Playing for Pride

The Tottenham pendulum is swinging back to the Men's side after the midweek cup games saw them regain ground in the Europa Leaguephase while Spurs Women gave up a lead and were knocked out of the League Cup. There are some weeks when it feels like the two teams are on the same wavelength, but this was not one of them. The Men's team is squeezing every last ounce of effort out of their depleted squad. The Women's team is allowing complacency to creep in.

In this issue: West Ham recap | Hoffenheim recap | Previewing the weekend matches | Transfer talk

It's back to league play for both teams on Sunday—unfortunately with simultaneous kickoffs. There's another commonality with both teams playing opponents currently in the relegation zone, but the stakes are much higher for Spurs Men, who are not that far off the drop themselves.

Women's League Cup Quarter-final recap | Tottenham 1 - 2 West Ham United

Thomas 10' | Piubel 39', Smith 44'

This cup knockout match got off to a promising start with an early goal but was effectively lost in a five-minute span just before halftime. Game management (or lack thereof) has been a persistent weakness under Robert Vilahamn's tenure. It's also beginning to feel like we need to have some tough conversations about which players are underperforming consistently this season—including a few fan favorites.

One player who did make a positive impact was Martha Thomas, who has struggled to get into form all season. She scored her first goal of the campaign, having previously only contributed assists across all the competitions.

In other news, my Eleanor Heeps agenda took a blow with the second goal we conceded, a free kick from long range that should never have been allowed to trickle in the way it did—both from a goalkeeping perspective and the defense. That it proved to be the game-winner for West Ham was an embarrassing outcome all around.

The general flow of the game was a stark contrast to the previous league encounter when Spurs had zero shots on target themselves and only won thanks to an own goal. In this all-important cup match, we dominated the attacking battle and created far more chances than West Ham, who were largely content to sit back after taking the lead. Wasteful inefficiency in front of goal prevented Spurs from getting back into the match and just like that, we're down to only one possible hope of a trophy this season.

Starting XI:

The aforementioned Heeps got another start in goal since new signing Lize Kop was cup-tied. Otherwise, the only real surprise was Olga Ahtinen getting benched in favor of Martha Thomas taking on the #10 role, as Drew Spence dropped back into the pivot with Maite Oroz. Clare Hunt also got a start after sitting out the Leicester City game on the weekend, replacing Luana Bühler.

SAtP Player of the Match: Martha Thomas

I'll go ahead and praise Martha for finally breaking her scoring drought. It's just too bad it was all for naught in the result.

Notable & quotable:

• Ash Neville noted that it was an "uphill battle" against West Ham's low block in the second half.

• Robert Vilahamn attributed the lack of ability to get back into the game to passivity. He attempted to inject "new energy" into the game with a quadruple substitution at halftime, but it wasn't enough to make the difference.

You need to feel the pain today because it was not the best performance. We wanted to go to the semi-final and we wanted to bring the fans to the semi-final, so today we shouldn't be happy.

Europa League Matchday 7 recap | Hoffenheim 2 - 3 Tottenham

Stach 68', Mokwa 88' | Maddison 3', Son 22' • 77'

All right, let's shift focus to the Men's game, which was not a perfect performance by any means but got the job done in tough circumstances. On that note, I want to get right to the starting lineup, then I'll touch on some of the key takeaways.

Starting XI:

Ange Postecoglou was without 14 senior players due to injuries and ineligibilities. Neither Antonín Kinský nor Yang Min-hyeok can be registered for the competition until the knockout phase begins (assuming we're in it, of course), while Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilón were both left off the initial squad for the league phase. We're all aware of the laundry list of injuries, with Dominic Solanke the latest addition.

After returning from injury last week and coming on as a halftime substitute against Everton (going on to score a late consolation goal), Richarlison was able to make his first start since October 24—also a Europa League game against AZ Alkmaar. He didn't get on the scoresheet against Hoffenheim but put in a decent performance before getting an early rest (I can only assume his minutes are being closely managed by the medical staff).

The only two senior players on the bench were both goalkeepers; otherwise, Ange only had teenagers to call upon for reinforcements.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• For all the criticism they've come under lately, the senior players stepped up and took ownership of the game. Both captain and co-captain had two goal contributions each (two goals for Son Heung-min, a goal and an assist for James Maddison) and Ben Davies was a stalwart at the back—also kick starting one of the goal moves with a timely headed interception.

• On the opposite end of the age spectrum, 17-year-old Mikey Moore is proving that he can be a reliable source of assists from the wing. He made his second assist in a row after providing one in the league game on the weekend as well.

