Own Goal Giveth and Taketh

That wasn't a great weekend of Tottenham Hotspur football, if we're being brutally honest.

Although Spurs Women pulled off a win, it was only through the fortune of an own goal since they had zero shots on target themselves. For Spurs Men, an own goal was the difference between a loss and a draw, and they fell on the wrong end of that equation.

Despite some commonalities in the performances, the two teams are in very different situations in their respective league tables. Spurs Women are consolidating their position in the middle of the table but have some hope to push for the 5th place spot while Spurs Men are closer to a relegation scrap than fighting for a European qualification berth.

In this issue: Leicester City recap | Everton recap | Previewing the midweek matches | Transfer talk

Both teams have a chance to make a better account of themselves in the midweek fixtures: a Subway League Cup quarter-final for the Women and the penultimate Europa Leaguephase match for the Men.

WSL Matchday 11 recap | Tottenham 1 - 0 Leicester City

Leitzig (OG) 5'

This was an underwhelming return to play after the Women's Super League winter break. We had seemed to pick up some attacking momentum prior to the pause but it was nowhere to be found against Leicester. Fortunately, the defense (and new goalkeeper Lize Kop) barely put a foot wrong and preserved the clean sheet to take advantage of opposition keeper Janina Leitzig's own goal.

The first half of the season is officially in the rearview mirror, so keep an eye out for my Spurs Women mid-season review later this week.

Starting XI:

It would appear the injury crisis has now crossed over to the Women's team because there were quite a few mysterious misses in the matchday squad—although Robert Vilahamn did confirm after the match that Eveliina Summanen is expected to be out for four to six weeks with a hamstring injury picked up in training. Amy James-Turner and Wang Shuang were also unaccounted for at the time of the lineup drop, and I still haven't heard any update on their statuses.

The upshot of Summanen's absence was that Olga Ahtinen got her first WSL start of the season.

Lize Kop made her debut and first WSL start for Spurs, while in front of her, Luana Bühler got the nod over Clare Hunt to partner with Molly Bartrip at centerback.

Top three things:

1. 1st choice vs backup. This talking point works two ways: 1) Lize Kop was up against the keeper she used to play backup to at Leicester, Janina Leitzig, and 2) Kop got the nod over Eleanor Heeps for her first available game. The first one isn't quite as notable since frankly, neither keeper had that much to do in this game. Both team's attacks were low on shots and Leicester had the only two on target. There also weren't a ton of set pieces, with Spurs earning the most corner kicks with three. But the fact that Kop immediately got into the lineup over Heeps could be significant for the remainder of the season. There's no denying the fact that Kop has much more senior experience than Heeps; she also plays for her national team, the Netherlands, where she is likewise the backup but already has over a dozen caps to her name. Heeps could get another chance shortly to put herself back in the conversation, but it looks like Kop was brought in with the aim of claiming the #1 spot (she already has the shirt number).
2. An Eveliina-shaped hole in the midfield. With Summanen out injured for a few weeks, Vilahamn has a conundrum on his hands. Kit Graham proved herself to be a capable option at defensive midfield last season (a new role for her under Vilahamn's management) but is all but certain to miss the entire season with her ACL recovery. Maite Oroz looked like a decent option to fill that position but so far has looked more inclined to facilitate the attack than fall back on defense. And while Drew Spence can do a job further back in the midfield, it's a waste of her skillset to have her behind the attack, too. Unless we make a surprise signing to solve the temporary issue, we're going to have to hope that the injury is indeed short-term—and that Summanen can stay fit for the rest of the campaign. It's either that or another experiment with Molly Bartrip at DM.
3. Lenna deserves a start. I know, I know, this is nothing new coming from me. I've been advocating for Lenna Gunning-Williams to get more game time since early on in the season. But I truly believe she's shown enough at this point to push the issue with Vilahamn. The current starting wingers have much more experience and have had their promising moments, but as of yet aren't producing assists (or goals) at the rate expected of them. Jess Naz and Hayley Raso only have two goal contributions combined in league play. Nobody's spot should be guaranteed, and competition for starts is integral to any healthy squad. Gunning-Williams has often provided a spark off the bench with her direct style of play and it would be interesting to see how she translates that into a 90-minute performance outside of cup games.

