Double Delight
Wins from both Tottenham teams made for a pleasant end to the weekend
There were two simultaneous Spurs matches this weekend, which is not ideal for trying to pay attention to both, but does make for a great feeling when both teams win, as they did yesterday. I will admit that I paid a little more attention to the Men's game just because I was more concerned about their level of opponent (and the Nuno of it all, of course), so let's start with the game that I did not follow as closely, Spurs Women's 0-2 victory away at Leicester.
Spurs Women maintain a perfect record
Bouncing back quickly after getting knocked out of the FA Cup midweek, Spurs made it four wins out of four in the WSL. Although the Leicester keeper did make several saves to hold us to two goals, our opponents didn't register a single shot on target themselves. Rachel Williams, who's having a bit of a renaissance this season, scored her third goal in three matches, this one off of a corner, while a beautiful counter play led to Angela Addison scoring our second. It was a superb team goal, starting with Ashleigh Neville's offensive interception, then Rosella Ayane cooly bringing the ball up the pitch and passing out to Williams, who just had to square it to Addison for the final touch.
One set-piece goal, one goal from open play. Nicely done. I would also like to note that Becky Spencer has three clean sheets already this season! We are so lucky to have her in goal (even if she didn't have much to do in this game).
We're still behind Arsenal on goal difference at joint top of the table, but our +5 GD is nothing to sneeze at. We can also be encouraged by the fact that just four games into the season, we've already earned 60% of our points total from the entire last season (h/t @odriozolite on Twitter).
I know there are some of you who are somehow not interested in international soccer (couldn't be me), so if you're missing Tottenham this weekend during the Men's international break and haven't taken the chance to catch a Women's match yet, make Sunday the time to change that! This is honestly a very exciting time to get to know the Women's side. Rehanne Skinner has been doing a great job with tactics and in-game management, and a lot of the players have shown improvement in their performances from last season, not to mention the new transfers that are already meshing in nicely.
We'll be playing another away match, at Brighton. They've won half of their matches and lost the other two. While I haven't seen Brighton play yet this season, I'm guessing from their goal stats (8 for, 4 against) and lack of draws that they're playing more openly than most of our opponents so far. This will be a good chance to see our midfield take the reins and capitalize on our improved passing accuracy to create opportunities and take the game to them, rather than the counter-attack-heavy strategy we've been employing the last few games against more defensive teams (Manchester City was a bit of a unique situation, with their current injury crisis).
If you're new to watching the WSL and are tuning in from the US, most matches are broadcast on the FA Player, though occasionally NBC features a few matches on NBCSN or NBCSports.com.
Back to winning ways in the Premier League
And thank goodness, because I'm not sure we could have handled losing four in a row (and Nuno very well might have lost his job). Now we have some positive momentum... which of course will be halted by the international break, but hopefully we can pick up where we left off when that's over (barring bad injury luck).
The match started off pretty sloppy from both sides, with neither team maintaining much possession, but we started to show more attacking intent after the first 15 minutes. Our first goal came from Aston Villa leaving Højbjerg open in acres of space in front of the box after his give-and-go with Son, and he got a clean shot off into the net. We then had to weather some pressure from Villa near the end of the half, but defended well and went into the break with the lead. Our opponents also had a good spell early in the second half and equalized through Ollie Watkins. Dier looked to be under the impression that Watkins was offsides and let him get a shot off, but unfortunately that was not the case. Spurs' winner would come from another assist from Son--or it would have been recorded as an assist, if Lucas' tap-in had counted for him and not gone down as an own goal from Targett.
Sonny was undeniably the man of the match (and unlucky not to get a goal of his own), but there were a few other standout performances. Emerson Royal had his best performance yet in a Spurs shirt. He seemed to be everywhere this match and performed well on both ends of the pitch; he was Lucas-esque in his energy and effort. Lucas himself also had a good match, and definitely deserved the start. I also thought Skipp justified his return to the starting lineup, even if he continues to get unfair yellow cards (he already has four in the PL, which is concerning). Højbjerg was another decent shout for MotM, and not just because of his goal, though it is great to see him get on the scoresheet and showing some of the attacking prowess we've seen him display when playing for Denmark. Skipp and PEH have been working really well together in a midfield pivot. They bring some much-needed balance to the middle of the pitch. When one gets forward, the other can be relied upon to defend. It was a vast improvement over the leaky midfield in the Arsenal game before Skipp came on a sub.
