Points Slipping Away

I'm not going to lie, the international break malaise is hitting me hard this week. Both results from the past weekend were hard to swallow in different ways, and let's face it—the UEFA Nations League is not exactly the pinnacle of exciting distraction. We haven't even gotten to enjoy (or despair?) Poch's debut as USMNT manager because for some strange reason, they aren't in action until Saturday. Add to that a very frustrating Bluesky debacle and it's been an angsty week.

Perfect timing for the most anticipated/dreaded Spurs Women fixture of the WSL campaign! We finally earned a point at Leigh Sports Village last season, but the stakes are even higher this time around to try and grab our first win against Manchester United in league play. It goes beyond bragging rights at this point—we're playing for dignity. And, yeah, to throw it in the face of the erstwhile Grace Clinton and Celin Bizet. Not that we're bitter or anything.

In this issue: Liverpool recap | Brighton recap | Previewing Manchester United

In lieu of a full news section, I'll quickly touch on the two items that came across my radar this week:

• Ryan Mason was considered for the Anderlecht head coach position but ultimately decided to stay with Spurs, at least for the rest of this season.

• It's been a while since I noticed any real updates from the Women's team account about the Academy squad, but they did share news of Jhanaie Pierre's call-up to the England U17s squad for the upcoming Euro qualifiers. Pierre is already playing with Spurs' U21s despite her young age and is having a successful season so far with two goals.

Now, on to the recaps and a preview of the big weekend game.

WSL Matchday 3 recap | Tottenham 2 - 3 Liverpool

Hinds (OG) 54', Hunt 83' | Kapocs 10', Höbinger 75' • 90+5'

I'm going to be mad about this game for a long time, and god help the WSL referees if the result ends up being significant in the final table (I'm thinking more of the stretch goal of reaching European qualification, not relegation, to be clear). I have rarely seen such poor officiating and never such an abundance of incorrect calls.

I have been a vocal proponent of the WSL introducing VAR and needless to say, the shambles of a penalty call in stoppage time that basically handed Liverpool the win did nothing to change my mind. This league needs assistive technology to improve its substandard reffing, full stop. I won't pretend that it will be a seamless introduction, but the NWSL is a great case study in the value of VAR after the initial wrinkles (notably, excessive stoppage time from lengthy reviews) are ironed out. It will be a mark against the WPLL's new stewardship of the English women's top flight if they don't prioritize implementing VAR sooner rather than later.

Anyway, it wasn't just that final penalty decision that marred the game. I'll come on to all of that in a minute, as well as a couple more key talking points.

Starting XI:

Robert Vilahamn opted for the same unchanged lineup that's started all three league games so far. The only notable thing from the bench was that for the second game in a row, Ella Morris didn't make the matchday squad and therefore still has yet to make her competitive debut. Hopefully this early-season injury issue clears up quickly so she can hit the ground running.

Top three things:

1. The witches of Liverpool. There was a lot of dark arts business happening in this game. And it wasn't just one or two players engaging in the time-wasting and diving—it looked like a coordinated effort across the whole squad. I understand Liverpool being in a tough situation with some injury absences and feeling like they needed to use their physicality to their advantage, but this went beyond cynical fouling into what I would consider outright deception of the referee. It's not a good look for a team that certainly has the talent to compete on its merits (and a capable manager, for that matter). Unfortunately, I don't think Liverpool will care to be embarrassed because they got the result they wanted, three points away from home. All three goals they scored were gifted: the first due to a troubling keeper error from Spurs that we do need to discuss, and the last two by the head official getting calls completely wrong. It helped that they had a dead ball specialist like Marie Höbinger to convert the free kick and penalty opportunities. And one final annoyance: the bogus free kick call never should have happened in the first place, besides being incorrect in and of itself, because just beforehand the referee had refused to allow Spurs to play advantage and called play back for our own free kick in the defensive half. That wasn't the only promising attacking opportunity for Spurs snuffed out by the official's incompetence. And honestly, it does no good to name the specific referee—the league has a longstanding issue with poor officiating across the board.
2. We need to talk about Becky. I am on record as being a Becky Spencer believer. Let me reiterate my appreciation for her as a goalkeeper before I say anything else. The problem is... she doesn't look anywhere close to her best self so far this season. Distribution is usually the biggest asset of her game, but in this match, she badly mishit an airborne pass out from the back and gave the ball straight to Liverpool's Cornelia Kapocs. Credit to Kapocs for perfectly placing her chipped shot, but ordinarily I would back Spencer to recover from her mistake and get back into position in time to save such an effort. She still doesn't look quite right to me when she's jumping to make a save, and I don't know if it's lingering concern about her recurring back injury from the last couple of seasons or after effects from the hard challenge she took in the Aston Villa match (she completed the full 90 in that game, much to my dismay, but then sat out the midweek cup game). Either way, something is going to have to give soon. Vilahamn must either bench her for the sake of getting back her full fitness or accept the consequences when she inevitably makes another uncharacteristic mistake or lacks the physicality to make a routine save. The goalkeepers behind her in the pecking order must be wondering why he's being so stubborn about Spencer, too.
3. An encouraging response—on and off the pitch. I thought the whole team showed great mentality in continually getting themselves back into the game and rolling with the officiating punches. Hayley Raso in particular was taking heavy challenge after heavy challenge and didn't let it affect her work rate. The attack is still a work in progress, but Jess Naz was able to force an own goal and Clare Hunt took the spirit of Micky van de Ven upon her to get involved in the attack and score her first Spurs goal—which also looked like an own goal in real-time, but was credited to her in the end. I thought the defense did a remarkable job of defending Liverpool in open play and shared in Molly Bartrip's disbelief at the penalty call. And frankly, I liked seeing the fiery post-game social media posts from the players, with Amanda Nildén being so bold as to say (in a now-deleted post) that it was "11 against 12." Facts. Hopefully, they can use this disappointment as fuel for the Manchester United game, where there will already be plenty of other motivation to be found.