SAtP Player of the Match: Lize Kop

With the caveat that I wasn't fully convinced by Kop on her debut, I still think she had one of the best performances on the day and showed good spirit for her first match involvement. I don't think you could safely say that any of our summer signings have meshed in seamlessly (no thanks to injuries for many of them, to be fair), so if she can hit the ground running and not look back that will be a big boost to the team.

Notable & quotable:

• This was the team's first clean sheet since opening day in the WSL.

• It was the third WSL match this season without a single yellow card for Spurs.

• Amanda Nildén forced the third own goal in our favor of the campaign so far.

• Robert Vilahamn had a lot of praise for Lize Kop's debut after just three training sessions and observed that she was "really happy to win against her former team."

• Vilahamn acknowledged the lack of consistency throughout games from the squad as a whole:

We're not really there yet, where we shine for [the] whole game... we still have dips in the game, which make it a little bit stressed and inconsistent. We’re still on the journey where we need to be more consistent and try to win with more than one goal. 

• Shoutout to former Spurs player Asmita Ale for finally seeming to secure a starting spot at her new club. She had quite the battle with Hayley Raso on her flank.

PL Matchday 22 recap | Everton 3 - 2 Tottenham

Calvert-Lewin 13', Ndiaye 30', Gray (OG) 45+7' | Kulusevski 77', Richarlison 90+2'

I hate to be a downer, but I really don't want to talk about the specifics of this game for too long. It was a poor first half, primarily because of the players' seeming confusion at the switch to the back-3 formation, and the second-half comeback was too little too late. You have to give Ange Postecoglou credit for trying something new when so little else is in his control, but the gamble simply didn't pay off.

The biggest issue at the moment is that the injury crisis just keeps compounding. The few senior players left who aren't injured are playing so frequently out of necessity, without rotation or rest, and therefore becoming vulnerable themselves to picking up an injury. And beyond the physical toll, we are starting to see the effect on morale as well.

It was pretty heartbreaking to see Archie Gray getting a comforting hug from Ange after unluckily scoring an own goal—the game-winner for Everton, unfortunately. Captain Son Heung-min also had a downcast expression when facing the away fans, and Dejan Kulusevski seemed unwilling to look anyone in the eye. I can only imagine they're frustrated at knowing they will have to endure many more weeks of constrained squad availability, midweek fixtures, and unforgiving media scrutiny.

So after a quick look back at the starting lineup, I'm going to switch things up and focus in on a few silver linings during this cloudy stretch of the season.

Starting XI:

There you have it, the ill-fated 3-4-3 that only lasted one half. Radu Drăgușin suffered a cut to the forehead in the first half and was able to play on until halftime to save a substitution window (not that Ange ever utilizes all of his subs these days—only two players made it off the bench in this match), but I have a feeling the formation would have been changed even if he'd been able to stay in the game. And indeed, we didn't concede another goal after reverting to the usual tactics.

James Maddison featured at left winger to enable Son Heung-min to play at striker in place of the injured Dominic Solanke—until the second-half subs shifted things around again.

Silver linings:

• Djed Spence continues to look like one of the best players on the pitch (it helps that he's considerably fresher, fitness-wise, than his counterpart on the other flank, Pedro Porro).

• Dejan Kulusevski remembered that he can take shots, and sometimes they even go in!

• Both substitutes combined for the second goal.

• Richarlison scored a goal, which should serve as an important confidence boost as he's about to get significant game time while Solanke rehabs his injury.

• We had two legitimate penalty shouts that could have changed the result in a more just officiating world.

• The two second-half goals minimized the damage to the goal difference.

SAtP Player of the Match: Mikey Moore

He only played about twenty minutes, give or take some stoppage time, but they were impactful minutes. I fully endorse Ange's strategy of easing Moore back into play after his extended illness, but if he can get some decent game time in the coming weeks he could be very important to ameliorating the injury crisis and creating goals.

Notable & quotable:

• Mikey Moore's assist for Richarlison's goal was his first goal contribution in the Premier League.

