Bye Bye Bielsa

No shade to everyone's favorite Argentinean uncle, but Tottenham played the socks off of Leeds | Kane & Son break the goal combinations record

Spurs pulled off a strong 0-4 away win against Leeds to bounce back from the disappointment at Burnley. I expected nothing less; in fact, if we had scored anything less than three goals I would have been unpleasantly surprised. This was an ideal matchup for Spurs, and they played with confidence accordingly.

I have to kick things off by sharing some praise for a player who has not always been high on confidence during his time at Spurs, Matt Doherty. Against Leeds, he put in his best performance since joining the club, easily. It was about time that he scored his first goal for Spurs, and he did it in style, making a well-timed run into the box to get on the end of a superb cross from Ryan Sessegnon. Doherty also notched an assist for Dejan Kulusevski's goal. With Eric Dier firmly back in the defensive line, the wingbacks have a little more freedom going forward, and Doherty especially has taken full advantage. His growth this season is a great example of why, as fans, we should always give a player the chance to prove themselves up until the day they leave the club. You never know when the right manager and the right formation will unlock their potential. For that same reason, I'm not going to say now that Doherty should be starting every game over Emerson Royal. They will both have a role to play in the business end of this season. But Doherty definitely deserves to have his moment in the sun after the game where he truly arrived as a Spurs player.

Kulusevski is a very different case; he's taken no time at all to prove himself in lilywhite. Just five appearances into his Spurs career, he already has two goals and an assist to his name. And although Doherty was credited with the assist for Deki's goal against Leeds, it took a strong individual effort from him to score, handling the ball skillfully in traffic after a give-and-go with Doherty and pulling off a belter of a shot into the near corner of the net. His goal had strong Sonny goal vibes to me, which is just about the highest compliment I'm capable of giving. It's thrilling to have another winger as capable as Son on the other side of the pitch. This is no disrespect to Lucas; he and Deki are very different players with different skill sets. I think what I am trying to get at here is that Son and Kulusevski are very complementary players and that creates a sense of balance in the forward line that isn't there when Lucas is involved. The same goes for the wingback partnership of Sess and Doherty vs Reguilón and Royal. Point is, Spurs have found a great player and a serious asset to the team in Kulusevski. Every match I am eager to see what else he can do.

The first two goals happened within five minutes of each other, and we would only have to wait twelve minutes more for a third. It looks like Kane is back to "scoring goals for fun" mode, so that's delightful. It was kind of ridiculous how easy he made that difficult shot technique look. PEH deserves a big shout for his assist, too. More of that from the Viking, please.

If y'all will allow me to go on a brief tangent, I've been thinking about the "best player in the world" question ever since Kane's performance against Man City the other day, and he put in yet another stunning effort against Leeds. The evidence is mounting that Kane just might be the best player in the world, as it currently stands. Of course, when the Ballon d'Or ceremony was happening a while back I was adamant that Lewandowski deserved the award (and definitely not Messi) on the balance of the past year. Lewandowski's consistency has been unparalleled, and he has continued that consistency into the new season. But if you were to ask me to honestly state, today, who is the best striker in the world (or again, just best player overall) I would have to say, Kane. He is simply the most complete player in world football that I can think of. He doesn't just score goals for Tottenham. He's also our best playmaker, and he even chips in on defense in a meaningful capacity (his headed goal-line clearances are really something to behold). He has never looked to be in better shape, and after that weird/disappointing/frustrating beginning to the season, he got it together and hasn't looked back. I often feel conflicted about the debate over Kane vs Lewandowski, since I am a fan of both Tottenham and Bayern Munich, but honestly, it's not a matter of opinion anymore. It's just a fact. Kane in a landslide.

