games to really say what, uniquely, the team does to get the best out of Altidore, but surely the coach of the United States Men’s National Team could find someone in the Netherlands with a tivo who could send him some game footage. What I have seen suggests that, while he’s hard working and just play as a pure poacher, he stays fairly high up the pitch; he’s got good speed, enough to beat most central defenders, but more often uses his strength to muscle himself some space amongst opposing defenders.

Do they play with speedy wingers? Then start putting speedy players like Brek Shea and John Gatt on the wing, even if there are better players out there, because it’s about what’s best for the team (and what’s best for the team, at least in the attacking third, is what’s best for Jozy).

Do they play with a wide player who’s more of a wide forward who uses their own goal threat to create space for Altidore? Fine, then play Dempsey on the wing.

Or are they players who depend less on the speed than on the quality and precision of their service into the attacking areas? Paging Graham Zusi, Freddy Adu, Sacha Kljestan, and Landon Donovan.

Does the attacking midfielder play close to Altidore, almost as a second striker? Then put Dempsey behind him.

Or does their trequartista play deeper and control speed and tempo and look for the killer pass to start the counterattack? Freddy Adu, maybe, or take a gander Jose Torres and Kljestan in that spot.

Or does that player make fast runs from deep? Donovan or Mixx Diserud should get a look then.

I don’t care. We just don’t have another striker who is reliably scoring goals at a high enough level. Put aside whatever tactical ideas you have, Jurgen, and start figuring out what helps Jozy score goals.

But it’s not hard to guess what happened.

And, to an extent, I am guessing. I was at work during the World Cup qualifying match against Honduras – a match that we lost 2-1 – and could only follow the action as best I could on twitter.

I know that the defense was overmatched and played poorly, but that will have to come with time. Geoff Cameron is a quality defender and Omar Gonzalez has to come good because the pipeline of good, young defenders with the potential to be international quality players isn’t exactly overflowing. Same goes for the fullbacks. Steve Cherundulo will probably be on the roster in 2014, but we’ll need someone under thirty in the right back spot to cover for what will be, by 2014 Cherundulo’s thirty-five year old legs.

I like Klinsmann. I really do. I want to like him as our coach.

But he as consistently gotten the midfield wrong.

Eddie Johnson on the left? Meh. I can live with it.

But the trio of Jermaine Jones, Danny Williams, and Michael Bradley doesn’t have enough attacking quality. Bradley can attack, but he can’t be the only one of the trio with the ability to link midfield and attack. Personally, I’m a big Sacha Kljestan fan. He started out as an attacking midfielder, but has improved his defense and range of passing from deeper positions since joining Anderlecht in Belgium. He help out at defense, but also provide a wide range of passing and help keep possession. Arguments could also be made for Maurice Edu (more defensive, but with better passing ranges than Jones or Williams and a penchant for driving forward) or Jose Torres (plays in the center circle and helps keep possession with his passing and ball control) or even Freddy Adu (has good close control in tight spaces). But with so many defensive minded folks in the midfield, too much space was given to Honduras and too little help the offense. Ugh.

And what irks is that he had players on the bench like Kljestan (he did come on in the second half), Jose Torres, and Graham Zusi (who could have provided some width and delivery into the box) – and at least one of them should have started.

Klinsmann keeps talking about playing attacking soccer. Let’s start seeing some. We won’t win anything by sitting back.

So, if Arsenal miss out in fourth place and, consequently, the fourth and final Champion’s League spot, does Arsene Wenger get fired? Because that’s what’s going to happen.

It was always a question with the Liverpool legend. The accumulation of injuries and wear on his body eating away at the physical strength and capacity for tireless running that had made him such a powerful offensive weapon.

But, beginning with Houllier, coaches slowly gave up on trying to teach or enforce any kind tactical discipline on the local icon. This trend culminated in Rafa Benitez’ decision to remove all defensive and positional responsibilities and give him a free hand to roam where he pleased.

With the decline of his physical gifts, such a role came with greater cost to the team’s defensive shape and with less offensive output to offset it.

Somehow, Liverpool’s relatively new coach, Brendan Rodgers, has managed to turn Steven Gerrard into the kind player he needed to become.

Sitting deep and using his eye for long, diagonal passes. Timing tackles and breaking up opposing attacks instead of desperately chasing players and depending on his pace and power. And timing his offensive surges to conserve his energy.

Rodgers has very nearly managed to transform Gerrard into a regista, the outfield role that, arguably, requires the greatest degree of tactical discipline.

It’s unkind to say this, but if this iteration of Steven Gerrard had been around earlier in the century, England’s national team might have had at least a shot at World Cup or European title.