Yui Just Can't Stop Them
The third time was not the charm against Manchester City, but it was at least a respectable performance—if uninspiring in the attack.
As Spurs Women shift focus to the FA Cup this weekend, Robert Vilahamn will probably continue to tinker with the midfield and forward line configurations. Varying levels of fitness and form are making it difficult for him to settle on a consistent starting XI.
Fortunately, we have an easier task ahead with a knockout game against Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup. We don't want to underestimate the Championship side (managed by our former co-manager Karen Hills) but should feel confident about progressing to the quarter-finals.
The Men's team is playing earlier in the day, also at home, against Brighton in the Premier League. We'll have a boost from getting three players back in the squad following international duty and injuries. But the race for the top 4 is only getting more intense as the season goes on, so there's not much more room for error.
I also have a quick bookmarks roundup to share—mostly a women's football edition, with a couple of items around the Men's team.
In this issue: Manchester City recap | Previewing the weekend games | Pub chat
League Cup Quarter-final recap | Tottenham 0 - 1 Manchester City
Hasegawa 34'
Vice-captain Molly Bartrip and her back line have inarguably improved the defensive effort against Manchester City over the three-game series (two in the league, one in the Conti Cup). Still, the attack has not managed to find the edge to claim a result. So while it counts as a bit of a moral victory that City were only able to beat us with a wondergoal from Yui Hasegawa, there is much progress left to be made to fully compete against these stalwarts at the top of the WSL table.
Starting XI:
We may not have seen the last of the Beth England & Martha Thomas striker(ish) duo, but we at least got a reprieve. Instead, Shuang Wang lined up at the #10 to provide the playmaking. The other slight surprise was Kit Graham partnering with Eveliina Summanen in the middle of the park in place of Olga Ahtinen, who had subbed out of the previous Liverpool game early and may have had a knock that kept her from playing (though she was available on the bench). The only other surprise from the lineup graphic was that Amy has officially changed her surname to James-Turner. I joked that this meant Angharad was still with us, in a way, and it turns out she was actually at the game. Not sure why she isn't at training camp for the Reign yet, but nice to have her at Brisbane Road supporting the team either way.
Now, don't let the name change distract us from the fact that Luana Bühler spent another game as an unused substitute. I continue to have questions.
In fairness though, the defense really did do a stellar job locking down Manchester City's various (and numerous) attacking threats. The one exception was the conceded goal, in which City executed a short corner routine to work the ball around the perimeter of Spurs' defense to find Hasegawa completely unmarked for her long-range shot. Barbora Votíková nearly got a hand to it, but it was the quality of shot that you can't truly blame a keeper for failing to save.
I also think Charli Grant and Amanda Nildén deserve a special shout for slotting into the team fairly seamlessly in just their first few weeks at the club. They had tough defensive assignments for this game and handled them about as well as could be expected. Grant has been playing on her less-favored right side, as well.
But unlike in the recent WSL games against City, damage limitation wasn't going to do us any good; we had to score to stay alive in the cup. We just didn't have enough verve in the attack on this occasion to trouble City's keeper, Khiara Keating. Too often our passes went awry or were simply too slow. It was the kind of game where the talent and fitness gap was very apparent in terms of who controlled the game (hint: not us). And I don't know if it was just a case of nerves for the occasion or what, but the first touches were shockingly poor from several players. The midfield pivot stood out in having a little more stability to their game, and Wang looked very enterprising again but was pulled at halftime, whether for tactical or fitness reasons I do not know.
None of the second-half substitutions made a huge difference to the offensive effort and we ended the game with zero shots, let alone on target. You read that right.
We could still face City one last time this season if we both progress in the FA Cup this weekend, so fingers crossed that they get knocked out by Arsenal—who have somehow become a less daunting opponent in light of our recent NLD results.
SAtP Player of the Match: Molly Bartrip
I'm just going to keep making sure I give Bartrip her praise when it's due so that at the end of the season I don't have to declare her the unsung hero. That would be very unfair for a vice-captain, don't you agree?
Notable and Quotable:
• Bunny Shaw did not get on the scoresheet. I repeat: Bunny did not score!
• This was Eveliina Summanen's 50th appearance for the club. She has become such a staple of the squad and is clearly a player Vilahamn trusts.
• Vilahamn alluded to the discrepancy in fitness between the two teams in his recent press conference:
It takes a lot of energy to [defend well] because they are a very good team. And then you’ve got to be sharp when you win the ball... Now we know what we want to do when we win the ball, but now we also need to make sure that we are fit enough to succeed.
...as well an interesting note on building fitness in the squad:
We tried to sign players that can handle it as well, so Amanda and Charli’s two great examples of their physicalities that they can bring to the way we play. So we want to make sure we sign players that can handle the game we’re gonna play.
