Moving On

Am I moving on from writing about Spurs Men in this newsletter? Tempting, but I will persist despite the horrors.

Really, today's title refers to Spurs Women advancing in the League Cup after a near-perfect group stage, capped off by a surprise game-winner for the last match.

In this issue: Bristol City recap | Arsenal recap

I'm going to keep the recaps short and sweet today since a) the Men's team has a midweek match and b) it's a holiday week, and I'm on a tight cooking/baking schedule.

No major news to report since the last issue, either, so that keeps it simple.

Women's LC Group Stage MD3 | Bristol City 0 - 1 Tottenham

Thomas 46'

It's been far too long since I last got to type out that name for the scoreline. Martha Thomas knows that as well as anyone, so nobody can be more relieved than herself that she finally broke her goal-scoring drought for Spurs. A Women's Super League goal still eludes her this season, but her pivotal strike ensured that we comfortably advanced out of the group stage into the quarter-final draw of the League Cup, topping the group and keeping clean sheets throughout the initial games of the competition.

A quick word for Matilda Vinberg, too, who was heavily involved in the attack all game and contributed the assist for Thomas' goal. Perhaps it should be a joint award with Olivia Holdt, but Vinberg was arguably the MVP of the group stage campaign, registering three assists in total. Again, we need to see some production at the WSL level as well, but sometimes cup performances can provide a launching pad for confidence.

Elsewhere in the match, the two big talking points for me were Molly Bartrip making her long-awaited season debut off the bench and a strong substitute cameo from Kit Graham.

Because of their lack of gametime so far this season—mostly due to injury rehab and return, but possibly for tactical/form reasons as well that we are not privy to as fans)—both could be possible targets for a January loan or transfer to make room in the squad for the promised winter window signings (in addition to Signe Gaupset, who has already made her move official). It brings me no pleasure to even broach this topic, because these are two players I feel a great deal of affection for because of their many seasons of service to the badge. But with the WSL squad size limits being so constrained, these kinds of difficult decisions are going to become more and more frequent as Spurs push to develop past middling mid-table and "best of the rest" status to actually become challengers for silverware and European qualification.

Bartrip's squad spot seems more secure out of the two since we still have a lack of available centerbacks due to other injuries and absences (Luana Bühler and Amy James-Turner). But she will be hoping for more opportunities to prove herself before the end of the season. Unfortunately, this match wasn't the best platform to show new manager Martin Ho what she can contribute since Bristol City weren't offering much in the way of pressure on our defense.

Graham, on the other hand, did have a lot of room to impact the closing stages of the match with her creativity and physical presence. One thing I considered in evaluating her performance is the fact that, because of her two lengthy ACL injury rehab stints, she's still spent more of her career playing on the kind of suboptimal pitch that Bristol plays at than not, and therefore is adept at navigating the challenges of a surface that doesn't always cooperate when it comes to aiming a pass or executing a manuever around an opponent. So, partially because she had the obvious energy boost from just entering the game, but also because of her experience in compensating for less-than-ideal natural turf, Graham appeared to be operating at a much swifter speed than the majority of the players who finished out the game. That determination and tenacity make her a joy to watch, and I sincerely hope that Ho is able to find a suitable role for her to play this season, even if only as a super sub. It could be a situation where Graham’s positional versatility is working against her; she’s too valuable as a utility substitute to be given a run of starts in one consistent position. 

That's pretty much it for this game. Bristol never really challenged us. We got more than the needed result (just a draw would have been enough to progress over Aston Villa). It was a professional, competent team effort, which we have come to expect under Ho's management. And nobody seemed to get hurt! You can't ask for too much more. We'll take the fervent joy on Martha's face after finally scoring, of course.

Notable & quotable:

• This was Martha Thomas' first goal of the season in all competitions; she also scored once in last season's League Cup campaign, which turned out to be her only goal of that season.

• Martin Ho noted the important timing of Martha Thomas' goal just after play resumed for the second half:

You want a goal that relaxes the players a little bit, and it was deserved after the first half performance, especially with the ball. It took the shackles off a bit and allowed us to play with more freedom. The players knew they had to win the game today—they knew they had to come up with something to go through. So, I’m glad they did, and Martha took her finish well.

• For the quarter-final, we have been drawn away to Manchester United. The semi-final draw was made at the same time, and if we were to progress over United, we would travel to face the winners of the Crystal Palace vs Arsenal matchup. The exact fixture time for the quarter-final hasn't been set yet, but it will take place the weekend of December 20/21. I won't jinx it by mentioning the weekend for the semi-final.

