Outmuscled and Outplayed

At least once a season (sometimes more, unfortunately) there's a loss with a performance so middling and so uninspiring that I find it impossible to want to talk about it; that was definitely the case with the 0-1 away loss to Crystal Palace. So beyond recapping the basic facts, sharing the lineup information for posterity, and calling out a few notable quotes, I... will not be discussing it. Let's call it newsletter writer's prerogative.

In this issue: Crystal Palace recap | Previewing Manchester City | News from around the Lane

It's a midweek issue anyway, and I try to keep these ones shorter whenever possible. So I'll move on quickly to previewing the Men's League Cup matchup against Manchester City and round up a few news items from the past week.

Let's hop to it!

PL Matchday 9 recap | Crystal Palace 1 - 0 Tottenham

Mateta 31'

No, the officiating did not help (and rather played into Crystal Palace's gameplan). But there was plenty of time to get back into the game, and neither the starting lineup nor the (quite early) substitutions were able to react and respond effectively.

Starting XI:

Son Heung-min and Djed Spence were expected absences from the matchday squad, but Wilson Odobert also missed out. Mikey Moore made his second start in a row in the Europa League.

Notable and quotable:

• This match marked James Maddison's 200th Premier League appearance (the majority of which came during his tenure with Leicester City).

• On the other end of the experience spectrum, Mikey Moore became Spurs' youngest Premier League starter since Stephen Carr in 1993.

• This was the first match of the season where we dropped points compared to the identical fixture last season, having won the derby at Selhurst Park in 2023/24.

• Guglielmo Vicario, who y'all may recall was added to the leadership group this season, reflected:

We didn't fight as we could fight today... We have to take it very personally.

We have the quality but the quality is sometimes not enough.

He also remarked that the team needs to find more consistency in results and not be so up and down.

• Ange Postecoglou shared his thoughts on the stop-start nature of the game due to Palace's frequent fouling:

We played into their hands a little bit by not staying a bit more composed. We could have dealt with it better. Sometimes you have to battle, fight, keep your composure. There's not a lot of fluency in it.

• There's been a lot of chatter about needing Son Heung-min back in the squad to play at our best, but as Vicario noted:

We have to be able to win games without Son. We lacked something, not in football, but in attitude and fight.

On the other hand, Postecoglou acknowledged that leadership is still an area of opportunity within the larger squad (long quote incoming!):

We're struggling in difficult moments because we lack some maturity and leadership. Now, there's two ways of dealing with that. You can either go and buy it, acquire it, or you can wait for it to develop within your own group. We've gone down this way because I think that's the better way for me. But with that process, it takes time and experience.

You've got to go through tough times. I can't artificially create tough times for the guys to see how the guys respond. They have to come at us. It's not nice and it's not pleasant and no one enjoys it I certainly don't, but it's necessary. How do people react after a loss? How do people react if we haven't had the right reaction? Then you get growth.

I'm so optimistic about this playing group. I think there's such a high ceiling with this group of players. The more we get exposed to difficult times, the more I believe that ceiling gets higher... As I said, don't be afraid of criticism or scrutiny coming your way. It's healthy. It's good because that shows me how people react.

Previewing Men's League Cup Round 4 — Manchester City

Eek! It's spooky season in the Carabao Cup. Facing arguably the best team in England so early in the competition is nothing short of a nightmare.

But could we get a slight reprieve? Pep Guardiola has already hinted that he isn't going to play his usual starters, because they are more focused on the Premier League. He wouldn't be the first manager not to value the League Cup in the pecking order of competitions and possible titles. Having just pipped Liverpool to get back at the top of the table, City are unlikely to risk that advantage by prioritizing the midweek cup game.

The problem is that even Manchester City's B team is stronger than most team's preferred starting lineups. Guardiola has also shown a willingness to get creative with his team's formation in cup games in addition to rotating the personnel, having opted for a three-at-the-back setup in their first League Cup win against Watford. Their backup keeper, Stefan Ortega, is more than capable of stepping up while Ederson rests. The two players who will definitely not feature are Rodri (ACL) and Oscar Bobb (broken leg). Several more players are doubtful, including Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, and Jérémy Doku.