SAtP Player of the Match: Clare Hunt

Hunt contributed on both ends of the pitch and demonstrated the kind of maturity and steadfast performance you just love to see from a centerback and senior player (albeit new to the team). Plus, I appreciated her straightforward post-game interview.

Vilahamn obviously sees her as an important leader already in the team:

The last thing is her leadership, she's only 25 years old, but she's speaking and acting like she's 35.

Well, it's a bit of a clunky compliment, but we know what he means!

Notable and quotable:

• From the above interview with Hunt:

Some decisions went against us, but we shouldn't let that determine the game.

There is a kernel of truth to that statement, even if I do think we can be legitimately aggrieved about the literally result-determining penalty. Though I suppose you can argue that there's always a chance that the keeper can make a save, and Spencer was so close, even getting her fingertips to the ball. Alas.

• Vilahamn reinforced the desire to play the Tottenham way and take risks to try to claim all three points, even knowing the draw could slip away:

Perhaps we deserved to lose, I'm not sure. But it was a back-and-forth game. But when we had 2-2, we're not gonna stand back and protect one point. We're not that kind of team. The fans don't want us to do that, Tottenham doesn't want us to do that. We want to go for the 3-2 because we want to win... but obviously it's very tough when you lose.

Hear, hear.

PL Matchday 7 recap | Brighton 3 - 2 Tottenham

Minteh 48', Rutter 58', Welbeck 66' | Johnson 23', Maddison 37'

Although it was an identical scoreline to the Women's game, I'm much less sympathetic to the Men's team for their loss since it came about by blowing a 0-2 away lead. It wasn't even a case of attacking-forward hubris coming back to bite us—they just collapsed! No amount of pragmatism from Ange Postecoglou would have changed the distinct lack of mentality from the players in the second half. Or perhaps it was more a matter of focus? It's difficult to say. And it's difficult to process this loss.

Truthfully though, I have barely dwelled on it because I've had so many other things going on this week, and I don't intend to dwell on it too much here. Let's keep it short and not-so-sweet.

Starting XI:

With Son. Heung-min, Richarlison, and Wilson Odobert all still out, and with many of the young players starting in the previous midweek match, this lineup made the most sense. And it worked! For one half, at least.

Top three things:

1. First-half dominance. I know what you're thinking: duh! But it's worth noting that this was the best first half the team has played in a very long time. Too often this season we've been slow to start and either suffered a poor result—Newcastle United and Arsenal spring to mind—or left too many scoring chances on the table. Don't make me tap the goal difference sign (it's my favorite).
2. Destiny's dreadful day at the office. Truly, I feel bad for Destiny Udogie. He hasn't looked 100% fit at any time this season (having rehabbed from surgery over the pre-season) and that lack of fitness affected the scoreline of this game in a big way. He was involved in the poor defense for all three of Brighton's goals. I know I said that Ange taking a pragmatic approach wouldn't have saved us in this game, but there are pragmatic substitutions and then there are mercy substitutions. Udogie needed the latter.
3. Introverted leadership. We've seen a similar lack of accountability demanded from the on-pitch captaincy even when Son is involved in this kind of disastrous game, so this is not me digging out Cristian Romero or James Maddison. I think the issue is that all three members of the leadership squad are the type who lead by example. That leadership style can be very effective in a lot of situations and different team environments, but in a game like this, you kind of need someone who is going to look outside their own performance and be able to rally the entire squad. Instead, we saw visible frustration in Romero's body language and Maddison getting sloppy in the attack as he attempted to overcompensate for the rest of the team. I don't think Son would have made a measurable difference if he had been in their place because he too would have been overly focused on his own efforts. I think there's probably an element of the players being distracted by the prospect of the international break ahead as well, but that's pure speculation—as is my armchair psychology about the leadership if I'm being honest. But it's natural to try to find some sort of explanation for the otherwise inexplicable lapse of quality from the players.

