The Cupboard is Bare

There's no other way to put it: times are dire for Spurs Men, with mounting injuries (and a fresh suspension) and the relentless end-of-the-year schedule leaving no room for recovery.

The fatigued team put in another listless performance in the latest Premier League loss dropping valuable points to Nottingham Forest in the chase for Champions League qualification.

It's very likely that Spurs will be in the bottom half of the table to start the new calendar year. We're still alive in all three cup competitions—and just a two-legged tie away from playing in a final in the League Cup—but it almost feels like cheating to point that out since we haven't yet entered the FA Cup and still need to secure a spot in the Europa League knockouts.

But there's a bit of hope on the horizon, if not full relief. A few players are set to return from injury (or at least rejoin training) in the coming weeks and will give Ange Postecoglou some actual options for rotation. The transfer window also looms; I'll save my thoughts on where the club needs to focus its recruitment for the mid-season review issue. And although the fixture schedule won't be slowing down until February, it at least feels more balanced next month in terms of opponent strength. The silver linings could perhaps use some polish, but they're there if you look.

In this issue: Nottingham Forest recap | Previewing Wolves

In the here and now, we have a potentially tricky game against a resurgent Wolves side just barely above the relegation line—and therefore highly motivated.

PL Matchday 18 recap | Nottingham Forest 1 - 0 Tottenham

Elanga 28'

I think we'd be missing the forest for the trees (pun fully intended) if we failed to put this result in its proper context.

Sure, the performance was not good. There's no denying that. But there were a lot of challenging factors that culminated in Spurs losing what was always going to be a difficult game against a confident team playing in front of their home fans. It was clear before the match kicked off which side had the momentum and which side was struggling to even field a team.

Starting XI:

Destiny Udogie returned to the starting lineup having been an unused substitute in the previous PL game against Liverpool. This meant that Djed Spence got to start on his preferred righthand side instead, his fourth start in as many games.

Rodrigo Bentancur's suspension was over and he immediately took up the starting #6 position. Was he effective? No.

Elsewhere, James Maddison was on the bench—it's hard to ever tell if it's rest or a selection decision on Ange's part—and Dejan Kulusevski assumed the playmaker role in his stead. Brennan Johnson made his first league start since the Chelsea game on December 8.

Key highlights & takeaways:

• It was one of those games where the attack seemed to be bypassing Dominic Solanke completely; he ended the game with zero shots on target. Most of the chances created fell to Johnson or Son Heung-min, but neither had their shooting boots on.

• For what it's worth, Forest's striker, Chris Wood, also failed to make an impact on the game. He looked well off the pace of the game, in contrast to the Forest wingers who took frequent advantage of Spurs' giveaways in the midfield to counterattack.

• I found it curious that the Forest players were taking so many long-range shots towards the top of the goal when we all know that low shots are Fraser Forster's weakness. Either way, they kept sending them harmlessly over the crossbar.

• For the sole goal of the game, Spence gave away the ball in Forest's defensive third and Morgan Gibbs-White quickly sent a through ball between Udogie and Archie Gray. Udogie, freshly back from a short injury layoff, was too slow to recover and track Anthony Elanga into the box. Radu Drăgușin kept him onside from the other flank while marking Wood.

• To Spurs' credit, nobody gave up on the game, and we continued to attack with intent—we just lacked the finishing touch. And Forest have perfected the mid-block under Nuno Espírito Santo's management, content to manage the game at 1-0. They are not the kind of team you want to concede the first goal to.

• As the match drew to a close, a fog descended, and Spence's decision-making became equally clouded. He put in a late challenge on substitute Jota Silva, received a second yellow, and was sent off in stoppage time.

It's unfortunate for him to be suspended for the next match not just because of the thin defensive depth chart during the current injury crisis, but also because he'd been building up a solid run of games for the first time in his Spurs career. He wasn't the only player whose performance became sloppy as the game went on (even the most consistent player of the season, Kulusevski, had his moments), but his mistake was the most costly from a personal perspective.

