and stop being so cautious.
Spurs lost another home game thanks to slow play, too many holding players and a defence that just let the opposition take the two shots that saw Aston Villa win 2-1.
It started badly with Romero missing from the starting XI, after being in the team-sheet due to injuring himself in the warm up. Though I was happy for Danso’s presence purely for the long throws. It was compounded by a less than scintillating forward line that included Tel up front and Odobert on the left, while again Franks went for two defensive minded central midfielders.
It started well on the park with a cross from Kudus, from the right, after he took just the one touch – more on this later – Palhinha nodded it back from the back post and Bentancur banged it in off a Villa player.
Shortly after it looked like Kudus had doubled the lead, again with some quick forward play. Chalked off for offside.
And there we have two problems. Bentancur scored but what else did he do? He passed the ball sideways. The forward line might not be up to much, but the fact the ball doesn’t go forward to them doesn’t help. So far in the Premier League games that Bentancur has played in 77% of his passes don’t go forward.
Does Frank really need him and Palhinha in there together? Or could he use someone with a bit more life and go forward? What doesn’t help is the fact that he just stood there and protected himself when Rogers equalised for Villa. There’s three white shirts there, while Palhinha tried to do something Bentancur did nothing, van de Ven also did that back turning routine but it was down to Bentancur to close Rogers down.
And guess who was there again when the winner was scored. Yup. Spence had to cover the fullback, who took down an excellent ball from the fat tongue ratbag, Cash, he then had to cover for Buendia, while Bentancur slowly jogged into the box and then do that self preservation back turning routine.
Just stand of him lads, what’s the worst that could happen? Sideways passing and not actually defending. It’s not a winning formula.
So in between going ahead and being drawn back and then beaten, Spurs played a lot of football that ended in very little, due to the need to stop, turn inside, turn outside, take two many touches and run into cul-de-sacs.
Kudus has the ability, as he’s shown in previous games and here, but he has to do it with the minimum of touches, the more he fannies about the less chance of anything coming from his play. Saying that when he does put crosses in there’s generally no one there with the nous to get on the end of the pass. And if by luck they find themselves in the right place, they’re too lightweight to do anything.
Kolo Muani finally made his first appearance, off the bench, and did a Tel with a great chance, hitting fresh air with his shot.
Frank is hindered by what he has up front but he’s not helping them. There doesn’t seem to be that pressing there was against PSG. The two holders aren’t required. The forwards are dithering and fannying about too much – get Xavi to put Simons on the back of his shirt until he deserves the name Xavi. Simple to sort out the stuff you can, while having to wait until January to sort out the stuff you can’t at the mo.