• With Hoffenheim held scoreless through the first half, it looked like it could be a clean sheet for Brandon Austin on his European debut, especially after a mistaken penalty call was overturned by VAR. But Anton Stach (who was a doubt to play due to illness and was eventually withdrawn early) halved the deficit for the home team in the 68th minute with a well-worked goal.

• Although Son's second goal restored our two-goal advantage, Hoffenheim responded again with a pinpoint cross from Andrej Kramarić to assist substitute David Mokwa's headed goal. Kramarić had also been instrumental in Hoffenheim's first goal.

• Another key player for Hoffenheim was left winger Tom Bischof, whom I mistakenly said would be joining Bayern Munich this January in my match preview. Turns out I got ahead of myself and he's not joining up with Bayern until after the current season ends. Despite his young age, he was a clear standout for Hoffenheim and was a constant attacking threat, forcing Austin into several saves. He also put in a decent effort on the defensive end, which makes me really excited to see him in a Bayern shirt next season.

• It was a nervy last few minutes of the match, but Spurs survived, with many of the players gratefully collapsing to the ground after the final whistle.

SAtP Player of the Match: Son Heung-min

On another day I would have leaned towards Maddison, but Sonny deserves to be celebrated on his milestone appearance. He became the 10th-highest player in all-time Tottenham appearances with his 436th game, passing Harry Kane. He could potentially go as high as 6th in the list by the end of the season if he stays injury-free (knock on wood). And with his brace against Hoffenheim, he's now just two goals away from tying Martin Chivers on the all-time goals list for the club.

His first goal wasn't a classic Son moment of quality, requiring a fortunate deflection both in the assist from Maddison and on his own shot, but the second goal was an example of his ideal technique. Hopefully this European brace is the start of a scoring streak for the skipper across other competitions, too.

Notable & quotable:

• As mentioned above, Brandon Austin made his European debut on just his second overall senior appearance.

• Callum Olusesi earned his legacy number (#892) with his senior Spurs debut.

He nearly set up a goal chance for Will Lankshear with his first touches, but the striker couldn't get his shot off in time.

Callum said it was "surreal" to go from playing with the U18s to the senior team in the space of a few days.

• This was the second away win for Spurs so far in the competition's league phase.

• We are back into the automatic knockout qualification spots with one league phase game left to play, against Elfsborg on January 30.

• James Maddison praised the efforts and leadership of Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur:

Ben Davies tonight... You talk about leaders. Ben Davies and Rodrigo tonight... Rodrigo got every second ball. It will go unnoticed. It won’t make the paper headlines—me and Sonny scoring probably will because we scored and that’s how it works in football—but Rodrigo and Ben, winning duels, winning headers, leading us when me and Sonny had gone off... outstanding. It was a great team effort.

He also credited the impact the young players Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray have been making at great physical cost:

I'm really proud of the lads. A few of the boys were out on their feet at the end. We’re asking so much of the players at the moment, just because of the injury situation. I don’t want to keep bringing it up, but it is the situation we’re in... I said to Lucas and Archie, ‘Don’t underestimate what you’re doing at the moment, at 18.' We’re asking so much of them at such a young age. If you ask the gaffer, he probably would have wanted to embed them slower than this, but they've been thrown in at the deep end, and the bravery and courage they are showing at the minute, I’m just really proud of them.

• Ange elaborated on the young players in his pre-Leicester press conference:

There is no doubt we will get enormous benefit for many years to come hopefully from those players. They have had a tough a start to a career as I can remember in terms of their age and what they are being asked to do.

...and on the senior players:

Last night we really needed some strong leadership and I thought, particularly earlier on, [Son], Madders, Rodri, Ben and Deki. They are the five men we have got in the team, the rest of them are still very young and Richy is only just coming back from injury. It was important they stood up last night and I thought they did that really well.

He also gave Brandon Austin a shoutout:

That’s his first European game and we can’t overstate that. We’re throwing him in a game of consequence, it’s not like it is a game of no consequence where you see a lot of these decisions made. We backed him in a big game and I thought he delivered.

Previewing WSL Matchday 12 — Crystal Palace

This should be an easily winnable game on paper, but after underperforming in the League Cup exit I would hope the team isn't taking this fixture lightly.