There were a few reasons for concern despite the resilient mentality shown to quickly answer Villa's equalizer and get the full three points (which shouldn't be overlooked! This is the kind of match we would have drawn or even gone on to lose last season). Kane showed a few moments of skill and good instincts, but his finishing is still not there. It's always a concern when your designated striker is still goalless seven matchdays into the season (even if he missed one of them). Ndombele was the most frustrating player on the day. He was often too late to the ball or too slow to release it, and just had zero impact on the game at all as a result. Lo Celso had a decent cameo when he came on as a sub but definitely should have finished his chance on goal. As for the defense, I've never been particularly concerned with how we defend from long throw-ins, but Matty Cash gave us some grief with his masterful throws (good thing his shot accuracy wasn't as strong). I know Brentford uses this as a tactic sometimes, so that'll be something to look out for when we play them. At least our defense from corners and free-kicks has improved!
As for Nuno, I don't have too many quibbles about his managerial performance. Perhaps he waited a little too long to make his substitutions (and he didn't utilize the third), but his selection was spot-on for the matchup with Aston Villa. The only change I would have made to the starting XI would be GLC over Ndombele. This win should take some of the pressure off Nuno and give him some time to strategize over the international break. It's probably becoming pretty clear to him which players he can and cannot trust to be reliable. Unfortunately for Tanganga, I think his red card in the Crystal Palace game caused Nuno to doubt him (Emerson hasn't done much wrong to lose his place, either), and Dele appears to be back out of favor once again.
Special topic: the captaincy
I was inspired to talk about this after listening to the latest episode of the Tottenham Depot podcast. There have been rumblings amongst the fanbase for years that Lloris might not be the best choice for captain, mostly due to his relatively static position on the pitch as keeper, but also because of his somewhat soft-spoken and non-confrontational nature (that horrible on-pitch squabble with Son a couple of seasons ago notwithstanding). I have the greatest respect for Hugo as a goalkeeper and I don't think anyone can doubt his commitment to the team, but it might be preferable to have a more vocal and active leader higher up the pitch as the captain.
So who are the candidates? Harry Kane might be the captain of England, but there's no chance of his commitment to his country taking a turn for the worse like it has for Tottenham. You can't have a wantaway player wearing the armband week in and week out (I didn't much care for him wearing it in the ECL match the other day either, personally). Højbjerg has gotten a lot of attention for his measured post-match interviews, and you can often see him rallying the team on the pitch, so he would be a good choice. My vote, however, would go to Son. He's definitely the talisman of the team at the moment, and you can't doubt his passion for the club. He understands what the players owe to the fans and wants to protect the legacy of Tottenham Hotspur. He's proven that he can handle the pressure of carrying the team while Kane is underperforming, and in fact seems to relish the opportunity to be the main man. I can't think of a better player to replace Hugo as captain, if and when the decision is made to give someone else the armband. After all, Hugo hasn't signed a contract extension yet, so that could be a reality sooner rather than later.
The big picture
With another two weeks off for Spurs Men (I'm talking about for us fans, obviously--the lads will still be working, whether it's training or playing for their respective countries), it's a good time to take a look at the club on a macro level. Here's a few of the factors I've been thinking about:
∙ We're getting closer to our ideal starting XI, but the attacking midfield position is still the weakest link. Ndombele doesn't deserve that descriptor at the moment because he's not, you know, attacking, and Lo Celso hasn't quite been consistent enough (though I'm not ready to write him off). I don't think that's Dele's best position, but that's where he's mostly been playing, and he's disappointed in the role. The club needs to do some soul searching and strongly consider bringing in a true attacking midfielder in the January window. That should be the transfer priority along with bringing in a second striker.
∙ As the defense continues to improve with Romero and Emerson bedding in, we should be able to play a higher press, particularly against teams that play a low block where our usual counter attacking style isn't very effective. On that note, Kane was far more involved in the Aston Villa match playing higher up the pitch than he had been, and that also unlocked Sonny's game since he wasn't covering Harry's usual territory and could make his runs on the wings.
∙ This early in the season it's pointless to dwell too much on the table standings, but I think it's worth noting that we're only 4 points off of 1st place, just to counter some of the doom-and-gloom attitude from the last few weeks. It's also worth remembering that the last international break affected Tottenham more than perhaps any other club, so a bobble in that post-break period can be, if not forgiven, then at least understood. That being said, we need to start scoring more to make up for our early goal difference deficit. It's already holding us back, even if it's only the difference between 7th and 8th place.
A laugh before you go
We thought the Ronaldo statue was bad...
You need to open the full second tweet, trust me.
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