Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Other bits of news, Emerson Royal left the club to join AC Milan. I think it was a bit like the Hojbjerg situation in that he was a good player, but not one perfectly suited to the style the manager wanted to play. He was a bit unlucky as he was signed to play as an orthodox defensive right back in a back four for Nuno, who got sacked after a couple of months, and then both managers since in Conte / Ange who played wingbacks / ultra attacking full backs.

I really liked him though, very bubbly and happy seeming character, never any complaints in the press when he wasn't getting into the team, and never any lack of effort from him. Also a vote of confidence for Djed Spence, as obviously Ange feels that he can take Emerson's place as the backup for Porro.

In some annoying news Bissouma posted a video of himself inhaling laughing gas online. I think Ange has responded really well though, suspending him from the squad for the Leicester match and saying he's accepted Bissouma's apology but he now needs to rebuild his trust with him and the other players with his actions going forward. I think Ange struck a good balance between letting the players know there have to be consequences for poor decisions, but not going OTT and blowing it out of proportion. I don't think what he did is really that big a deal, it's the videoing it and posting it online that's the really dumb part.

[fallenangle]

Very good - hope to see more of that sort of thing from him at Spurs.

[EJG1980]

Another departure (we've really been clearing the decks this summer) with Oliver Skipp making the move to Leicester City, though obviously not in time for him to take part in the match against us tonight.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2024/august/skipp-joins-leicester-city/

Good move for him as he's never quite been able to make the breakthrough from squad player to nailed on starter, so it's good that he's going somewhere where he's more likely to be able to start every week.

And of course, Leicester can now field the Tottenham academy dream midfield pairing of Winks and Skipp

He's one of those players who had a bad injury at just the wrong moment. He'd had a great year on loan at Norwich getting rave reviews, then was getting in the team nearly every week when he came back to Spurs the next season, but then got a season ending injury just under halfway through the campaign. Since coming back from that injury he was never able to rise above good, solid, professional, reliable squad player.

Only ever scored one goal for us, but it was an absolute cracker against Chelsea, so he made sure that it was a memorable one. Good luck, Oliver!

Embedded Tweet

[Mayhem]

Well that went... interesting now, didn't it?! Not quite sure what to make of it. Before the game I'd have taken a point, but on reflection, either side could have had all three.

[EJG1980]

An annoying one from a Spurs perspective, as we should have had all three points wrapped up well before Vardy hit the equaliser. All Spurs in the first half and for the first 15 minutes of the second half, but when you dominate but only get one goal you're always open to being sucker punched. A lapse from Romero as he was marking Vardy but wandered away from him for no reason just before the cross came in, leaving him in acres of space.

It was then slightly worrying how much the concession of that goal affected us, as we really dropped off after that and Leicester were well on top for the next 10 or so minutes. The chance Vardy had on the 70th minute was one where nine times out of ten he scores but luckily his finishing was slightly off and Vicario did well too.

I have to agree with the commentators who said that the stoppage for the Bentancur head injury (thankfully he's okay) ended up helping Spurs as it stopped the Leicester momentum and allowed Spurs to get their heads together, and when play restarted it was back to Spurs being on top, but unfortunately we couldn't find a winner.

A mixed bag in the end. We played some really nice stuff in the first hour and the last 20 minutes but needed to be more clinical in front of goal. A slight worry how the team got the jitters from one setback, with a better finish from Vardy we could easily have found ourselves behind due to that bad spell. But it's the opening day and we didn't lose, so, no need to read too much into the good stuff or the bad stuff.

[fallenangle]

^ Good analysis.

There are worse ways to start a campaign than a draw but I won't be happy with anything but a win against Everton, particularly with that Arsenal match to come and Newcastle followed by MU later next month too.

[EJG1980]

Well done Spurs, good performance and result today. It's a match everyone would have expected us to win but it was very nice to go out and do it in emphatic style. A very welcome clean sheet too.

Bissouma's goal

Son's first goal

Micky vd Ven's run for the fourth... er... darn, we haven't got a sprinting emoji

An encouraging debut from Odobert. He looked very good in the first half and linked up well with Udogie and Maddison, he slotted in very well for a youngster playing his first match at a new club after one week of training. He faded in the second half but will need a few weeks of training sessions to get his fitness up to Angeball levels.

[fallenangle]

Yes, just what we wanted: an emphatic win and good performance all round. More of this please.

[EJG1980]

An interesting couple of cup draws for us. The other day we were drawn away to Coventry City in the League Cup 3rd round. If the Coventry of last season who were millimetres away from getting to the FA Cup final turn up, that could be a potential banana skin, though one that we obviously should be navigating around.

Just now we found out our opponents in the new convoluted Europa League format. Our eight group stage matches are:

H - Roma (ITA)
H - AZ Alkmaar (NED)
H - Qarabag (AZE)
H - Elfsborg (SWE)

A - Rangers (SCO)
A - Ferencvaros (HUN)
A - Galatasaray (TUR)
A - Hoffenheim (GER)

Two obvious big standout matches there with the home match against Roma, and travelling to Glasgow to face Rangers, the latter of which just had to happen with Ange being an ex-Celitic manager.

