Slowing of the Season
Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. We've been desperate for the Men's team players to get some rest, but I don't think any of us wanted that to come at the expense of the cup campaigns. Much like the Women's team experienced back in January, they were knocked out of both domestic cups within the space of a week. It's all in on the Europa League now to salvage the season. The domestic campaign has been reduced to merely avoiding relegation.
In this issue: Aston Villa recap | Previewing the weekend matches | News from around the Lane
Both senior teams return to league action this weekend—with reinforcements fresh off the injury list.
Men's FA Cup Round 4 recap | Aston Villa 2 - 1 Tottenham
Ramsey 2', Rogers 65' | Tel 90+1'
I think it's worth pointing out right away that the odds were stacked against us from the start.
This was the third straight away game and the second in cup competition. Although Aston Villa were also carrying heavy injuries and even had a smaller bench than Spurs, they had some real game-changers available to bring on, while we could only call on the same tired players who have been battling for weeks to keep a grip on the season prospects. Plus, Unai Emery is no slouch when it comes to winning cup games—he's a shrewd manager always, but especially for knockout football.
So basically, it was a bridge too far for this Spurs squad to eke out a result. That doesn't mean the performance was wholly without fight, but it largely lacked sharpness—Mathys Tel's first Spurs goal being the obvious exception. Perhaps if we had been fortunate enough to draw a lower-division opponent for this round we could have managed to progress despite the challenges, but it wasn't to be against a team of Villa's competence.
Starting XI:
The defense and midfield selections weren't too surprising, but the balance of the forward line was off from the start. Nobody was playing in their best position/side except for perhaps Dejan Kulusevski (though it's debatable how effective he can be in the pseudo-#10 role without a stronger defensive midfield behind him). I wasn't thrilled to see Mathys Tel starting at winger rather than striker, and indeed, he didn't score his goal until after he'd shifted into the central role.
Top three things:
- Mixed bag for Kinský. Antonín Kinský will probably be as relieved as anyone when Guglielmo Vicario returns so he can get off the hot seat for a while. He was responsible for letting in Jacob Ramsey's 2nd-minute goal due to poor handling, but in fairness, the defense in the buildup to the shot wasn't doing him any favors. He recovered quickly to get back in the game and made several important saves to keep us alive with a chance of equalizing. There wasn't much he could do about the close-range shot from Morgan Rogers for Villa's second, kindly falling to him after a botched Pedro Porro clearance.
- Son not shining at striker. I will cut Son Heung-min some slack because in a different season without an injury crisis he would have had the proper rest throughout the last few weeks to truly make an impact in these cup games. But the physical and mental fatigue was showing up starkly in his performance against Villa. He sent a clear-cut chance straight at Emiliano Martínez, missing a chance to equalize early on and change the inflection of the game. I can understand the rationale for Ange Postecoglou putting him up top to try to preserve what little was left of his energy rather than giving him a more demanding winger role, but it didn't pay off.
- Tel shows his quality. It looks like Mathys Tel is going to need a while to adjust to the pace of the Premier League, particularly when playing on the wing, but he showed just how skillful he can be as a finisher when moved into the striker role later in the game. Ironically, Son is not a bad comparison when it comes to describing his efficiency in front of goal. Both forwards bring a certain finesse and pin-point placement to their shots that make them all but impossible for a keeper to save (again, when Son is not dead on his feet). Believe me when I say the best is yet to come for Tel, but this was a tantalizing glimpse of what he can offer Spurs—in this half-season loan and hopefully for many seasons to come.
SAtP Player of the Match: Dejan Kulusevski
He wasn't without his moments of poor decision-making borne from overplay, but he provided a beautiful assist for Tel's goal, an acrobatic volley. He had also set up the opportunity for Son's early chance by playing in Mikey Moore on the wing. He was heavily involved from two different positions in this game and will surely continue to be a key player in the remainder of the season—hopefully with more rest now that we have fewer midweek games to contend with.
Notable & quotable:
• Mathys Tel scored his first goal on his first start for the team since joining on loan.
• While lamenting that his first Spurs milestones occurred in such a tough week for the team results-wise, Tel noted that he gained a lot of confidence from the experiences.
