Coal and Consolations
I hope none of you had any coal in your stockings, but unfortunately for Spurs, the club got a handful in last weekend's fixtures.
Spurs Women will have to wait until after the Women's Super League winter break to bounce back from their defeat to Manchester United, which knocked them out of the League Cup at the quarter-final stage. But Spurs Men only had a short break, thanks to the Premier League starkly reducing the slate of Boxing Day fixtures to just one, and they take on Crystal Palace on Sunday. Truthfully, we probably could have used an extended break on the Men's side because of the injury situation, but the discipline-induced absences would be unavoidable no matter when the next fixture was scheduled.
In this issue: Liverpool recap | Manchester United recap | News from around the Lane
I'm still somewhat in holiday mode, though more so just trying to get into a good frame of mind for the new year. So let's keep things short and sweet today with quick recaps and a roundup of the latest club news, including a reminder of the transfer window timeframes. I've been saving up some bonus bookmarks, but there will be plenty of time to share them in one of the upcoming issues while Spurs Women aren't in action.
PL MD 17 | Tottenham 1 - 2 Liverpool
Richarlison 83' | Isak 56', Ekitike 66'
Sometimes the typical chaos of this fixture is a fun kind of chaos, but that was not the case this time.
This is the first game I can remember from this season where I truly felt like the officiating affected the result, but only if you also take out the poor discipline from Spurs. In truth, the carelessness from Xavi Simons (not uncommon from him since joining the league, mostly because he is still struggling to adjust to the pace of the PL and suffering from delayed decision-making) and the vented frustration of Cristian Romero cost us what would have been a decent chance of taking a point or three off Liverpool. The away team didn't play particularly well on the whole, and we had some decent moments in the attack, but having our primary playmaker and captain both make early exits to the locker room put us at a distinct disadvantage.
And then, ironically, it was a perfectly acceptable block attempt from Micky van de Ven that caused a long-term injury to Liverpool's opening scorer, Alexander Isak. We later learned that he'll be out for several months with a fractured leg. Like I said, not a pleasant kind of chaos.
In addition to Simons and Romero missing matches, discipline will continue to be a concern, as we now have four other players on yellow card accumulation watch (Richarlison, Pedro Porro, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Van de Ven). The threshold resets after the Brentford game on Thursday, but they'll need to be well-behaved until then. To make matters worse, Romero could face a lengthier suspension and/or fine after being charged by the FA with "failing to promptly leave the field of play and/or behaving in a confrontational and/or aggressive manner towards the match referee." We won't know the outcome of that charge until the new year.
Richarlison's goal was a small silver lining, and we still had a chance to get back into the game despite being down two players, but that's just not the way things are going for us this season.
Notable & quotable:
• These were the first two red cards of the season for the Men's team.
• This is the first time this season that we've had more losses than wins in the PL.
• Pedro Porro and Rodrigo Bentancur both made their 100th PL appearance.
• Thomas Frank agreed that the players were "hard done by" with some of the officiating, but appreciated their comeback attempt:
There a lot of good things in this team, a lot of good character, there's a lot, so I think we just had that little bit of a momentum shift throughout the game, I think we felt that we were 100% in the game, and also a little bit of determination when you feel you are hard done by and you need to show that grit, so I really liked that.
• Guglielmo Vicario echoed his manager's thoughts:
The feeling I think from everyone in the stadium was that we could have easily overturned this result, so we have to take home some good notes in terms of mentality and character and all these kinds of things... I think with a little bit more luck in some situations, we could have been now speaking about a different game and different result.
Women's LC Quarter-final | Manchester United 2 - 1 Tottenham
Park 52', Rolfö 86' | Spence 16'
Although Martin Ho made some smart tactical adjustments from the previous league fixture against Manchester United, and the players put in a strong performance, we were nevertheless knocked out of the League Cup with a narrow loss.
Drew Spence celebrated her new contract in style with a belter of a volleyed goal, and we were able to keep another first-half clean sheet.
Jess Park scored the equalizer for United after finding herself in acres of space, a frustrating blind spot in our defense this season. And then it was Fridolina Rolfö who once again had the decisive goal, this time a game-winner.
Lenna Gunning-Williams and Araya Dennis were the only two subs from Spurs' depleted bench, and unlike in the WSL game against Aston Villa, they did not prove decisive. It's curious that Kit Graham has not been getting any game time, especially with so few other outfield players to call upon, let alone attackers, but there could be a lingering injury concern we don't know about. Certainly, Ho can't afford any more injuries in the squad, even with the upcoming break and transfer window.
While it's disappointing to be out of the cup, I feel the players put in a performance we can be proud of in less-than-ideal circumstances. The WSL home game against United in late April is going to be even more highly anticipated than usual!
Notable & quotable:
• Spurs won the possession battle with 55%.
• Martin Ho praised the team's resilience and effort in a difficult stretch of games with a limited squad:
If we’d just maintained our level a little more between maybe the 65th and 80th minute, we could have pushed the game even further. But I can’t ask any more of them—they’ve done everything again this week. We’ve lifted our level, we’ve been more creative and more dominant, especially in the first half. In the second half, we had moments too, but they gave me absolutely everything, and we should be proud of the team.
It’s very easy when you go behind to let that affect you, but the mentality of the group is shifting. They want to win. They want to come off the pitch having been successful, and they showed that again. They pushed right to the end and I can’t ask any more.
I’m disappointed. There are so many emotions, but there’s also a lot of pride because this team has taken big steps—as a collective—and this is only the start for us.
• Clare Hunt also took an optimistic viewpoint when considering the team's progress so far under Ho:
Moving into the second half of the season, we know exactly what we need to work on. I think we’ve developed a lot over the last six months under Martin. Now it’s about continuing to move forward, realising our potential over the next six months, and hopefully progressing in the league to see where we end up by the end of the season.
Everyone has put their head down and really put the work in. What we’ve developed so far has been great and there’s still plenty more to work on. There’s a lot of potential within this squad.
News from around the Lane
• Men's First Team Assistant Coach Matt Wells has departed the club to become Head Coach of the Colorado Rapids in MLS. Congrats and good luck to Matt!
• With both Spurs teams definitely needing to act decisively (and hopefully swiftly) in the winter transfer window, here are the respective opening and closing dates for each league:
PL window: January 1-February 2
WSL window: January 2-February 3
• I always enjoy the annual feature Spurs put out about the holiday traditions of all our new signings from the past year.
Tottenham Hotspur
My favorite anecdote this season was Kōta Takai's about eating KFC. Who would have thought? And of course, Cathinka Tandberg's favorite gift was Tottenham tickets, because she is fully COYS.
Up next:
December 28 | Spurs Men @ Crystal Palace
Team news — Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero are suspended; Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma are still on AFCON duty; otherwise, same availability from the Liverpool game
I'll be back with one last issue for 2025 early next week. Until then,
COYS
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