While we're on the topic of players getting proper recognition, let's move on to the fourth goal-scorer of the day, Son Heung-min. Not to get on my hobby horse again, but my god, can our beloved Korean ever get some respect?! It just baffles me how often people in our own fanbase feel compelled to slate him for "disappearing," even in matches where he registered a goal or an assist. Admittedly, nobody managed either feat in the game against Burnley midweek, but Son still created a couple of quality chances for his teammates--and he really deserves some praise for how much his corners and free kicks have improved this season, on a related note. I'm sure some of the people repeating this talking point about Son are just engaging in clickbait, but it's still super disrespectful to one of Spurs' most important (and most loyal!) players. For what it's worth, Son is still the top PL goal-scorer for Spurs, the top assister, and has also played in all nine of our clean sheets so far. So for the love of god, if I have to see one more tweet saying that Son is in a streaky run of form and coasting his way into the starting lineup every week, I might actually lose it.

/rant

So naturally, it is time for me to praise him effusively myself. It is an incredible achievement that he and Kane broke the record for most PL goal combinations, topping Lampard and Drogba's previous record of 36 combos, and they couldn't have done it with a more exquisite goal. Harry's pass was truly world-class and dare I say visionary, and Son captured and released the ball into the net as if he had done it, say, 36 times before with Kane. They make it look effortless, again and again. I'm so happy their record-breaking goal was of a caliber fit for memorialization--but of course it was!

To wrap up this recap, I'll touch on the two areas of the formation I haven't had much reason to discuss yet--the midfield and the defense. The midfield wasn't hugely impactful against Leeds, in terms of possession, but the wingbacks were having a hell of a match, so it all worked out. The defense didn't have too awful much to do, except for a terror-inducing moment when Hugo Lloris had an unsuccessful sweeper keeper moment (he didn't have much choice--it was either that or try his luck holding pat in the box and forcing Stuart Dallas to take him on), and Ben Davies had to swoop in to block Dallas. Davies almost canceled out his heroic defending minutes later when he gave away a free kick outside the box, but luckily, Leeds couldn't convert.

I do feel sympathetic to Leeds. They've been struggling without two of their key players, Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford, and they just don't look like the same side that played such electrifying football at times last season. Call it the second year syndrome, or perhaps the rigor of Bielsaball taking its toll. The band had to break up at some point. Let's pour one out for Bielsa. His squats will be missed.

The cup run resumes

Just gonna keep this brief since this post is so belated (I usually do put the post-weekend match recaps up on Mondays, but it seems late this week since the game was on Saturday and Spurs' next match is on Tuesday... and it is now officially past midnight on Tuesday, whoops). Also, I don't know much about our FA Cup opponent, Middlesbrough. But I do know how to pronounce Middlesbrough properly now, thanks to my fellow Tottenham Depot podcaster, Shuban. Cheers.

We got a somewhat positive injury update from Conte today; although Skipp is still about a week out from being back in full training, Bentancur will likely be back after this match. Whether that means he'll be in the lineup or bench for the Everton match next Monday, I don't know, but we can be optimistic at least. Hopefully, he and Skipp can both get right back into the thick of things soon.

While this should be an easy win, in theory, this team did take out Manchester United in the last round, so we should proceed with caution. In other words, not too weakened of a lineup. No Gollini in goal (or Brandon Austin... whoever is actually the second choice keeper at this point). I wouldn't mind seeing Lucas in for one of Son or Kulusevski, since both could probably use a rest, and Lucas loves a cup game. It sure would be nice to have a proper backup striker for Kane, but alas (no offense to Dane Scarlett). Bergwijn is technically an option if Conte does feel like giving Kane a break. And the midfield is also picking itself at this time due to the aforementioned injuries. Reguilón could use the game time after his COVID absence, and the same with Royal (minus the COVID). I wouldn't want to change the center-back line, simply because this cup run is our last chance for a trophy this season. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's all I've got. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to add the Championship to my league viewing roster, so I don't know anything about Middlesbrough's preferred tactics and formations. I have faith that Spurs' talent advantage will give us the edge regardless, and the team will surely be full of confidence after the Leeds win. Fingers crossed we get the business done early, but as our next match isn't until Monday, rotation/substitutions won't be a pressing concern.

COYS