In a State of Inertia

The doldrums continue to linger around Tottenham, whether our teams are playing home or away. The Women's team at least scored a goal, and a milestone one at that, but there weren't many silver linings to be found otherwise.

In this issue:  Wolves recap | Manchester City recap | Previewing the AC Milan match

Wolverhampton 1 - 0 Tottenham

This match didn't have a particularly early kickoff time for me here in Texas, but I still found myself contemplating sleeping in instead of watching. I haven't been this reluctant to watch the Men's team in a long time, but the last performance in the FA Cup exit to Sheffield United had really dampened my mood—and the starting lineup for the Wolves match didn't make me feel reassured in the slightest that things would be different.

Despite the club's focus seemingly shifting to maintaining top 4 in the league after being knocked out of the FA Cup (the CL campaign is a whole other can of worms, which I will get into later in the preview section), this was not a lineup that screamed "we're taking this match seriously."

Sure, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski were back in the forward line with Son Heung-min (a choice in itself, keeping Son in the starting XI), and Oliver Skipp replaced the less-experienced Pape Sarr in the midfield next to Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, but the defense gave me pause. Why bench Eric Dier when he cannot play midweek due to suspension? Friend of the newsletter Andrew theorized that it was Conte's way of giving Ben Davies, Clément Lenglet, and Cristian Romero a game to play together and prepare before the all-important second leg against AC Milan on Wednesday, and I'm sure that was the rationale behind the change. But again, are we prioritizing top 4 or not? It feels like mixed messaging. It was also disappointing to see another Ivan Perišić and Pedro Porro wingback pairing because it's not a pairing that is strong on the defensive end. I would have much preferred to see Dier starting in the back-three so that Davies could play at left wingback again. Rounding out the starting lineup, we had Fraser Forster in goal, and he certainly could have done better on the goal we conceded late in the game.

I hesitate to be too critical of Porro since he is still getting his sea legs in the Premier League, but I do think it's fair to say that he hasn't been the transformative January transfer that many had hoped he would be. He took one shot during this game that was so poorly hit that I literally groaned and put my head in my hands. I feel bad for him, honestly. He's joined a club that is in a pretty bad space mentally at the moment, and it's not going to make his integration any easier.

As for Perišić, I don't understand why Conte insists on continuing to play him for full 90s at the wingback role. He simply doesn't have the pace or the conditioning for it anymore. He would be more impactful at wingback as an impact sub. Of course, with Ryan Sessegnon injured and the versatile Matty Doherty no longer at the club, we have a bit of an availability crisis in the left wingback spot when Ben Davies is needed at centerback. Still, at some point I would like to see him given a chance to play more minutes at winger, where he thrived at for his past clubs.

This issue of playing players where they are less effective is also affecting Sonny, who is still playing in his usual left winger role but is being employed differently within that role under this season's tactics. Because Conte is so wedded to his preferred tactical system, heavily reliant on production from the wingbacks, much of Son's skillset has been neutralized. It's not hard to understand why Son doesn't look like himself this season; I would also be lacking confidence if I was asked to be something I'm not as a player.

And even though Kane has been scoring at a fairly consistent rate, I still don't think Conte is getting as much out of him this season, either. Part of that includes his partnership with Sonny being minimized, which has naturally reduced Kane's assist output this year.

This is the reality of Spurs' football under Conte, and why I don't even feel motivated to discuss the events of the match in any great detail. It's an exercise in frustration and negativity. Conte's system doesn't take advantage of the best attributes of our top players and actively underutilizes a large portion of the current roster. I keep wanting to give Conte a chance, but there have just been too many examples to prove that his tactics are not sustainable with our squad. And I have no faith that he will adapt. I am, to make it short, over it. I genuinely don't understand the logic in keeping Conte on at this point if he (as has been widely reported) is uninterested in staying at Tottenham after the season ends. Rip the bandaid off now. Install Ryan Mason again until the summer if that's what it takes!

The other problem with persisting with Conte's methods is that I genuinely think it creates an obstacle to recruiting players. If prospective players get the sense that they won't be able to show the full range of their capabilities but rather will be shoehorned into a narrow role, hindering their chances of establishing themselves in the starting lineup, who could blame them for seeing Tottenham as an unappealing destination in their careers? It's sad to say, but we have probably sold a lot of our recent transfers a false vision of their importance in the team.

The last thing I want to say about this game is that it's bordering on disrespect that we (usually) show up for games against top 6 opposition but play down to other "lesser" opponents. However, those opponents will take the disrespect and laugh all the way to the three points. Wolves definitely did, and more power to them.

While we remain in 4th, Liverpool are nipping at our heels after their 7-0 demolition of Manchester United. They are just three points below us with a game in hand, and a win in that fixture would see them leapfrog us on goal difference. Also worrying, Newcastle United have two games in hand and are just four points below us currently, while also having a superior goal difference to Spurs as it stands. In theory, we have the more favorable run of games coming up since the next three are all fixtures against relegation candidates, but just look at how the Wolves game went. The mentality simply has to be better.

Manchester City 3 - 1 Tottenham

It's one thing to know you're unlikely to gain points from a fixture, and another to actually see that result come to pass.

It did not help that Beth England was out of the matchday squad for the second game in a row. We were also missing captain Shelina Zadorsky, who was an unused substitute for the FA Cup match last weekend but not present on the bench at all for the City clash. The only change to the lineup from that previous match was Rosella Ayane starting instead of Asmita Ale, necessitating a formation change.  