• This was the third loss in a row in the PL.

• We have doubled our number of conceded own goals for the season in just two games.

• James Maddison wasn't particularly illuminating in his post-game comments, but it's worth watching the clip for the unintentionally funny zoom-in and Madder's dramatically furrowed brows.

Previewing Women's League Cup Quarter-final — West Ham United

Spurs Women are up first again for the midweek fixtures, and it's a do-or-die knockout game in the newly dubbed Subway League Cup. It's also a derby match with our old nemesis West Ham United. Fun! Maybe...

As Robert Vilahamn noted, games against the Hammers are always difficult—and often full of goals. With new goalkeeper signing Lize Kop cup-tied in this competition, it will be another opportunity for Eleanor Heeps to build on her clean sheet record in the cups this season—if she does indeed get the start. Becky Spencer will also be in contention to play now that she's recovered from the illness that saw her miss three games before the winter break.

Elsewhere in the lineup, Vilahamn intends to prioritize playing his strong team in this fixture rather than holding something back for the WSL match at Crystal Palace on the weekend:

We’re going for a strong starting XI, with a strong bench, and then we're going to make sure we do everything we can to win the game.

We'll have to wait a little while longer to see if our other new signing, Olivia Holdt, figures into that ideal starting XI. She's in full training with the team but still not ready for match minutes after rehabbing a leg fracture. Matilda Vinberg is available again after missing the last game (no reason given for why), but the other mystery absences were not mentioned in the latest team news report.

As for West Ham, they just added a new leftback to their squad, Austrian international Verena Hanshaw. Dagný Brynjarsdóttir is a doubt to feature after missing their last league game, but I haven't seen any other injury news for the Hammers.

Let's hope the power of RVBall secures the win in 90 minutes and we can avoid a potential penalty shootout. And yes, there could be extra time in this competition. If we do progress to the semi-final, we will find out our opponent in the draw taking place on Monday.

Previewing Europa League Matchday 7 — Hoffenheim

Since I'm writing this the day before the Men's team news comes out, I don't have any positive (or negative) updates to share. But suffice it to say that Ange Postecoglou is still going to have his hands tied when it comes to team selection—especially with recent mainstay Djed Spence ineligible to play since he's not in the Europa League squad list.

I did hear that Radu Drăgușin could be available to play after receiving stitches for his cut, but I forgot to save the link to where I saw that, so the source for that one is "trust me, bro."

Don't say my other club never does anything to help Tottenham, because Bayern just signed one of Hoffenheim's most promising young players, Tom Bischof—who just registered an assist in his last game for Die Kraichgauer. One fewer goal threat for Spurs to deal with on Thursday!

However, Hoffenheim still has some capable players. Most notably, Andrej Kramarić, who recently went on a post-game rant about his club not setting the manager and players up for success. Adam Hložek is inconsistent but has a penchant for scoring multiple when he's in good form. Oliver Baumann is a decent keeper, lately challenging for the Germany #1 spot vacated by Manuel Neuer in his international retirement.

Hoffenheim's only incoming January signing so far is striker Gift Orban, a one-time Spurs target (allegedly). He failed to impress at Lyon.

Before their most recent 1-3 away win at Holstein Kiel, Hoffenheim had suffered a nine-game winless streak in all competitions. They're also just three points above the relegation playoff spot in the Bundesliga table. Considering that they're currently below the Europa League playoff spots I can't see them prioritizing this match over focusing on survival in the domestic league, but you never know; their win on the weekend could have given them hope and motivation to try to stay alive in European competition, too.

On Spurs' end, the next couple of fixtures (including the final game in the Europa Leaguephase) are against easier opposition, but it's not like we have the luxury of squad rotation right now, so it's a moot point. All we can ask for is the players' best effort.

Transfer talk

Just a couple of small notes from the Men's side of the club:

• Dane Scarlett has been recalled from his loan at Oxford United but is likely to head out on another loan.

• Academy midfielder George Feeney has signed his first professional contract with the club, days after celebrating his 17th birthday.

Let's get into cup mode and as always,

COYS

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