SAtP Player of the Game: abstain

I hate to be harsh, but truly, nobody stood out in a positive way in this game. In a negative way... well, I'll refrain from sharing my pick for the worst player of the match as well.

Notable & quotable:

• Falling down to 12th place in the Premier League table, this is the lowest we've been in the standings since matchday 4.

• This is the third time this season that we've had two PL losses in a row; both were games we won last season in the identical fixtures.

• With his caution in this match, James Maddison joins Rodrigo Bentancur on the yellow card accumulation watchlist for the final game of the first half of the season.

Previewing PL Matchday 19 — Wolves

I'm not convinced that there's ever a good time to face Wolves for Spurs—we have a shockingly bad record against them in recent seasons, with only one win in the last five Premier League matchups—but this time it seems more ill-fated than usual. After sacking previous manager Gary O'Neill and bringing in Vitor Pereira they've enjoyed a couple of wins on the trot and pipped Leicester City to the first safety spot in the table.

The new manager bounce can be a fickle thing for teams in the relegation scrap, but it's helping for now. They not only won that six-pointer against Leicester by a decisive 0-3 margin away from home, they held Manchester United scoreless as well.

Matheus Cunha is in hot form and has become Wolves' talisman player. Although he scored a very respectable 14 goals in the league last season, he's on pace to blow that figure out of the water in the current campaign, with 10 goals already in addition to four assists.

It's significant that Wolves have now earned two clean sheets in a row since they have the joint-worst defense in the league. Hopefully our forwards will have taken it to heart that they were held scoreless against Nottingham Forest and unleash the full strength of the attack to test Wolves.

There are two positives for Spurs going into the match: it's a home game, and Wolves won't have the rest advantage they'd usually have from not being in European competition since we both played on Boxing Day.

Wolves have quite a few players injured or doubtful to play, but nowhere near as many as Spurs. I'm relieved that Pablo Sarabia is unlikely to feature for the opposition since we know he only needs one clear shot to do his damage—not that he's a prolific scorer in general. I guess I'm just traumatized from that 2-1 loss at the Molineux last season. As for their expected lineup, Matt Doherty will probably be facing his former team, and Mario Lemina is likely to return to play.

Radu Drăgușin is a doubt since he took a knock to his ankle in the last game, and Ben Davies had a setback in his injury recovery and is out for at least a couple more weeks.

So that leaves us with zero legitimate centerbacks from the senior squad fit to play (we cannot count Archie Gray playing out of position, however well he's done in the circumstances) if Drăgușin indeed misses out. Alfie Dorrington could be an option from the Academy team, but otherwise, Ange Postecoglou will have to get creative to find a partner for Gray in the centerback pairing. We can't even ask a fullback to fill in since Djed Spence is suspended, only leaving Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie to fill the two outside defender spots with Gray already deputizing in central defense. Ange seems reluctant to give Sergio Reguilón anything more than garbage minutes. I'm having flashbacks to Spurs Women falling prey to the same conundrum last season and putting Eveliina Summanen in at CB. Yves Bissouma may be called upon for the same emergency role.

The knock-on effects of the defensive injuries continue farther up the pitch. If Bissouma is filling in with the defense, Rodrigo Bentancur will likely start again at the #8 despite his uninspiring performance against Nottingham Forest.

The chances of ending the year in the top half of the table are slim even when you ignore the fact that it will be difficult to beat Wolves. We'd also need Brighton to lose to Aston Villa to leapfrog the Seagulls on goal difference—and actually, we should prefer a draw in that result for our long-term hopes of European qualification. A draw in our own game would not be enough to go higher than 11th place.

I feel like I'm ending this issue on a down note, but what is the week between Christmas and New Year's for if not a bit of melancholy? Or at the very least, it calls for some realism.

Regardless,

COYS

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