Besides the blow to morale, this result was made more frustrating by the fact that most of the teams ahead of us in the table dropped points this matchday. If only we had capitalized!

SAtP Player of the Match: Brennan Johnson

But only just... he maintains his scoring streak (and added to it today if we count international goals). The fact that he did extend his strong goal-scoring form served as proof that the overall Spurs attack is in a much more consistent place than the first few games of the season. He's also improving his partnership with Dominic Solanke (who contributed the assist for Johnson's goal), which will be vital going forward. If only we could have seen some more linkup play between the two in the second half.

Brennan looked just as shell-shocked after the final whistle as all of us watching. At least he's keeping sharp while away with Wales and can come back after the break with the same hunger to score.

Notable and quotable:

• Brennan Johnson's scoring streak for Spurs extends to six goals in six games across all competitions.

• Ange Postecoglou was pretty blunt in his assessment of the game:

It's not a couple of positive results. It was five wins, let's just keep things in context here. I understand the extremes of what we do. What I'm saying is that we didn't do the basics of everything we've done to get to this point, good, bad, or otherwise. Even when we didn't win at Newcastle, we played well and fought hard to the last second to win that game of football. We didn't do that today and every time we've played that's been an element of our game but I didn't see that today. Why has that happened? The reasons, we can go into a million different aspects and in the cold light of day there may be some logic to it and it may be what you're saying. Again for me, that's irrelevant. It's for me to address and fix and the responsibility falls at my feet and that's what I need to do.

• Micky Van de Ven was just as blunt, but more succinct:

It made me feel quite ill.

• I know it feels like the Men's team always puts in this sort of soul-crushing effort (or lack thereof) just before an international break, but someone actually collected the stats and found that we've had far more wins than losses in these scenarios since the start of Mauricio Pochettino's second season in charge (not sure why that was the cut-off point for this graphic, but let's just go with it). I'll share a screenshot below so it doesn't get cut off by the tweet image cropping.

Previewing WSL Matchday 4 — Manchester United

It's the big one. Okay, maybe the home NLD at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the biggest one in terms of scale, but this one is more emotionally fraught if you ask me. As if being a rematch of the FA Cup final wasn't enough (and I don't think I have to remind anyone how that went), the summer transfer window added fuel to the fire, with Grace Clinton staying at United after her loan and Celin Bizet defecting. She crossed enemy lines! It feels like karma that she's gone from a regular starter at Spurs to only featuring off the bench so far in the league for United.

The postponement of the Chelsea vs Manchester United game last weekend (due to Chelsea having a game in the Champions League just two days later) caused a lot of brouhaha, with other clubs even getting involved in commenting on the controversy. The upshot is that United are coming off almost two full weeks of rest heading into our matchup. I'm hoping this manifests more so as rust than reserved energy. Regardless, Robert Vilahamn isn't using United's rest advantage as any sort of excuse:

We're going to be really fit for this game, it's going to be a good game. We cannot blame the schedule.

On a fortunate note, United will be without Melvine Malard, who caused us absolute hell in both league fixtures last season. She's out for several games with a hamstring injury. Summer signing Anna Sandberg is also out with a knee injury.

Our existing injury concerns are still keeping Ella Morris, Wang Shuang, and Amy James-Turner out of action. More concerningly, Vilahamn alluded to there being a couple of players who will be assessed ahead of the game to see if they can feature, though he didn't specify which players.

In terms of a lineup prediction, I suspect we might see Jess Naz get the nod at striker due to her superior pace since Vilahamn mentioned the usefulness of a strong counterattack when playing United. That could shift Hayley Raso over to the left wing to accommodate Martha Thomas on her more preferred right side, or Thomas could be benched and Matilda Vinberg brought in her for her first league start of the season.

United manager Marc Skinner has been talking up his team's streak of three clean sheets in all competitions (admittedly significant in the wake of Mary Earps' departure, with American Phallon Tullis-Joyce claiming the vacated starting keeper role), whereas Vilahamn has been pleased with Spurs' consistent goal-scoring form to start the season—scoring at least two goals in each game so far, across all competitions. He stressed the need for clinical efficiency in front of goal to take full advantage of any opportunities we get past United's well-organized defense. Notably, we scored the sole goal of the game in the pre-season friendly victory against United.

In reading the notes from Vilahamn's press conference, I'm struck by his insistence that we need to better "dictate... and dominate the games" from start to finish. The opening day performance felt so positive because we controlled the game confidently and decisively. There have been similar stretches in the other two league games so far, but not complete performances by any means. Putting all of the tactics and individual efforts together for another full-90 showcase of the "Tottenham way" will be the ultimate goal of this game even more so than the result. Vilahamn has been open about prioritizing progress in the playing style over points on the board—though he did concede that with such a tough stretch of schedule coming up, any points we may pick up in this game would be very valuable.

It would be really, really nice to get all three points against United and leapfrog them in the table. No pressure for Robert and the players!

Y'all best believe there will be Poch commentary in the next issue, for better or worse.

Till then,

COYS

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