Falling Flat

This issue is going to be short and (bitter)sweet, because truthfully, I was more interested in watching the figure skating Grand Prix this weekend than sitting down to write about Spurs Men.

It was not an exciting game, unless you are Guglielmo Vicario's #1 fan. I may not be #1, but I do think I appreciate him more than a lot of the fanbase has been this season, so count me in the fan club at least. Vicario's shot-stopping ability rescued a draw from what could have been a very lopsided result in Monaco's favor.

In this issue: Monaco recap

It was a slow news week, with the only notable change at the club level being the appointment of Eric Hinson to the board as a Non-Executive Director.

In less than an hour, Spurs Men kick off at Everton's new stadium and begin a week that also includes a League Cup trip to Newcastle. Brace yourselves!

Champions League MD 3 | Monaco 0 - 0 Tottenham

Something is clearly not working in this Spurs Men team. The goal scoring is slowing to a trickle, and in fact, this was just the second time this season we have been held scoreless. At least it also came with a clean sheet, but the dysfunction in the forward line is a legitimate concern.

I suspect the issue is happening further back in the midfield, however. We played our best football early this season when Pape Sarr was a mainstay in the starting XI. We haven't heard of any serious injury issue for the midfielder, but if Thomas Frank is keeping him out as a mere selection decision, that's almost more worrying. The double pivot of João Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur hasn't been totally unproductive (see their combination for the sole goal for Spurs in the Aston Villa game), but on the whole, it's created a more stagnant midfield than we need to keep the forwards supplied with goal chances.

While we failed to create much in the attack, Monaco peppered our backline and keeper with a shocking 23 shots in total, eight of them on target. That Guglielmo Vicario was able to save all eight of those successful shots was the difference between bringing home a point and taking our first loss in the competition. You never want a keeper to need to make that many saves, but nevertheless, it was nice that he had an opportunity to answer back to some of the criticism he's received of late and actually delivered.

As it is, we remain undefeated in the league phase and still have some time to regroup before the toughest tests. Copenhagen are up next, and they won't be pushovers, but it's better to face them now than, say, Paris Saint-Germain, our following opponent. The Premier League campaign is only going to get more difficult in the meantime, so hopefully we start to resemble a cohesive team soon.

Notable & quotable:

• Spurs are currently in the playoff spots in the league phase table, sitting 15th with a win and two draws so far.

• This result broke a streak of going 125 games without a scoreless draw. The last one, which I'm sure many of y'all will immediately recall, was the draw against AC Milan in the Champions League during the Antonio Conte era. Bleak times those were...

• Thomas Frank shared his assessment of the game:

The team definitely wanted to defend the goal and did everything to do that. Sometimes you can’t hit a high enough level which we didn’t today and then you take a point and clean sheet, which is good on a night where we didn’t hit a high level. I think the point, we’ll be more happy with in the end. Right now, in the moment, I’m disappointed with our performance, especially in the second half. Then we need to understand the learning of playing in the Champions League and against teams that are very competitive. We constantly need to learn and improve.

Up next:

October 26 | Spurs Men @ Everton
Team news — Same as last game, with Dominic Solanke, Cristian Romero, and Destiny Udogie unable to return to play yet, and no progress on the longer-term injuries; Randal Kolo Muani is getting his first start

Let's hope the decision not to take Jack Grealish on loan doesn't come back to bite us today; he's starting for Everton and already has one goal and four assists for them in the Premier League campaign.

Spurs Women are still on international break, and I'm going to try not to fret about the injury rumors until we hear anything concrete.

I'll be back early this week to recap the Everton game ahead of the return to League Cup play for Spurs Men.

COYS

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