It’s a good start for me... without the defeats. It’s something special for me to play my first game at Anfield, a semi-final, and now my debut and a goal, honestly, that’s good for my confidence. My goal was good, I’m happy, but it’s a difficult day. We have to keep going.
He also commented on the upcoming game against Manchester United.
I know the quality of my teammates, the staff... I believe in them. I’m not scared about the future. We play next week against Manchester [United] and we are going to do our jobs. We have to be better, to do much more on the pitch and we will see what happens. Our mentality doesn’t move. We have to keep this energy and keep going until the end.
• A factoid from Matt Law:
Since November 22, three Spurs players—Pedro Porro, Archie Gray, and Dejan Kulusevski—have played more than 1,700 minutes in all competitions. No other outfield player at any Premier League club has reached such a total in that time.
Yikes!
• Ange Postecoglou remarked in his recent press conference about the importance of the leaders in the team during the injury crisis:
The fact that the players have stuck together through that whole process, at no stage did they splinter off or look to absolve any responsibility of themselves as individuals is a testament to the fact that there's a good bonding there that's been laid down by Sonny and and the other leaders.
Previewing WSL Matchday 14 — Arsenal
Well, I guess if you have to face a team as in-form as Arsenal, it's best to do so with two full weeks of preparation.
When we last left off with the Women's team I was feeling pretty down about the trajectory of the season, but we did get some good news ahead of this match: Drew Spence and Ella Morris are both available for selection. Spence can provide valuable creativity for counter-attacking against Arsenal's press with her incisive through balls, and Morris will bring some much-needed physicality back to the defense. This is assuming they both see the pitch! I hope Robert Vilahamn will not take an overly cautious approach with them. While it's true that there are no real stakes left in the campaign with exits in both cups and an insurmountable gap to the Champions League qualification spots, I think the rest of the team (and fans especially) could use the encouragement of seeing these two key players back in action.
Unfortunately, Eveliina Summanen is still in individual training and won't be returning any time soon.
I'm hopeful that we could see Olivia Holdt get her first start, having only featured as a substitute so far since joining in January.
Elsewhere in the lineup, it feels like it could (or should) be last chance saloon for some of the underperforming players who have been starting consistently.
Arsenal only have a couple of confirmed injuries, Kim Little and Lina Hurtig. Victoria Pelova could possibly return from injury in this game, and Chloe Kelly will likely make her first appearance for her loan club (she was cup-tied for both of their matches last week).
Our opponents have lost just four games this season in all competitions—two of which were against Chelsea in the Women's Super League. They were knocked out of the League Cup at the quarter-final stage just like Spurs, but by much more difficult opposition (Manchester City in their case). Their last game was the 2-0 win over London City Lionesses to progress in the FA Cup.
As I already alluded to, we have the rest advantage, but let's hope it doesn't translate into a rust disadvantage.
If we do manage to claim a result against Arsenal, we'll get to enjoy it for a couple of weeks; there's an international break up next. But on the downside, we wouldn't get to capture any of that momentum for the next WSL game, another difficult test against Manchester City.
Previewing PL Matchday 25 — Manchester United
It's time once again for the "clubs in crisis" derby.
We've already played them twice this season due to drawing them in the League Cup quarter-final, a match we won 4-3 despite a Fraser Forster goalkeeping disasterclass. Earlier in the season we beat them away in the Premier League 0-3.
Guglielmo Vicario was between the sticks for that clean-sheet win in September, and he could be starting in the home fixture tomorrow as well. He's finally available for selection again after missing several months with an ankle fracture.
Ange Postecoglou on the boost Vicario's return could provide:
We’ve used three other goalkeepers. They’ve all contributed, but none of them have let us down. It’s just that Vic is experienced and has a strong personality. Madders is the same. He has enormous self-belief and that filters through the team... He's still the number one [goalkeeper].
