Escape from Embarrassment

Just a quick midweek issue since I put most of my newsletter efforts into the 2024/25 Women's Super League Season Preview (which you should definitely read if you haven't yet).

Last-gasp Tottenham is back, it would appear. Spurs Men had one of those bizarrely lackluster cup performances that seems to be unique to our club, but they snapped out of it in time to secure a place in the draw for Round 4. It was redemption stories all around to complete the comeback—though I'm not sure there's any redeeming Fraser Forster's performance in goal.

In this issue: Coventry City recap | Previewing the weekend matches | News from around the Lane

Spurs Women are finally back in action this weekend! I'll be previewing their WSL opening day match as well as the Brentford PL matchup for the Men's team.

And then there are just a few bits of sundry news to catch up on.

Off we go!

Men's League Cup Round 3 recap | Coventry City 1 - 2 Tottenham

Thomas-Asante 63' | Spence 88', Johnson 90+2'

Even with the dearth of positive results, I have still felt that we put in some good stretches of football in all of the games so far. I cannot honestly say that about the first 75 or so minutes of this game. It was pretty dire and nigh unwatchable.

How did we get into such a situation, you may ask? It was the usual story of too much rotation and too much overconfidence about a lower-division opponent—although that's pure speculation on my part. Some of the senior players in particular seemed to be giving less than their usual level of focus & effort, though, so I think it's a fair assumption.

Starting XI:

One player who did seem to be locked in was Ben Davies, captaining the team in the absence of the usual leadership trio in the starting lineup. He made a brilliant tackle to deny a Coventry goal that ended up being very important and also got a header on target during an offensive set piece.

He was partnered in the centerback duo by Radu Drăgușin, and only Pedro Porro got a rest from the remainder of the backline. Archie Gray took his place for his first competitive start with Spurs.

Lucas Bergvall also got his first start, leading the midfield in front of Pape Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur.

We would end up seeing both starting wingers leave the match through injury; Wilson Odobert's sounds fairly serious and could have him miss a significant amount of games, while Timo Werner's was apparently only a knock. Brennan Johnson replaced Odobert in the 18th-minute substitution.

Dominic Solanke also left the match early, as did Udogie, but they were planned substitutions. Hopefully they will be fresh enough to contribute on Saturday. Djed Spence benefitted from the cautionary sub for Udogie and got to play a full half, taking advantage of his opportunity to score the equalizer.

Although James Maddison and Son Heung-min both came in for the last thirty minutes of the match, Dejan Kulusevski's entrance made the biggest impact.

Top three things:

1. Drop off in keeper quality. I already alluded to Fraser Forster's woeful performance, but it bears repeating. His distribution skills are simply not up to par with the needs of the Angeball system. Sure, he made some impressive saves a couple of times, but they were enforced by his own mistakes in playing out. He also narrowly avoided taking out Drăgușin after coming out too late to claim a ball outside the box. In fairness to Forster, there wasn't much he could do about the sole Coventry goal; either Davies and Spence couldn't agree on who was meant to mark Brandon Thomas-Asante or they both thought they'd kept the offside trap intact, but the outcome was a close-range shot for the Coventry winger. Still, I felt fear in my heart as we approached full time tied at 1-1 knowing we didn't have any subs left to swap him out for Guglielmo Vicario. I am not saying this to be mean but to be truthful: Forster cannot be in goal for a penalty shootout for Spurs ever again. I have zero faith in him in that scenario. Inquiring minds would like to know why Brandon Austin isn't getting a look in as second keeper, especially considering that he had some bright moments in pre-season!
2. Subs taking the game by the scruff of the neck. Spence is the obvious shout since he needed these cup minutes to impress Ange even more than the youngsters that got to start. He made a clever run after progressing the ball up the pitch to get on the end of a passing sequence that befuddled Coventry's defense. It's frustrating that we haven't seen more of this kind of fast, centrally-focused play from the team, but perhaps it takes a player like Spence with some youthful impetus to inspire a spark. Fellow subs Maddison and Kulusevski were also involved in the goal move, while Son acted as a decoy to draw out one of the defenders to the wing. A deceptively simple move drew us level within the space of 15 seconds.
3. Rodrigo recovered to contribute. I was very critical of Bentancur earlier in the match—especially in the leadup to the conceded goal—for being lax in possession and missing opportunities to press. He finally switched on in the late stages to be involved in both Spurs goals. He found Spence in space to kick off the fullback's initial run for the equalizing goal, then pressed to steal the ball away from a Coventry player and quickly sent an inch-perfect through ball to Johnson for the winning goal. So as much as I think Kulusevski's overall movement was integral to the comeback, it probably wouldn't have happened at all if Bentancur hadn't managed to switch on. Thankfully it was not too little too late in this case, but as one of the more senior members of the squad now, he needs to be setting a better example from the first whistle onward.