Palace don't have any significant injuries heading into the match, but they do have two new signings that could be involved, Finnish midfielder Ria Oling and up-and-coming Canadian forward Clarissa Larisey. Robert Vilahamn will be familiar with the latter from coaching her at BK Häcken before he joined Spurs. It's still too soon for their Championship Golden Boot-winning striker, Elise Hughes, to return to play from her ACL injury, but she rejoined team training this week and will likely be important to their bid for WSL survival later in the season.

Although we came out decisive 4-0 winners in the opening day match against Palace, their goalkeeper Shae Yañez did make a handful of impressive saves, so we'll have to hope the finishing woes from the cup game midweek don't reappear against such an already troublesome opposing keeper.

We also need to be mindful of Annabel Blanchard's goal threat on counterattacks; she leads the Eagles in WSL scoring with three goals. I keep wondering when Katie Stengel's quality is going to show back up now that she's returned to the league, but she's only managed one goal so far.

Spurs will be getting a boost from Olivia Holdt's likely inclusion in the matchday squad. We already knew that Eveliina Summanen would be missing several weeks with a hamstring injury, but it seems like everyone who played against West Ham got through the game unscathed.

With Aston Villa already dropping points this matchday, it's important we pick up all three points and maintain our table advantage over Villa and Liverpool—and try to make up the three-point gap between ourselves and Brighton if they lose at Manchester United.

Previewing PL Matchday 23 — Leicester City

It's still a bit of a stretch to consider this fixture a six-pointer, but winning it would go a long way towards quelling concerns about getting sucked into the relegation battle.

It's unfortunate that this match has become much more important than we would have expected it to be earlier in the season, because it doesn't feel like we can really afford to gamble with too much squad rotation ahead of the final Europa Leaguephase game—not that the injury situation allows for many changes, anyway. I'm thinking specifically about how it would be nice to give a player like Archie Gray some much-needed rest, but will Ange Postecoglou take that risk when the only fit replacement is Sergio Reguilón?

There is a chance Djed Spence could be that relief player, but he's a doubt to play after picking up a knock in the Everton game. Likewise, two of our midfield mainstays, Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma, are also questionable.

Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven have both rejoined team training but are still unavailable for this matchday squad.

But on a positive note, Antonín Kinský is back in contention after being ineligible for the Europa League match, and Yang Min-hyeok could potentially make his Spurs debut.

For Leicester, the keeper we faced on opening weekend, Mads Hermansen, is out with a groin injury. Jakub Stolarczyk has been deputizing for him and has yet to earn a clean sheet.

The Foxes also have a new manager in charge since we last faced them. Ruud van Nistelrooy got the job after a promising interim stint with Manchester United but has only managed two wins in his first 10 games on the touchline for Leicester—the first new-manager-bounce game against West Ham and then an FA Cup blowout win over Queens Park Rangers.

Leicester will be without their top assister in the Premier League, Wilfred Ndidi. But Jamie Vardy will be back to haunt us for another game. Please retire soon, man! I'm sure there's a Red Bull ambassador gig waiting for him.

Let's hope the players can hold on for a few more games until the injury-return reinforcements start to trickle back into the squad. As Ange noted:

It is getting increasingly difficult for them to maintain performance for sure as they're giving everything and it's a small group. We should have some light at the end of the tunnel the next couple of weeks. It's not as dire as... but at the same time there's always the possibility that before those guys come back, the load we're putting on these guys we might lose a couple of these. That's always the challenging bit and that's what we're going through. It has been two months of hard grind for the players and, as I keep saying, just trying to support them as much as we can and help them through it.

Transfer talk

I wish there were some exciting transfers to report for the senior teams, but it's another week of Academy-adjacent transfers only.

• Elkie Bowyer, recently recalled from her loan with Watford for the first half of the season, will be spending the second half on a dual-registration loan at Ipswich Town in the National League Southern Premier Division. She's already familiar with the Tractor Girls setup, having played there last season alongside Lenna Gunning-Williams, also in the second half of the 2023/24 season.

• Luca Gunter is going on loan to Wealdstone in the National League for the remainder of the season. I'll be honest, having watched many of the U21s games that he's featured on, I think this is a bit below Gunter's level. But I suppose it'll be worth it as long as he gets consistent game time.

• If Spurs Men aren't able to bring in another attacker in the last week of the window, it could affect Will Lankshear's opportunity to go out on loan for regular game time. As Ange observed in his last press conference:

We’ll assess it. Where we sit right now with Dom still being out, we’ve got to be mindful of leaving us with a further player short.

I think I speak for the club as well when I say that these constant midweek games are hard to keep up with, but we're all doing our best.

As ever,

COYS

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