He also noted that it's important for the injury returnees to build up some game time ahead of the Manchester City game in a week and a half. Other additions to the matchday squad include James Maddison (who Ange heavily hinted could start) and Destiny Udogie. The other injured players are all still out, though Brennan Johnson and Timo Werner are very close to a return. Richarlison, Cristian Romero, Dominic Solanke, and Micky van de Ven are expected to need another two to three weeks before they can get back to game time, while Wilson Odobert is being cautiously eased back into training before his timeline can be determined.
Manchester United have recently picked up a slate of injuries, including Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Jonny Evans, Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, and Mason Mount. Amad Diallo is also going to miss out, while Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo are doubts. This means that Ruben Amorim could potentially have very limited options to play in midfield—so Christian Eriksen is looking likely to start against his old club, despite a severe lack of game time in recent weeks.
United have had a few big wins in the last month, including in the Europa League and FA Cup, but have lost two out of their last three PL games. Our form hasn't been any better, to be fair.
But we've proven capable of scoring multiple goals in games where players have had proper rest, and that's definitely the case heading into this game. Fingers crossed a rejuvenated squad can take care of Amorim's team; a win would mean leapfrogging our opponents on points as well as Everton and Crystal Palace on goal difference. Our strong goal difference advantage has somehow persisted through this injury crisis so we may as well put it to work in the table.
News from around the Lane
• Radu Drăgușin has undergone successful ACL surgery and now begins his rehabilitation. Good luck, Radu!
• Jamie Donley was awarded EFL Young Player of the Month for January. It was an eventful month for the newly 20-year-old, on loan at Leyton Orient. He scored three goals and made three assists in league play, not to mention his contribution to Orient's penalty shootout win against Derby County in the FA Cup (not relevant to this award, of course).
• Down in League Two, George Abbott won Goal of the Month for January.
• Jess Naz was once again called up to the senior England squad, which is a bit surprising to me considering her recent form. Robert Vilahamn disagrees, describing her as "one of the diamonds in the future for the Lionesses." That could very well be true, and god knows I want to see her back at her best soon. I still think this is a puzzling selection decision from Sarina Wiegman.
But more importantly, Spurs Women had a trio of call-ups at the U23s level: Ella Morris, Lenna Gunning-Williams, and Eleanor Heeps (in the training squad only). This is Heeps' first call-up to the U23s. The news of Morris' inclusion was our first hint that she was done with injury rehab for her MCL!
• Some fast facts on the women's winter transfer window, courtesy of Tom Garry:
- English women's clubs spent a total of $2.3m on transfer fees in the recent January window.
- Globally, $5.8m was spent on women's transfer fees (up 180.6%) across 455 international transfers.
- English clubs spent the most.
The last bit should not come as a surprise since Chelsea broke the global women's transfer fee record to sign Naomi Girma. Sigh. I'm still not over it.
Bonus bookmarks:
• I appreciate that the club is offering more insight into the Women's Academy this season, like this interview with newcomer Mia Endacott.
Tottenham Hotspur
In the interview, she touches on the differences in playing Professional Game Academy League football vs senior league football, which she previously played at Plymouth Argyle in the National League South:
The senior game is more physical whereas academy is more tactical because, being part of the Club’s set-up, you’re learning how Tottenham play, and I feel my tactical knowledge has got a lot better.
• The Athletic did a feature on Maite Oroz, her first English-language interview since making the move to Spurs in the summer.
Megan Feringa
She reflected on her time at the club so far with an eye to the future:
I need to keep playing more games. I need time to adapt to the intense transition football here and to build relationships with my team-mates. But I’m getting there. I feel like I know more how the other players play. For me the most important thing is to collaborate, to help the team score and win games and titles.
She also noted that she could use some improvement on her long-passing game:
Normally, I’m a player who sees in short passes, but I need to be concentrated and sometimes say, OK, I am going to see the longer pass.
Megan Feringa's piece paints a great picture of Oroz's personality. I think she's already a fan favorite, and that will only continue to be the case as she gets more game time.
• The Women's Super League did a video feature on Chris Paouros and the Proud Lilywhites supporters group as part of their "The Fans That Make the Game" series:
All right, it's an early kickoff for Spurs Women (and apparently on ESPN2 in the US!) followed by Spurs Men four hours later.
Sleep well,
COYS
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