The Absurdity of Football

I'm not just talking about the absurdity of caring about football at a time when literal war is breaking out, as well as the upsetting political decisions in my home state of Texas. At the end of the day, football is entertainment and can be a distraction from troubling news. I hope this newsletter can be a small respite from the bleakness.

Of course, today's title can also refer to the absurdity that is Tottenham Hotspur FC. There were a lot of jokes before the Burnley match about Spurs being the only team that could beat Man City on the weekend and then lose to Burnley midweek, and unfortunately, those jokes became reality.

I don't think it would be particularly helpful to do a play-by-play analysis of the match when the real issues are more of a big-picture concern. And honestly, I didn't think we played all that badly. It was always going to be a tough matchup at Turf Moor with the weather conditions and Burnley's preferred tactics (though I do think they pressed us more than we're used to seeing, as predicted in my match preview--Wout Weghorst may not have scored, but his presence was felt regardless). We had our chances, and it was only a momentary lapse in concentration from Romero (who played well otherwise) that allowed Ben Mee to score the sole goal of the match. These things happen; matches are lost that should have been won. There's a reason people always say that "anything can happen in football." This loss only became significant because of the pre-existing narrative around Spurs (both in the media and amongst the fanbase), and in contrast to the stunning victory over City in our previous match.

So my concern is less about the loss itself or our chances of finishing in the top 4 (still very much in play, no need to panic just yet), and more about the persistent issues with mentality at the club.

Curiously candid Conte

This lack of a strong mentality applies to both the players' effort and our manager's attitude, sadly. For a manager who was won so much at other clubs and is consistently ranked as one of the top managers in the world, he displayed an extreme lack of professionalism in his post-match comments. The last thing our already on-edge fanbase needed was for him to essentially threaten to quit (or beg to be fired, whichever way you want to interpret it), but that's just what he did. It was a bizarre reversal of his feelings after the City match, when he said that he had never worked with a better group of players. Now, apparently, the situation at the club is one that he cannot fix. Okay then.

Conte might be a tactical genius, but he is certainly not self-aware enough to realize that his words have an outsized effect on both the players and the fans. His comments weren't helpful or productive. They've just made it that much more difficult for the team to bounce back against Leeds on Saturday, in the short term, and possibly hurt the club's chances of having a successful summer transfer window, in the long term. How will we attract top players to the club if they have to worry that Conte will be gone before they can even settle in? There was no need to further expose the instability at the club. We talk about individual errors in the defense--this was one from the managerial pulpit.

The original version of this Conte meme is infamously popular for a reason; the Premier League is unpredictable because all of the teams have a certain level of quality, and shocking results happen so often that we shouldn't really be shocked anymore. But Conte should think about how he has contributed to the drama himself this time. I certainly expect better from him, and he owes it to the players he manages (and all of us fans who support them) to not throw them under the bus when the going gets tough. He still has the final say on lineup decisions, in-game tactical adjustments and substitutions, and training techniques to improve for the next match. It would have been nice to see him shoulder a little more of the responsibility for the loss, not just lay bare his bruised ego for all to see.

I can't imagine the club will be eager to change managers again for the second time this season, so unless Conte wants to gain the reputation of being a quitter, he's going to have to buck up and show up.

Early match at Elland Road

Luckily, having a midweek match go badly means that there will be a quick opportunity for a bounce-back on the weekend.

Leeds are in even worse form than we are, if you can believe it. They haven't won a match since mid-January and have been letting goals in left and right. They also have quite a few key players out injured, including Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford. Robin Koch is a doubt since he suffered a bad head injury early on in their match against Manchester United. On Spurs' injury front, Oliver Skipp is now considered a game-time decision, so we might see him at least feature on the bench. I haven't heard an update yet on Bentancur, but hopefully the fact that he was able to continue until halftime against Burnley is a positive sign. Now, if neither is able to start, that could be a problem. Winks was pretty ineffectual when he come on in the second half of the Burnley match.

We simply have to exploit Leeds' leaky defense and be more clinical in our finishing this time. In the reverse fixture, Leeds got the scoring started through Daniel James, but we won 2-1 thanks to goals from Højbjerg and Reguilón. I would be very surprised if Kane didn't get a goal, since he is in such potent form at the moment and won't want to go a second match in a row without scoring. On the whole, our defense has been much stronger with Dier back in the lineup, so I have no doubt that we'll be able to keep a clean sheet in this match--just keep Raphinha under control.

Spurs Women spotlight

I participated in a fun questionnaire about Spurs Women with some other bloggers and supporters group leaders, put together by the new Spurs Women fan blog. Check out their blog for some different perspectives on Spurs Women's recent fixtures along with a few player spotlights. I particularly love the word cloud Rachel created from the questionnaire to showcase the pride we have in our Women's team.

Only one more weekend without a Spurs Women fixture!

COYS