Randal's (Almost) Revenge

There's an alternate universe where Randal Kolo Muani completes the hat trick against his parent club, and Spurs get a shock win against the defending Champions League title-holders.

Sadly, we don't live in that universe, but it was fun to think about until Vitinha actually scored a hat trick with a penalty and killed off the game with a two-goal advantage for Paris Saint-Germain. Lucas Hernández's red card came too late to give Spurs any real advantage.

In this issue: Paris Saint-Germain recap | News from around the Lane

It was still an entertaining match overall, which made for a vast improvement over the thoroughly uncompetitive North London Derby at the weekend.

The next test comes tomorrow with a return to Premier League action against Fulham.

Champions League MD 5 | Paris Saint-Germain 5 - 3 Tottenham

This match did have big "free hit" energy, certainly in the approach from the players—which could generously be described as gutsy, or less generously as loosey-goosey. Or maybe it's just a both situation, with the offense earning far more credit than the defense.

Randal Kolo Muani shone the brightest, playing against his parent club thanks to UEFA's more permissive rulebook when it comes to loans. In addition to his brace, he also registered an assist. Hopefully this will be the moment he finally takes off in a Spurs shirt.

But before Kolo Muani scored his second-half brace, Richarlison actually opened the match's scoring by finishing off a lovely team move (more on the integral midfielders in a second). He's quietly building a run of goal-scoring form, with this goal making it three in three games across all competitions, despite the interruption of two games spent on Brazil's bench during the last international break.

As promised, it's time to praise Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray for their efforts in the buildup play. Both players missed some time recently due to injuries, but immediately showed what they can offer to Thomas Frank as midfield options, particularly in combination with each other. Does it make Frank's previous insistence on playing Rodrigo Bentancur and João Palhinha together even more frustrating? Yes. But if he can learn from the mistake, we will forgive him.

Frank's tenure at Spurs so far has been tricky to assess. It's hard to know how much of his strange lineup decisions of late have been complicated by injury/fitness concerns we can't know the full picture of, and how much of it has been pure stubbornness. And you can't imagine he's been telling the players to play so negatively the last few weeks, but regardless of intent vs influence, they had been. Perhaps the strangest aspect has been the relative lack of adaptation compared to the early weeks of the season, in both team selection and tactics.

So much like the players letting us down with their individual and collective performances in the most recent games, Frank has likewise disappointed us by suddenly changing his approach to management. We know all of them can do better than what we were seeing, which somehow feels worse than not having any faith in them at all.

The performance against PSG, whilst absolutely too careless when it came to defense, at least provides some hope that Frank and the team can get things back on track soon and avoid another setback-inducing managerial change. I don't realistically think he has gotten close to being sacked just yet, but you never know in modern football.

Notable & quotable:

• This was our first loss in the CL League Phase, ending our unbeaten streak.

• Randal Kolo Muani and Richarlison both scored their first goals of the CL campaign.

• Kolo Muani was the first player to score a brace for us so far in the League Phase.

• The less said about the defensive mistakes, the better, but Thomas Frank was happy to highlight the attack:

I think it's positive that the two strikers scored three goals between them. I think overall the team made a good performance from everyone, but I also think Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall were positives.

Overall, he was pleased with the mentality shown:

If there’s not a reaction [to the NLD defeat], then we need to be worried. Today, I saw a good reaction and there's something to build on.

News from around the Lane

• The Men's Academy U18s have a new coach, Jamie Carr. He's stated that player development is one of his biggest passions as a coach.

• From the Women's Academy, two players have gone out on dual registration loans for the rest of the season: Faye Fields-Davis joins Real Bedford in the National Southern Premier Division, while Cruz Fuller-Fagan is headed to Dulwich Hamlet in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

• Cathinka Tandberg has left the Norway camp after picking up an (unspecified as of this writing) injury. But on the positive side, new signing Signe Gaupset scored twice in Norway's first fixture of the international break.

Up next:

November 29 | Spurs Men vs Fulham
Team news — Cristian Romero suspended due to yellow card accumulation; otherwise, same availability as the PSG game, except for Brennan Johnson returning to the squad after serving his CL suspension

Let's hope the injury to Tinka isn't too serious and that the Men's team can regain some momentum in the Premier League campaign. Till next week,

COYS

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You can also find me on Bluesky and podcasting at N17 Women and The Tottenham Depot.the injury to Tinka isn't too serious and that