Cautionary Tale

Spurs Women suffer another costly loss in the WSL | Previewing the midweek Everton match | Spurs Men are back—sort of

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet (or short and sweet by my admittedly verbose standard) since the next match is in just over 12 hours. Eep!

Tottenham 0 - West Ham 2

It would appear the almost bogey-like nature of West Ham for Spurs has extended to the women's side of things. Once again, we dropped much-needed points in the league. It was made more frustrating by the fact that the first-half performance was actually decent—but a lack of clinical finishing came back to haunt us.

I won't go too into detail on the starting XI, but there was some significant rotation. Kerys Harrop and Chioma Ubogagu were both awarded with starts after encouraging appearances in the last two matches, and Cho So-hyun also got a league start after not featuring at all in the last WSL match. Becky Spencer kept her place in goal, which will be significant later on for West Ham's second goal. Perhaps most surprising was who did not start:  Ash Neville, Asmita Ale, Angharad James, Jess Naz, and Nikola Karczewska. We knew there were still some minutes restrictions going into this match so a couple of those are not surprising, but I was especially concerned that Ash and Angharad were benched—Ash because she's Ash, and Angharad because she's probably been our most dependable midfielder all season.

There were chances aplenty before halftime, although most of them were not of a high-quality caliber. Set pieces were a particularly poignant missed opportunity; Eveliina Summanen was doing her part by putting in some very tantalizing deliveries into the box from the numerous corners awarded to Spurs, but too often nobody was in the right place to take advantage of them, or simply didn't get a good enough connection on their headers. There were also several instances of Chi and Celin Bizet creating space on the wings but then finding themselves unable to penetrate West Ham's packed defense in the box with their crosses. Drew Spence was also busy but without much end product; most of her shots were blocked easily by one of the numerous opposition defenders or West Ham keeper Mackenzie Arnold.

Just before halftime, it looked like we were already going to rue not putting a goal away earlier. Kerys brought down our old nemesis, Kate Longhurst, in the box with a late tackle after Longhurst had pounced upon Kerys' too-casual possession of a throw out of the back from Becky. We got a reprieve, however, because Dagný Brynjarsdóttir sent her stoppage-time penalty kick wide of the left post. The match remained scoreless going into the break.

The reprieve didn't last long. Molly Bartrip was hit in the face at point-blank range from an attempted overhead kick by Viviane Asseyi, and when the ref failed to whistle for a head injury stoppage of play, West Ham sprung into action to take the lead through Brynjarsdóttir in the 49th minute. To make matters worse for Molly, she injured herself trying to clear the ball off the line on West Ham's second goal in the 83rd minute. A free-kick by Molly herself was intercepted on the edge of West Ham's defensive box and made its way to Asseyi, who picked out a clever pass to Hawa Cissoko (yes, she of red card infamy), who—despite a very heavy first touch—was able to beat Eveliina and chip the ball over Becky. Molly followed the ball into the goal and hurt her right arm in the process.

Once more this season, I have to criticize Becky's goalkeeping (which I hate to do!). While positioning is normally one of her strengths, she was caught too far off her line when the initial Spurs free-kick went awry and overcorrected to the point that she was unable to meet the ball before Cissoko could get her shot off. She did get a hand to the shot, but only enough to deflect it back into the net. While I don't think Tinni Korpela has been exceptional in her performances between the net this season either, it's fair to say that Becky has had a greater number of costly errors. It's frustrating to see the goalkeeping position, which was so often a point of strength for Spurs last season, suddenly become an issue without much of a solution (at least until January).

In fairness to Rehanne Skinner, she was more proactive in this match about making early substitutions than she has been, but unfortunately, most of the subs did not make a huge impact. Jess Naz and Asmita Ale were the most lively of the second-half newcomers, but by then I think a lot of the other Spurs players' heads had dropped and they were a bit isolated in their positive efforts.

I appreciated that captain Shelina Zadorsky was so blunt and honest in her post-match interview, but it's slightly concerning that even the players don't seem able to pinpoint the source of the trouble in the last two subpar performances.