PL MD 12 | Arsenal 4 - 1 Tottenham

Trossard 36', Eze 41' • 46' • 76' | Richarlison 55'

Truly, the only positive you can take out of this Spurs Men match is that Richarlison has doubled his odds of winning the Premier League Goal of the Season award. Pigeons only score bangers.

Now, I am a self-admitted Richarlison apologist, so of course I feel compelled to point out—in the midst of much recent fan criticism of our #9—that he remains Spurs' leading goal-scorer in the PL with five so far. Is it sustainable for him to continue scoring worldies? I mean, probably not, but you never know with him. Once again, this is a player who certainly could be a valuable squad player (not regular starter) if the rest of the players in his position were more obviously better than him and/or fully fit more often than not. I'm not sure that either Dominic Solanke or Randal Kolo Muani (a loan player for the time being, besides) can tick off both of those boxes. It is what it is, for now, I'm just saying not to look a gift Richarlison in the mouth.

It's all a moot point because the one-off nature of Richarlison's goal was indicative of just how little service he was getting for most of the game. We weren't attacking Arsenal's goal in any systematic, sustainable way. So many other Spurs blogs/podcasts/etc. have highlighted the weaknesses of the Rodrigo Bentancur & João Palhinha double pivot, and indeed, the midfield was barely functional in this derby match. So I won't belabor the point. But something has to change when it comes to Thomas Frank's tactical approach against the better teams in the league. It's not enough to merely defend (not that we did that capably to begin with); there has to be a proactive element, or we will be punished by conceding multiple goals, as seen here. It was terribly predictable.

I'm not personally that bothered by the identity of Arsenal's hat-trick scorer, because it's not like he was ever realistically going to sign with Spurs, and it's pointless to dwell on impossibilities of the past. But I won't deny that the optics of him having such a strong game in his first NLD are, well, a bit rancid. The media will take any stick to beat Spurs with, and that was a low-hanging branch.

It doesn't help when you're playing a back-three and all three centerbacks are having a bad day at the office. Part of me wonders if Frank revisiting this formation was an attempt to do a test run for the midweek Champions League match; if so, let's hope he acknowledges the failure.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this loss is that with Arsenal's numerous key injuries, this was likely the most beatable they could be this season. The reverse fixture surely will see both sides looking healthier, but if Frank doesn't make some rapid improvements in both player management and tactical implementation, the reverse fixture could go even worse, despite being at home.

I'm definitely not at "Frank Out" territory yet, but I'm disappointed to have already arrived at "Frank Ambivalent".

Notable & quotable:

• Cristian Romero has already picked up his fifth yellow card of the Premier League campaign and will be suspended for the next league match against Fulham.

• One of the bleakest xG-related stats I've seen in a hot second:

• Thomas Frank acknowledged that the game did play out as he hoped:

It was not what I expected. I was actually extremely confident going into this game that we would be competitive. I knew it would be tough in every aspect. I didn't say we would go here and just completely dominate, but I knew we could be competitive, which we weren't on the day, unfortunately. I can only apologise for that. It's my responsibility in every aspect.

• João Palhinha was similarly frustrated and penitent in his post-match comments:

It's really difficult to digest this result, but I think the result at the end, I think it's fair—we deserve to lose the game. I think we need to react much better, in my opinion, after the goals that we conceded, and especially when we scored our goal... I don't need to say many words here, just to say sorry to our supporters who came here to support us and try to celebrate with us. 

Up next:

November 26 | Spurs Men @ Paris Saint-Germain
Team news — Brennan Johnson is suspended due to a red card against København; otherwise, availability is the same as last match.

Discipline note: Micky van de Ven, Richarlison, and Randal Kolo Muani are all on yellow card watch, with two each in the League Phase so far. If any of them are cautioned, they will miss the Slavia Prague match next month.

With the Women's team players heading out on international break, it's always handy to bookmark the club's live coverage of the window.

And for one more bonus bookmark, check out this informative profile of new signing Signe Gaupset from friend-of-the-newsletter Maryam Clark. It's interesting to get a non-Spurs-supporting perspective.

Signe Gaupset: Tottenham’s Black Mamba?

Tricks are for kids

Maryam’s SubstackWomen’s Football With Maryam

P.S. If you haven't caught the behind-the-scenes video on SpursPlay yet, Signe pronounces her full name as Sig-ney Gope-set, as best as I could hear.

All right, let's try to get through another stressful Men's game against PSG. And enjoy the holiday if you're in the US!

COYS

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