Galatasaray away will be a tricky one, I watched their matches in the CL last season where they were very unlucky in both losses against Bayern Munich and deservedly beat and drew with Man Utd. They've got Davinson Sanchez at the back and some decent attacking players like Icardi and Mertens.

[fallenangle]

Thanks, I saw some of the fixtures elsewhere and was trying to work out how they had come up with this, indeed convoluted, mix.

The Galatasaray one away will be a stiff task for sure and the Roma and Rangers games 'interesting'. But not knowing that much about most of the others who can say? You just hope good Spurs turn up in all cases because this is a competition we can, realistically, do well in if we're consistently at our best.

Sunday Edit

Pity about the result today,' sounded like the sort of game we should and or at least could have got points from but did not.

[EJG1980]

Sunday Edit

Pity about the result today,' sounded like the sort of game we should and or at least could have got points from but did not.

Yup. We didn't start the first half very well, but gradually got on top, to the point where Sky put up a graphic showing the Spurs had had seven shots in a row without reply from Newcastle... and we promptly fell asleep at the back and let them waltz through to score.

Second half we started quickly and were well on top, another Sky graphic "Spurs touches in final 3rd - 73, Newcastle touches in final 3rd - 2", but this time we finally made it count and equalised. After that we were still on top, but not quite as dominant as before we scored, and then once again out of nowhere Newcastle just slice through a sleeping defence and take the lead.

9 shots to Newcastle, 20 shots to Spurs, but we walk away with nowt.

One problem is that while we created lots of chances, they weren't lots of great chances. Of our 20 shots the only one where it was a clear and obvious "that should have been a goal" was Odobert's chance at the back post in the second half. Still, should have got at least a point from the match and more often than not would have got all three, so a frustrating day at the office.

Edit: though I’d also say it doesn’t need a huge amount to turn the okay chances into really good ones; a slightly better final pass, slightly better positioning from the forwards, etc.. We had quite a few moves that didn’t end up with a shot too, balls fizzed across the six yard box, where a proper striker like Solanke or Richy would have been much more likely to be in the right position to finish off the move.

[fallenangle]

Yes, there was somebody who posted a comment on a social media site about the match which was re-quoted elsewhere to the affect, using more colourful language, that Solanke would have been in his element in a game with chances like that and Spurs would have come away with something if he'd been on the pitch.

But with both him and Richarlison injured it was not to be.

Arsenal next on the agenda.

[EJG1980]

Hopefully Micky VDV and Solanke should both be back for the Arsenal match.

I can't remember the exact quotes but Ange basically said that they were both touch and go for the Newcastle match and had it been something like a big cup final, they'd probably have played, but being so early in the season it wasn't worth taking any risks.

[fallenangle]

Good, typical Harry Kane, goal in the England game against Finland. As soon as he got the ball and moved to create the space to have clear shot any Spurs fan would have known that nine times out of ten at that range it was going in.

Quite a good watch with England all over the Fins for most of the game but not putting away all their chances. Grealish being given a proper run out and not just used as a sub or somebody to sub I think has shown himself to be a valuable asset.

If MC don't want him or he wants to leave as he's not getting regular pitch time I'd hope Spurs would be in the running to sign him.

[EJG1980]

One thing I liked about the matches against Ireland and Finland was that Carsley had round pegs in round holes; the last couple of years of Southgate he often had players in sub-optimal positions leading to a lop-sided team, players doing stuff they didn't do for their clubs, etc.. Carsley had them nicely balanced. Good job audition by him so far.

Kane up to 68 goals for England now. With players having quite a bit of longevity these days, it'd be nice to see Kane keep going into his late thirties, which might give him a chance of reaching 100 goals. Would be a remarkable achievement if he could pull that off.

Edit: gah, third loss in the derby at home in a row. At least it was a lot better than last year when Arsenal were 3-0 up by half time. Similar problems to the Leicester and Newcastle matches, lots of possession, lots more chances than the opposition, but we didn't make good enough chances and failed to make chances out of good positions on too many occasions.

We had 15 shots but I can't really remember Raya having to make any properly good saves to keep us out, no "How didn't we score???" moments. Equally Vicario had very little to do for most of the match too, and we were dealing with the set-pieces pretty comfortably, until that one lapse in concentration at a corner that let them score. I think that goal was only their second touch in our goal area of the second half.

So another frustrating one, but there are some positives. Despite the fact that we lost to one today, the defence has actually got better at dealing with set-pieces. Last season there were matches where almost every corner led to us have to scramble the ball away in a panic, and that hasn't happened this season. And the attacking is good up to a point, but we need to be more clinical in the final third, and speed things up too to give us more chance to create better chances.