Rehanne also looked about as dejected as I've ever seen her in a post-game clip. While I know some Spurs fans are already growing anxious and wondering if Rehanne is still the right manager for the team, I haven't yet reached the point of wanting a change. This isn't to say that she's above criticism—far from it. I would like to see some fresh tactical strategies, and soon, because the consistent formation in recent weeks has clearly gone stale and we don't usually seem to have a strong plan B (some of that could be down to personnel options, to be fair). And although the earlier substitutions were welcome in this past game, the initial selection decisions for the starting XI were puzzling and likely put us at a disadvantage before the game had even kicked off. She needs to find a way to play her best players even if it necessitates a formation change, and she also needs to find a way to get the most out of them. It's clear that the players have been underperforming across the board, whether from the first whistle or as substitutes. When so many players are going through a rough patch, it's hard for me to place too much of the blame on the manager. That's why I believe she at least deserves to lead the team through the upcoming transfer window and attempt to get things back on track after the winter break.

But the winter break doesn't start just yet. There's still one more WSL match to go, followed by the last group-stage match of the Conti Cup. I'll preview the latter in the next issue, but for now, let's focus on Everton.

It was the worst of times...

...The rescheduling of this previously postponed fixture, that is. I feel for local fans who are in a tough spot when it comes to attending this midweek match. Between the rail strikes, the wintry weather, and the fact that there's a Men's World Cup semi-final on at the exact same time... well, the FA really could have planned this one better—especially since Spurs don't have Champions League games to complicate availability. Alas. Barring a last-minute weather postponement (again), it's happening now.

The team is also going to be frustrated by the timing, because not only does it necessitate some squad rotation, but Everton are in the enviable position of having had their weekend match postponed due to the weather and will have the fresh legs advantage (I guess it's only convenient until that match gets rescheduled at a horrid time for them too, though). Personally, the thought of Jess Park running at our center-backs in these conditions is terrifying. Or perhaps I should say running past them, because that is likely what she'll be doing. She caused us so much trouble last season playing for her parent club, Manchester City, so why would it be any different playing for Everton on loan?

On the other hand, Everton had a midweek game last week due to being one of the clubs in a five-team Conti Cup group, so it will only have been a week since their last fixture—a normal state of events for the non-CL-involved WSL teams on an average week. Additionally, they lost their previous two matches, including the cup game, and don't have a win in WSL competition since October 22nd (a narrow 0-1 win away at Aston Villa). Form is not on their side or on ours, so it will be interesting to see who breaks out of the slump (please, god, let it be us!).

While our opportunity to leapfrog West Ham in the table has obviously passed, this match is an important chance to put some space between ourselves and Everton in the table. We are currently tied with them on points, but have the edge on goal difference. (Weird and disturbing fact:  every team below the top 4 currently has a negative goal difference.) I suppose we should be feeling even more thankful for the 8-0 win over Brighton in hindsight, because it's giving us a tiny bit of breathing room.

We simply have to win this match. Before the West Ham game, I thought a win against the Hammers and a draw against Everton would be an acceptable sequence of events in the grander scheme of the season. Now, it feels like a win against Everton is required to get things back on track—or at least prevent further derailment before the winter break for the league.

Very (Mother)well done

Truthfully, I don't have a lot to say about the Men's friendly against Motherwell. I'm surprised I even woke up to watch it, considering the early kickoff time and the World Cup-reduced roster. But I did sort of watch, in between mainlining coffee and fretting about the Ivan Perišić vs Richarlision matchup happening right afterward.

My main takeaway was that Dejan Kulusevski looks hungry. That he brought that much energy and intention to his performance against a vastly inferior side in a mere friendly is a sign that he's raring to go when the Premier League resumes on Boxing Day. Matt Doherty also looked quite sharp and closer to his old self, which is reassuring. Honestly, nobody really looked bad in this game. They were just the standout performers for me.

The friendly against Nice (which isn't until next Wednesday, the 21st) will be a better indicator of where the squad is at post-World Cup, since most of the team should be back in training by then. Unfortunately, there are some injury concerns as we approach the return of league play, including Ben Davies, Richarlison, and Rodrigo Bentancur (the latter of whom will be suspended for the Brentford match anyway due to yellow card accumulation). Son Heung-min will still be sporting his protective face mask as well. A few players who were not involved in the World Cup nevertheless missed the Motherwell friendly due to knocks from training (Lucas Moura, Ryan Sessegnon, Emerson Royal, Fraser Forster, and Clément Lenglet), but hopefully, they will be able to feature in the Nice friendly to get back into match fitness.

We'll end with some seasonally-appropriate photos from the world of Tottenham Hotspur:

Decorating a Christmas tree with Ledley King sounds like a lovely time, to be honest.

I'm not gonna lie, I would wear the hell out of that penguin sweater. Or jumper, as y'all call them across the pond.

Just a dusting of lilywhite snow.

COYS

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