This loss was made all the more frustrating by the fact that we actually took the lead in the 31st minute. Ash Neville found Rosella Ayane in space on the left flank and Ros put a dangerous cross into the box. Now, we did get a bit lucky with the abysmal defending from City, and I thought the chance was lost when neither Nikola Karczewska nor Mana Iwabuchi got on the end of it, but then Celin Bizet appeared completely unmarked to score with a confident shot. She finally got her first goal in a Spurs shirt, and nearly completed a brace near the end of the game with a curling shot.

Celin and Tinni Korpela were our strongest performers on the day, with Tinni making several big saves to keep us in the game throughout the first half.

Unfortunately, we conceded just before halftime. Ash could only clear a ball from Lauren Hemp as far as Bunny Shaw, who easily headed it in for City's first goal. It was frustrating to concede in that manner after such a stalwart defensive performance in the rest of the first half, and it was made worse by conceding another goal shortly after halftime. That time it was a penalty, won by Chloe Kelly, committed by Ash, and converted by Shaw. The WSL's top goal-scorer completed her hat trick with less than ten minutes of regular time to go, striking at a loose ball. Ash nearly pulled off a heroic goal-line clearance, but it wasn't to be.

Although we had a couple of other chances to score, first to equalize and then to try to get one back just before stoppage time began, we weren't clinical enough with our finishing. Rosella had her one-on-one shot saved by City keeper Ellie Roebuck, then Cho So-hyun (a late substitution for Drew Spence) mishit her header wide of the goal.

The only other real positives of the match were that Kit Graham got a solid cameo from the 64th minute on, while youngster Lenna Gunning-Williams made her WSL debut in stoppage time. For the former, it was valuable game time as she continues her return from an ACL injury last season, and for the latter, it was a chance to experience the pace and demands of WSL competition.

Even if the loss was expected, it was still costly. Spurs are now down to 10th in the WSL table and are just three points above last-place Leicester and one point above 11th-place Brighton. It would be disingenuous to deny that we are firmly in the relegation battle now. It's a sad situation to be in the year after our club-best 5th-place finish in the league. Now, we are already mathematically past the point where we could hope to equal our points total from last season (32). We have also already conceded more goals than we did in the entirety of last season and are eight goals off the goals total with only nine games remaining. Let's just take a moment to feel sad about it; I know I do.

There are many reasons we've gotten ourselves into this state. I was listening to a recent episode of The Game is About Glory pod and Milo observed that it had been a "season of distractions" for the Men's team. I would posit that it's been much the same for our Women's side as well. From the early-season injury crisis (which, let's face it, hasn't ever gone away), the frequent match postponements in the winter portion of the season, and then the debacle with Summanen's two-match ban following the Ella Toone red card incident in the Manchester United game. All of these issues have affected other teams in the league at various times (well, not the "successful deception of a match official" suspension scenario—thanks, FA!), but Spurs have seemed particularly unlucky—in contrast to last season, where luck definitely went our way at several key junctures.  

For that reason, despite my increasing concern about some of Rehanne Skinner's management choices, I don't think it would be right at this time to let her go. She does deserve a chance to get the most out of the squad when it's closer to being complete, not riddled with long-term injuries and unfortunate suspensions. But with that being said, I suspect the club might be tempted to make a difficult choice if the team cannot produce points from the next two games against fellow relegation scrappers, Liverpool and Leicester City. There have been glimpses of hope from certain aspects of the performances over the last couple of months, but at some point, those good performances have to start translating into points.

And I hate to say it so bluntly, but there are some players who are not pulling their weight compared to their supposed stature on the team. You can see which players are giving it all in every game, even with occasional mistakes (Ash is the standout in that regard), and you can see which players are switching off too often and pulling out of challenges. That includes a few summer transfers who are supposed to be "veterans" of the league and set an example for younger players on the team. We're going to need full effort from the whole squad over the last few months of the season to avoid relegation and get the club back on track from a reputation standpoint.

I'll preview the Liverpool matchup later this week. For now, let's wrap things up with a preview of the Men's CL game.

Quarter-finals or bust

Before this past week of results, I wouldn't have thought a one-goal deficit from the away leg of our Champions League Round of 16 tie was too insurmountable to overcome. But now... Suffice it to say I'm not feeling overly confident that we can turn it around.

We're going to need to score at least two goals to avoid penalties, or at least one to force a shootout after extra time. We haven't scored in our last two games in all competitions, so that's concerning. But hey, at least we don't have to worry about away goals giving AC Milan a potential advantage!

There will have to be at least one change to the starting XI that faced AC Milan in the away leg, because as mentioned previously, Dier is suspended on yellow card accumulation. I would wager it's a 99% chance that the back-three will be Davies-Lenglet-Romero—unless Conte decides to just throw this competition too, in which case we could see one of Davinson Sánchez or Japhet Tanganga get a surprise inclusion. Perišić will have to start at left wingback, but I hope to see Emerson Royal on the righthand side instead of Porro for this crucial game. The midfield should be Højbjerg and Skipp again. The sad truth is that none of our forwards are truly in form right now besides Kane, so I feel less confident predicting who Conte will select for the front-three.

Olivier Giroud is reportedly out for the return leg, but we still have some very troublesome forwards to deal with in Rafael Leão and Brahim Díaz. Theo Hernández's crosses will also need to be contained. I would expect for this to be another physical game against the Italians.

I don't know what else to do but hope, honestly. We know Conte won't change his tactics or try a different formation, so that's all we can do.

Don't mind me, just thinking about what could have been...

COYS

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