Mo Salah, Mo Problems
All I want for Christmas is a well-rested, fully healthy defense for Spurs Men. But it would take a Christmas miracle for that to happen in time for the next match on Boxing Day, so for now, we have to make do with a suboptimal setup.
The defensive (and goalkeeping) frailties were on full display against league-leaders Liverpool. We escaped two early errors without conceding but they portended that worse things were still to come. Six goals, to be precise. To Spurs' credit, we responded with three goals of our own, all of which were high-quality finishes. So with relatively minimal damage to the goal difference after all, we can look forward to another difficult matchup for the post-holiday fixture.
In this issue: Liverpool recap | Previewing Boxing Day at Nottingham Forest | News from around the Lane | Pub chat: Bonus bookmarks
I'm going to keep today's issue pretty short and sweet since it's a holiday edition. My Christmas guests don't arrive until tomorrow, but I've got some cookies to bake after I fire this off.
I'll also round up some of my recent Spurs-related reads and listens for you to enjoy with a cup of hot cocoa (or something stronger).
PL Matchday 17 recap | Tottenham 3 - 6 Liverpool
Maddison 41', Kulusevski 72', Solanke 83' | Diaz 23' • 85', Mac Allister 36', Szoboszlai 45+1', Salah 54' • 61'
Perhaps it was a small blessing that we held Mo Salah scoreless until the second half, but he wasn't the only Liverpool player with a brace, not to mention his brace of assists.
With Liverpool's fearsome form this season, it would probably take a near-perfect performance from Spurs to earn a result. We certainly weren't perfect on Sunday and the injury absences have hampered the defense almost beyond hope. It's been painful to watch Pedro Porro try to track back on his heavy legs, especially knowing that backup goalkeeper Fraser Forster is in the midst of a crisis of confidence.
I can't say that this game filled me with confidence that we can beat Liverpool on aggregate over two legs in the League Cup semi-final after the turn of the year, but there's at least some slim hope that we'll have a few key players back from the rehab room for reinforcements. And for the second leg, we could possibly benefit from transfer window activity. Regardless, Liverpool will remain a force to be reckoned with and favorites for more than just the League Cup trophy this season.
Starting XI:
During this injury crisis it's important—for our mental health if nothing else—to put the disappointing results into proper context. This was a Liverpool team at nearly full strength, with an extra day of rest and heavy rotation in their midweek cup game. By contrast, Spurs fielded an unchanged lineup from the win over Manchester United. Several players are continuing to start game after game despite badly needing a rest because there simply isn't anyone available to relieve them.
This marked Djed Spence's third straight start in all competitions, and despite the six goals conceded he probably had one of the better performances on the day. He and Archie Gray fought valiantly on the left flank to deny Salah, but it was a tough assignment—arguably the toughest they will face this season. More than once they accidentally cancelled each other by getting tangled up on their defensive runs.
Radu Drăgușin has also been enjoying consistent game time recently, though I can't say he enjoyed it much in this match; he made several errors and oversights that led directly to Liverpool goals.
Top three things:
- Forward line still firing. One silver lining for Spurs is that our top performers are continuing to produce and will round out the calender year on a strong run of form. Dominic Solanke in particular is really starting to come into his own, with a goal and an assist in this match to reward his impressive workrate, only rivaled in the squad by Dejan Kulusevski. And as thin as the bench options have been lately, we still saw an assist from a substitute, Brennan Johnson.
- Missing midfield. Liverpool have one of the best, if not the best, midfields in the league, so it felt somewhat inevitable that we would be losing the midfield battle. Still, Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr don't seem to have recovered their chemistry after so much fluctuation in the midfield selection lately, and it showed in their disjointed performance. The fact that James Maddison was substituted so early suggests that Ange Postecoglou didn't feel he was helping much from farther up the pitch, albeit after contributing a goal. On that note, Sarr was also fairly effective at getting involved in the attack, even taking a couple of decent shots from the edge of the box. But our lack of defensive nous from the midfield remains a thorn in our side against the top teams.
- Game mismanagement. I'm not naive enough to suggest that it would have made a difference to the result, but the goal we conceded in first-half stoppage was surely a blow to morale. I've already mentioned several of the factors that made us vulnerable defensively in this game, but it's still frustrating to see the team fail to capitalize on offensive momentum only to give up a goal on the other end. So while it's somewhat reassuring that we're still scoring at high volume, too many of the goals this season have been mere consolations because the games were already lost long before. I am sympathetic to Postecoglou not having many meaningful substitute options to change the game, but the failures of focus from the players already on the pitch are a bigger, ongoing concern.
