Front Foot Football

A return to Tottenham's attacking heritage gives hope for a top four finish, however slim the chance.

My alternative title for this newsletter issue was "Criminal Negligence," i.e. what Mourinho is guilty of for leaving Bale out of the starting lineup all those games (and arguably Ryan Mason for the League Cup Final, but let's not go there)--but I figured that might be an alarming subject line for y'all's email inboxes. Besides Bale's individual masterclass, the overall team effort on offense was the big talking point of the match that saw Spurs claim a 4-0 victory over Sheffield United.

It was so good to see Spurs controlling possession (67%!) and playing on the front foot almost the entire match. You actually get the sense that the players have been working with Mason on concrete offensive strategies during training, unlike previously under Mourinho. What a concept! Bale alluded to as much in his post-match interview, see tweet below. It kind of makes you wonder if players had been holding back offensively and trying to play more to Mourinho’s preferences for fear of losing playing time and being sent to the bench (and the open-ended exile that comes from being out of favor with José). Dele and Lo Celso worked pretty well together in the midfield to open up Sheffield United’s defense (a few misplaced passes aside) and maintain possession and pressure, with lots of help from the fullbacks. Although Reguilón didn’t get an assist or goal (close! ish!), he was much improved from recent matches. Aurier was superb, notching two assists for Bale.

Bale was so full of confidence and his finishing was downright fierce, as if he had something to prove. Or perhaps he was hoping Mourinho was watching from home and taking it very personally? I don’t think there should be any doubt about it now: if Real Madrid are willing to let him go, Bale needs to stay. He’s consistently (well, as consistently as he could considering the previous manager’s sporadic use of him) proven that he can be a difference-maker in the forward line. The timing alone on his through runs is just * chef's kiss*. And the cool composure! He really showed his maturity and experience in this match, both of which will be invaluable to us on the pitch and in a mentorship capacity if he stays on.

Kane had another off day, but hopefully, it’s just him still getting back to speed after his injury. And I also hope it’s not a matter of shaken confidence or distraction considering recent news reports about him wanting to leave Spurs, which would be enough to throw anyone off their game.

It was a bummer having Sonny’s first goal chalked off due to the supremely stupid minutiae of the offsides law (I will personally never understand why you can be ruled offsides for a part of the body you didn't or can't use to score), but there was no denying his phenomenal strike later on. I don't know about y'all, but I was so happy to see Sonny smiling again after the heartbreak of the League Cup final result.

But speaking of VAR, I am still livid that Fleck wasn’t sent off for his blatant stomp on Lo Celso’s face. I mean, Gio literally had visible marks on his face (not to mention the blood) from Fleck's boot. If that’s not a clearly dangerous play, I don’t know what is. And for what it’s worth (not much, in the purview of VAR), it did look intentional. We didn’t need the red card advantage to win the game anyway, but it’s the principle of it, along with how frustratingly inconsistent VAR has been this season.

Clean sheet alert! Hugo didn’t have much to do but made his save (singular) when he needed to. It was another strong defensive performance from Dier and Alderweireld; they're definitely our best CB partnership for the time being. We even looked more solid on set piece defense. About time!!

This game prompted a lot of “what could have been” emotions and speculation. If we had not squandered so many points with last-minute draws... If Bale had been playing more regularly... If Dele had ever been given a decent run of games to get back in form...

We’ll never know exactly which results could have been different, but it’s probably fair to say that we would have been safely in the top four by now, not trying to claw our way in at the last minute. On that note, cheers to Gareth (and Sonny) for boosting our goal differential, in case it comes down to that in the final table standings. It very well could.

Can Spurs keep this up for the last four games, or will the mentality crumble again? The final match against Leicester is my biggest worry, though the Foxes have a difficult run-in to the last matchday, including the FA Cup final against Chelsea.  I'm writing this just after the West Ham victory over Burnley, which is an unfortunate result for us, but honestly, we're just going to have to win all of our last four games and hope that the likes of West Ham, Chelsea, Everton, and Liverpool drop significant points. That's all we can do.

Up next:  an away trip to Leeds

The good:  Leeds are without a win in their last three matches

The bad:  they haven't lost to any of the "top teams" this season

It does seem like the effort of winning the Championship title last season and getting off to such a bright start in their first PL berth in 16 years has finally started to catch up to them. We might be catching them at just the right time, especially as they don't really have much to play for at this point, except for finishing in the top half of the table the same season they were promoted. That would definitely be an accomplishment! I do enjoy watching Leeds and don't begrudge them any other wins this season, but we've got to beat them on Saturday.

Since I'm writing this preview several days out from the match we don't have an updated injury report yet, but so far it looks like Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips are both possible injury misses for Leeds, while we still have Ben Davies out with a calf injury (since Reguilón is on the upswing, I'm not too concerned about that, though of course I hope Davies gets better soon!).

My main hope for this game is that we match Leeds' trademark intensity and press with an intensity of our own. I mean, surely we've seen the end of the low block... right?! For once I'm feeling pretty confident about our ability to keep a clean sheet, considering that Toby and Dier have been working well together, Hugo is in top form, and Leeds' finishing has been pretty poor their last few games. Let's just keep playing to our forward line's individual strengths and the goals should come.

I wouldn't tweak the lineup any from the formation we had for Sheffield United, except to maybe bring in Ndombele for Lo Celso, if only to be assured that Ndombele is not on the outs again for some reason. That is a bit of a concern. Also, where's Rodon been? I'm happy to see Dier and Alderweireld starting the rest of the season's matches, but he should get some minutes in as a sub if the scorelines allow. We definitely want to keep developing him for the future after he showed so much promise in key games earlier this season.

And please... let Kane get at least one goal. I really want that Golden Boot award for him this season, because you know he's unlikely to get the Play of the Year consideration he deserves. And maybe an assist for Son to keep him at the top of the Playmaker leaderboard, too? I don't ask for much. 🤞🏻

COYS

P.S. I don't really have any commentary on the Manchester United fan protests except to say:

• protest is good and warranted.
• violence is bad (especially towards club employees like the stewards, who didn't deserve that).
• breaking the stadium's COVID protocol bubble was stupid on the part of the fans who would surely like to see the club they love actually get to play the game.
• it's a pity for the health of both Man U and Liverpool's players, who will now have to squeeze this postponed match into the last few weeks of the season... somehow, somewhere. It's a good thing Man U have basically already sewn up their Europa League tie with Roma.