• Grant is feeling encouraged by the efforts of her teammates:
We just need to be more confident going forward. There were some patches where we showed that we're really good at playing with the ball, we just need to be confident higher up the pitch and finish our chances. We're really improving and it's going to come together soon.
Previewing PL Matchday 24 — Brighton
A few things have changed since the last Men's fixture: Giovani Lo Celso is apparently back in contention to play and both Son Heung-min and Yves Bissouma have returned from international duty. Manor Solomon had another procedure on his knee and will therefore miss a few more weeks, while Ryan Sessegnon is also still out. The rest of the squad had the benefit of not playing a midweek game, so hopefully some of the other players who were on the bubble fitness-wise will be in good shape to host Brighton.
With that in mind, it would be nice to see Pape Sarr return to the starting lineup, finally! And perhaps Rodrigo Bentancur will be looking refreshed after a good week of training. Bissouma is also an option for the base of the midfield but contracted malaria while at AFCON. He appeared fine in training videos and Ange Postecoglou has said he is good to go, but I tend to prefer Bentancur when fully fit anyway.
The forward line could be the biggest question mark. It's hard to drop Richarlison in his current form. And you could argue that Timo Werner has been in better form since joining in January than both Dejan Kulusevski or Brennan Johnson, so they could be the more likely players to drop to the bench if Sonny can start (most likely at right winger in this configuration). On that note, here's what Ange had to say about the captain's willingness to return straight to action:
It’s great to have him back. He wanted to train straight away and be available — that’s why he’s the person he is.
Knowing what we know about Son, it probably would be a good thing for him to get right back to work at Spurs and exorcise some of his Asian Cup frustration. If you're a listener of the Stadio podcast you'll be familiar with the concept of "angry goals"; you can bet on Sonny scoring one soon.
Brighton have been having a very inconsistent season compared to their recent standard. They sit nine points below us in the table currently. Although they have a few players who are questionable to play, they only have one player still on international duty (Simon Adingra). It feels impossible to predict which Brighton team is going to show up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the high-scoring juggernaut or the defensively shambolic mess. And let's not talk about how the reverse fixture went, in which we saw a little of both but still managed to lose the game. But for what it's worth, Roberto De Zerbi is suspended and won't be on the touchline to manage the Seagulls.
Honestly though, we need to be focused on picking up full points in this stretch of three home games in a row (thanks to the postponed Chelsea match). We want to be able to enter the away match at Aston Villa with some confidence and also a chance to put top 4 back into our hands.
Previewing Women's FA Cup Round 5 — Charlton Athletic
As Olga Ahtinen noted in her preview of the upcoming FA Cup fixture, we've played Charlton Athletic fairly recently in a January friendly, so they're not an unknown quantity. And although Gracie Pearse won't be able to compete against her parent club, she and manager Karen Hills will get a warm welcome from the Brisbane Road crowd.
Charlton are currently top of the Championship table and have a strong chance of getting promoted to the WSL. We should also take the previous FA Cup game against Sheffield United as a cautionary tale and not underestimate these visitors.
The injury situation is the same as last game for Spurs, with Ash Neville and Drew Spence still out injured, although Spence is closer to returning having been back in training already. Ramona Petzelberger will also miss out due to illness.
In the latest press conference, Robert Vilahamn noted how much we've been missing Spence during her injury layoff:
[She's a player] who can see stuff that nobody else can see, and who can break a line. Drew can do that amazing pass in behind or whatever. I miss her because she has some X factor that not many players have.
Thankfully, in addition to Grace Clinton being able to fill in that role when she's not needed on the left wing, Shuang Wang also adds a fresh creative option to the squad. We don't want to push her fitness levels too much too soon since she was injured upon joining the team, but another start and halftime substitution could be welcome.
Likewise, if there is an injury concern for Olga Ahtinen it wouldn't hurt to rest her again for this match. Kit Graham filled in capably against City, although she doesn't have quite the same chemistry with Eveliina Summanen as Eve's national team compatriot.
I feel like I've been saying this several weeks in a row now, but I really would like to see Jess Naz get another start. Both Beth England and Martha Thomas are looking less than 100% fit, and there's no point in burning them out so soon after returning from injury. On the positive side, there's a full week between this fixture and the next.
Vilahamn does have ambitions of winning the FA Cup, as he said in the press conference:
If you look at it, it’s three games before we can actually get Wembley for a title. So it’s quite close actually. So we very much want to do that because I don’t think we will win the league this year and we will not win the Conti Cup. So this is basically the last chance to have a title this year. And we want to be that team.
Showing some moxie, I like it!
Pub chat: Bonus bookmarks roundup
Just a few interesting articles and videos I've been intrigued by lately.