We only got to enjoy about five minutes of pure Spurs football, but it was enough in the end.

SAtP Player of the Match: Brennan Johnson

I'm giving it to Bren not just for scoring the game-winner, but also for managing such a feat after the terrible mental health week he's had. There are a lot of Spurs fans who do not deserve to enjoy the fruits of his goal because they have not respected him, let alone supported him. It was sad to see him barely celebrate the goal and shy away from the fans after the game, but you can't blame him. Justice for Brennan.

Notable and quotable:

• Djed Spence scored his first goal for Spurs in a competitive fixture. Congrats, Djed!

I’m happy to be in the plans. I’m happy to keep moving forward with the team. Hopefully we keep winning and we can go on from there. I’m looking forward. I’ve just got to stay ready and be ready for whenever I’m called upon, like today.

• James Maddison reflected on his return to his boyhood club:

• Ange had spoken before the game about the abuse Brennan Johnson has been receiving on social media lately:

You’re talking about a young guy who is probably lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. Things haven’t gone his way, but he comes here every day, he’s working his backside off, he’s asking for feedback, he’s doing everything right, he’s trying so hard to become the player he wants to be, it’s hurting him a lot. It’s not like he’s out on the town and he doesn’t care and he rolls up late. So what’s his crime? His crime is he isn’t performing at the level that people expect of him. As a professional footballer you've got to expect that you’re going to get criticism about that, that’s part of your growth. He’s still a young player and I think there is so much more of Brennan that we’re going to bring out in him.

He also had some advice for fans and pundits being impatient to see goals from Dominic Solanke:

People are just so quick to judge, mate. It's a small sample. The guy has played less than 2 games for us. If he has gone 15 games without a goal then I can answer that question or 15 games where he hasn't contributed, but I just think: take a breath. Do a bit of yoga. Think about the world for a second and make an assessment after that.

• Brennan's thoughts on the game:

Probably the main point is we're disappointed with the performance. I think we were a bit sloppy, but at the end of the day, it came down to just not giving up. In games like that, I feel like once it gets to 80, 85 minutes... I just thought even though none of us were really at our best, we found a way to win and that’s something that we can take positives from. It’s my first goal of the season, which I would have liked to have come a bit earlier, but I think scoring like this right at the end, it’s important, positive for the team. To be honest, it was kind of backs against the wall a little bit so just to win it at the end, to get through, showing fight at the end, it’s good for everyone and obviously I’m happy to score the winner.

Previewing PL Matchday 5 — Brentford

Brentford have had a decent season so far, winning the games you would expect them to win (including two rounds in the League Cup against lower-division opponents) but losing to Liverpool and Manchester City. They seemed to be weathering the loss of Ivan Toney better than many expected.

Yoane Wissa even managed to score in the 1st minute against City—then got injured just before halftime. His ankle injury is expected to keep him out for at least a couple of months. He joins a fairly long injury list for the Bees, including Rico Henry and Mathias Jensen.

With Wissa out, Brentford will be relying on Bryan Mbeumo to do the lion's share of work in the attack, but Kevin Schade provides an interesting (if enforced) change to the striker position in Wissa's absence. Schade had just started to get a look in with the Germany senior national team before suffering the groin injury that kept him sidelined for club and country for the majority of last season.