SAtP Player of the Match: Dominic Solanke
Solanke is really hitting his stride as we near the midway point of the season. With three goals and an assist over the last two games, he's been a prolific presence in the forward line. And with his two goal contributions against Liverpool, he became the joint-third contributor for the squad in Premier League games.
Hopefully whatever was going on with his mouth got resolved, and not with a missing or broken tooth.
Notable & quotable:
• Dejan Kulusevski has scored in five straight games in all competitions.
• We still have the third best goal difference in the league despite conceding six goals to Liverpool.
• Son Heung-min equalled Harry Kane's Premier League appearances for Spurs with 317; only Hugo Lloris has more with 361.
Previewing PL Matchday 18 — Nottingham Forest
At the beginning of the season, the prospect of a Boxing Day matchup at Nottingham Forest didn't seem too daunting. But Nuno Espírito Santo has been busy making them proud, leading his team to a 4th-place standing in the Premier League.
Forest's stingy defense has been a big part of their success this season. They have conceded the joint second fewest goals in the league (19). On the flipside, they've scored the fewest goals of any team in the current top half of the table. I wouldn't expect this matchup to be as high-scoring as some of our recent games against more free-flowing opposition (or as defensively hopeless as Southampton). It will be a big test of Spurs' creativity.
Spurs did the double over Forest least season in the league, only allowing one goal from the opposition. If we can shut down Chris Wood, there's a high likelihood that we continue that trend; Wood has scored nearly half of Forest's PL goals this season. He's also been prolific for New Zealand of late.
Set piece specialist James-Ward Prowse was an intriguing loan signing for Forest, but he's not scored or assisted for them yet, and in fact has only made six appearances so far. He hasn't made it off the bench since he last started for Forest against Arsenal back in November.
Forest haven't had many significant injuries, unlike Spurs. Danilo broke his ankle early in the season but otherwise they've stayed fairly healthy.
Spurs' injury situation hasn't worsened after the Liverpool game, but also hasn't improved. Destiny Udogie was an unused substitute for that game and will likely feature in some way against Forest. Meanwhile, Rodrigo Bentancur's seven-game suspension has come to an end and he's available for Boxing Day. He'll have to be on his best behavior, however, if he doesn't want to wind up suspended for the following game; he's on yellow card accumulation watch for the penultimate match of the first half of the season.
The league table is still fairly congested approaching the midway point, but three points would go a long way to improving Spurs' position—or at least not losing any more ground. We need to avoid falling irretrievably behind other top 4/5 hopefuls as we wait for our key players to return from injury. I would class this game as a must-win for that reason.
News from around the Lane
• Yang Min-hyeok has arrived at Hotspur Way and is already training ahead of officially becoming active for Spurs on January 1. No pressure, Min-hyeok, but we kind of need you to be ready to hit the ground running! Thankfully, that will probably be the case since he's fresh off the end of the K League season.
• The fixture dates have been confirmed for Spurs' two-leg semi-final with Liverpool in the League Cup: the home leg takes place on January 8 at 8 pm UK time/3 pm ET, then the away leg kicks off on February 6 at the same time.
• In an exciting Men's Academy loan watch update, Leyton Orient earned a strong 0-4 away win at Barnsley thanks to a goal & brace of assists from Jamie Donley and a clean sheet from Josh Keeley.
• From the Women's Academy, Emily McMaster is heading on loan to Maidenhead United in the FA Women’s National League Division One South West on a dual-registration agreement. The defender was serving as captain of the U21s this season.
Pub chat: Bonus bookmarks
• Spurs Women shared a nice scrapbook piece from Ella Morris that dives into her early career and international experience, as well as her Spurs debut.
• Robert Vilahamn gave his assessment of Spurs Women's start to the season, noting the successful League Cup group stage as well as the opportunities for youth players to thrive.
Tottenham Hotspur
• The club did it's annual My First Spurs Christmas feature, which is always worth a read.
Tottenham Hotspur
• I've recommended this podcast before, although it's not Spurs-specific. I enjoyed their discussion of labor rights in women's football.
• This is an older piece that I just recently got around to reading, but this profile on Alfie Devine has some interesting insights and anecdotes from his various loan spells.
Michael Walker
• I'll end with a festive one! If you have youngsters in your life, you simply have to show them this Spurs bedtime story from Sonny, LGW, and Gentle Ben.
Happy holidays and as always,
COYS
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