• The Women's Super League could be getting an injection of funds thanks to a loan from the Premier League—if it gets approved by the WSL board.
Mark Kleinman
And for further insights into the "NewCo" takeover, check out this article.
Some of the info that stood out to me:
- The League Cup will continue—though perhaps with modifications to the current format?
- The introduction of VAR (or a "lite" version) is still up in the air. I could have sworn we had previous confirmation that it would start next season but apparently not.
- The WSL will remain an open league with promotion and relegation.
- Referees could be made full-time shortly, something I think we can all agree would be a welcome change to improve the standard of officiating.
• Speaking of Super Leagues, this next item isn't Spurs-related but rather of general interest to fans of women's football. The USL announced today that its new league, the USL Super League, received first-division sanctioning by the US Soccer Federation.
USLSuperLeague.com Staff
My personal opinion is that this is a good thing for women's football in the US, where far too many markets lack a professional team and the player pool is way over saturation. I also have some hope that my local women's team, the Athenians (currently playing at the amateur level and about to join the USL's pre-professional W League) could eventually join this new top-flight league.
Interestingly, the USL-SL will be following the "European" calendar to align with recognized FIFA international breaks, which could be a key selling point for attracting players over NWSL's spring-to-fall cadence.
• Here's an interesting opinion piece from current free agent Katie Rood (a national teammate of Ria Percival) about football and the climate crisis.
Katie Rood
I wonder if Barclays' sponsorship is another matter up for discussion with the NewCo...
• Emma Hayes shared her concern about the lack of female coaches at the top level of English football.
I agree with Hayes that players need better support to pursue a coaching career whilst they are still active in their playing career. We see lots of initiatives around this need for post-retirement planning in the men's game and the same strategies can be applied in the women's game with proper funding and commitment.
• Matt Hayes has an article about new Men's team recruit, Lucas Bergvall.
I'm curious to know if the Charlie Nildén mentioned is any relation to Amanda...
• Sharing this transcript of Ange Postecoglou's latest press conference because there were a couple of very interesting tidbits in it.
Alasdair Gold
- Micky van de Ven set a record for fastest speed in the Premier League! Wow. And yet, not actually that surprising.
- Ange had an interesting response to a question about the proposed "sin bins" and blue cards, which I will reprint here at some length because I think it's worth considering:
I don't know if there's that much wrong with the game as I see it. My biggest issue with the game right now is that VAR has changed the experience, whether you're a player, a manager or a supporter or whatever you are I think it's changed the experience of football. I assume that's a means to an end, that the introduction of technology is going to get us to a better place. I remain to be convinced about that. Beyond that, I don't know why a different colour card is going to make any difference.
I struggle with this whole taking from other sports. What I do know about other sports is that most of them are trying to introduce rules to speed up and unclutter their game. We're going the other way and I don't know why. That's always been the difference with football compared to other sports. Football always has a life of its own. and within that there's mistakes, there's flaws and imperfections. Other sports tend to be able to stop and start and stop and start without affecting it. Even in that, most sports I look at are trying to speed up their game and make it a better spectacle. I don't know why we're trying to go the other way.
I have my own thoughts on the potential changes, but they are lengthy, so they may need to be saved for a separate post.
• Finally, the club shared a long video interview with Technical Director Johan Lange.
“We see every transfer window as an opportunity to progress and build the squad in the direction we want to take it… It’s not a one or two window job but the Club has taken some very important steps”
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) February 8, 2024
Technical Director Johan Lange reflects after the January transfer window ▶️ pic.twitter.com/FDav7gHJR5
Lange talks about how building squads across the Men's, Women's, and Academy teams that play the style of football the club is aligned to is more than a "one-or-two window job" but the aim is always to strengthen each window. He also stresses that recruiting players with the right personality is just as important as the skills they can bring to the club. A big priority for the club in January was improving loan club targets for the Academy players to help them better transition toward potentially breaking into the first team in the future.
We all believe that we are writing the first paragraph in what will be a very successful chapter for the football club.
I think Lange comes across very well in this interview and I feel reassured that the club is on the right track overall. I would love to see a similar interview more focused on the Women's side, though I'm still unclear on whether or how much he is actually involved with recruitment for the Women's team.
A recent article from The Athletic suggested that responsibility for player recruitment was largely down to Robert Vilahamn, the general manager, and the team's analysts, with some input from "coaches on the men's side." As the article notes, many WSL teams (and it sounds like Tottenham is one of them) don't have many/any scouts and rely primarily on data and "legwork" from managers and their staff. Anyway, further insight into the recruitment structure and processes for Spurs Women would be welcome.
Now that y'all have more than enough reading material to get you through until kickoff for the Men's game, I bid you adieu.
COYS
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