Spurs' injury list has a new addition in Wilson Odobert (no official timetable yet for his return), while Richarlison remains out (and the wait is only getting longer). Timo Werner's knock in the League Cup game wasn't serious, though he didn't do much with his performance prior to being substituted to warrant more game time in the near future. Otherwise, the whole squad has been training and should be good to go.

I suspect we'll see a starting lineup closer to the Arsenal game than the Coventry game for the sake of rotation and keeping that injury list sparse, but there are a few players who made an argument for a substitute appearance at least, including Djed Spence and Lucas Bergvall. In contrast, Pape Sarr is slowly but surely losing his place in the go-to XI.

It's tempting to put Dejan Kulusevski back on the right wing to take the pressure off Brennan Johnson to start, but Deki has been so strong from central positions that I would rather see him in a midfield partnership with James Maddison. Ange could try swapping Johnson and Son to opposite flanks than they've been operating to see if it shakes something loose, because both have had some stale moments in recent games (the Coventry game being an obvious exception for Johnson). Giving them a fresh challenge could provide some inspiration for their individual games and also take Brentford by surprise. Just spitballing here.

Our next opponent in the league is Manchester United, who are looking increasingly confident after a couple of multiple-goal wins, so a win against Brentford could be very important.

Previewing WSL Matchday 1 — Crystal Palace

Finally! The new season is here. And we've got a favorable matchup to begin, hosting newly promoted Crystal Palace at Brisbane Road.

Palace have a promising young manager in Laura Kaminski and have upgraded their squad in several positions to prepare for their inaugural Women's Super League season. They've brought in experienced players like Katie Stengel, Katrine Veje, and Spurs alumna Josie Green. They also recruited several young loan players from top clubs, although two days ago it was announced that Jorja Fox had unfortunately torn her ACL.

I'm sure you've all learned plenty about our new signings at Spurs by this point, so all that remains is the first injury report. Ella Morris sadly misses out on a potential debut because of a knock suffered in the penultimate pre-season friendly, but she will be back in contention soon. Wang Shuang also picked up a knock during pre-season. Amy James-Turner is somehow already under concussion protocol, so let's wish her a swift recovery! Morris and James-Turner are both expected to be back in the matchday squad by the next game.

Robert Vilahamn still has plenty of difficult selection decisions to make for the first starting lineup of the season. We could see some new signings straight into XI, like Clare Hunt and Maite Oroz, while others may have to wait for their debuts. There's also the persistent dilemma of the striker position, which hasn't become any simpler after the unbeaten pre-season. Martha Thomas made a strong argument to get the start, but Jess Naz is always an exciting option, and then there's the literal captain of the team—Beth England. (Speaking of England, I highly recommend watching her recent interview on Inside Spurs, which starts at 10:55 if you want to skip straight to it.) I don't envy Robert having to make that choice! We've also got plenty of strong options for the winger positions as well as competition for the midfield places.

But frankly, I'm just excited to see the team play, period, no matter who is starting. It was tough not getting to see any of the pre-season matches with so many new players in the mix!

Much like the situation with the Men's team, the schedule isn't going to get easier for the Women's team any time soon. And with Palace being the newcomers to the league, it's effectively a must-win game on opening day. We don't want to regret squandering any of these points later in the season.

News from around the Lane

Just a few quick club updates to wrap things up.

• The Men's U21s will be participating in a new competition this season called the National League Cup. They'll be competing with a mix of fellow U21 sides and National League teams. Check out the linked news release to read more about the competition format and the teams we've been drawn with for the group stage.

• Amy James-Turner has signed a new contract, keeping her at the club until 2026. It's a pity she can't celebrate by being involved in the opening game of the season!

• Spurs Women confirmed the squad numbers for the WSL campaign. The only real changes are that youngsters Lenna Gunning-Williams and Araya Dennis have been assigned senior shirt numbers. It's funny to me that Wang Shuang is still sticking with #77, though perhaps there's a story behind it that we don't know!

That's all! It's back to double Spurs game weekends from here on out, international breaks and WSL winter break besides. I can't promise the Women's season will be less stressful than the Men's has been so far, but at least they will give us some new topics to talk about.

Now more than ever,

COYS

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