Son Heung-min is going to miss another game, but is expected to be back on the weekend for Aston Villa. Wilson Odobert, meanwhile, is out for another indefinite period of time with a "serious" injury that hasn't yet been confirmed. Djed Spence did return to training as predicted last week and could be involved.

Ange Postecoglou therefore has limited options for the left wing, and will have to be cautious with Mikey Moore's minutes to avoid the young winger joining the injury list himself. Timo Werner could get the start instead, despite his lack of goal contributions this season (just one assist in the PL so far), or Richarlison could reprise his role at the wide forward position for the first time in a long time—Ange has mostly played him at striker. Or for a third option, Brennan Johnson could shift over to the other flank while Dejan Kulusevski converts back to the winger role. It kind of seems like Ange has accepted that Deki's best position is in the attacking midfield and has been encouraging his development there, so this alternative seems the least likely.

It would be a big boost if Spence could play and give one of Destiny Udogie or Pedro Porro some much-needed rest, although it may be unrealistic for him to start so soon after recovering from injury. Although we do want/need to take this competition seriously (more so than City!), there still has to be some rotation to the squad with such an important league match up next on the weekend.

I'm hopeful that the fixture being a home game will provide a boost to the team's morale after the disappointment of losing away again in the league. We've only lost one game at home this season across all competitions, the narrow 0-1 loss to Arsenal. If the home field advantage trend continues, we'll be on our way to Round 5.

News from around the Lane

• Son Heung-min was named AFC International Player of the Year for the fourth time, a record for the award.

• There have been quite a few highlights from the Tottenham contingent during the women's international break:

• Clare Hunt scored her first goal for Australia, the game-winner against Germany. Am I a little salty that she ruined Alex Popp's retirement game? Yes. But good for Clare and good for her confidence—just bring it back to Spurs! Charli Grant did not feature in either friendly for the Matildas.

• With plenty of Lionesses supporters questioning Sarina Wiegman's decision to give Jess Naz her first start with the senior England team (I could share receipts but I am trying not to get in any more Twitter squabbles), our Jess silenced the haters by registering an assist.
• Speaking of other Spurs strikers, Martha Thomas had a productive break, scoring in both legs of Scotland's knockout tie with Hungary. Her goal in the away leg was the sole goal of the game, while she contributed the fourth goal in their 4-0 home routing to eliminate Hungary from Euro qualification—condolences to Anna Csiki.

• Elsewhere in Spurs Women internationals, Finland (Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen) knocked out Montenegro with a 6-0 aggregate score, Sweden (Amanda Nildén and Matilda Vinberg) thrashed Luxembourg 12-0 on aggregate, and Switzerland (Luana Bühler) got a surprise win over France in a friendly game. Jamaica (Becky Spencer and Drew Spence) suffered a defeat to France but still have an exciting friendly with South Africa to go.
• For the loan watch, Rosella Ayane (who finally played in a game for the Chicago [Red] Stars in the last NWSL matchday) and Morocco beat Tanzania handily in a friendly and take on Senegal next.
• Spurs alumna Angharad James captained Wales to a 3-2 aggregate win over Slovakia to keep their Euro hopes alive.

• In Men's Academy news, the U21s got to take part in another thrilling penalty shootout in the National League Cup group stage against Ebbsfleet United. Spurs' keeper Aaron Maguire made three (!) saves and saw a further Ebbsfleet penalty missed, while Ebbsfleet were able to force sudden death after their keeper made two saves on Jaden Williams' and Yusuf Akhmarich's penalties and Leo Black missed his PK. I'm still not sure this cup competition between National League sides and Academy teams really needs to exist, but it has provided plenty of drama so far, I'll give it that.

Quick reminder for my US-based readers: the UK has already gone through the daylight saving time change, so the Manchester City cup match will be an hour later than usual, regardless of what time zone you're in here in the States. We'll be setting our clocks back on Sunday to restore the usual time zone difference, so this match and the previous Crystal Palace match were the only ones affected.

That's all for this Tuesday night issue. Later this week, I'll be recapping the Men's cup match and previewing the simultaneous Sunday matches; the Women's team returns from international break and the Men's team prepares for another Aston Villa grudge match.

COYS

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