Premier League Match 2 - Southampton 2 Tottenham Hotspur 5

 

Behold, a Positive!

Even if you paid no attention to fixture lists at the start of the season and if you had no idea who Saints were about to play next, you would know when we are about to play Tottenham. You know because three days before we play them, they will be heavily linked in the press to one of our players and our manager will have to spend the whole press conference talking about their alleged interest in one of our players. Last year it was our captain and this year it is Danny Ings. Apparently it was just a cheeky enquiry but isn’t it remarkable how this finds its way into the press.

If anyone gives a shit about this kind of thing, then surely there is someone taking a keen interest in Spurs finances at the moment. They put non-footballing staff on furlough a few months ago and took out a £100 million loan to pay for running costs and the proviso of that was that they didn’t spend any of it on players, be it transfer fees or wages. How they think they are going to afford the £50m plus it would take before Saints would even remotely consider selling them Danny Ings at this point in the transfer window, is beyond me but then, given the financial situation described above and the fact that they are in the second year of playing in the new ground, which I imagine is one of the most expensive ever built anywhere in the world.  It has been a bit of an eye-opener that this week they have struck a deal with Real Madrid to sign Gareth Bale on loan for the season.. 

I admit that I went a bit soft for a while, whilst Mauricio Pochettino was the manager and I almost stopped hating Spurs. It’s hard but I don’t dislike Mourinho either but after my admitted softness, I am trawling the memory banks and finding plenty of reasons why I like them very much. I’ve never quite forgiven Spurs for a number of things - Glenn Hoddle, Dean Richards, Neil Ruddock, Toby Alderweireld and Gareth Bale. In the first four cases though, you could accuse them of acting in a somewhat dubious manner but as far as Gareth Bale was concerned, they signed him from us as a 17-year-old after we failed to get out of the Championship under the stewardship of Whiskey George Burley. We only saw the raw potential in red-and-white and our failure to get promoted that season meant that his departure was inevitable. He probably would’ve left even if we had gone up because back then, we had the future Brexit MP and hockey loving twat Rupert Swing Lowe as our chairman.

Modern day Spurs are still operating in the same way. Their two signings this year have a course been Pierre Hojbjerg from us, who had a year left on his deal and the totally legit and not at all strange transfer of Matt Doherty from Wolves who has the same agent as the Wolves manager, who is the same agent that advises the Wolves board, who has the same agent as José Mourinho and he moved for a fee which seemed well under what you would expect. Whatever the ins and outs of that particular deal, it just shouldn’t happen like that.

Spurs started the season with a shit home defeat by Everton where they only lost 1-0 but they were abysmal, in much the same way that we have been abysmal this season so far. So, today is a clash between two teams who have not pulled up any trees this season, the difference is that they will be on somewhat of a high after getting the Bale signing over the line in the last couple of days, whilst we have been busy losing to half a championship side.

We played them four times last year overall with a home game being memorable for a quite brilliant Danny Ings goal and the away game in the FA Cup being memorable for a very good performance, another brilliant Danny Ings goal and Son Heung Min being a diving twat and buying the penalty that won them the game.

Nathan Redmond picked up an injury in the Brentford game so he won’t be available today though there was some good news about Stuart Armstrong maybe being back. Normally you would expect me such an approach to step into the side in place of Redmond but I can’t see him being fit enough to start the game so that could bring Sofiane Boufal, Nathan Tella or even Josh Sims into contention.

In the event, Armstrong is back and Moussa Djenepo starts on the left.  There are concerns whether either will last the game but it’s a good starting line up on paper.  Part of the problem is though, is that there is no real debate – the bench is made up of largely untried kids, Forster, Vestergaard and Long.

Spurs have rotated a few.  They still look very strong though and the bench is madness when compared to ours – Bergwijn, Sissoko, Alderweireld, Lamela, Lo Celso, Hart, Aurier.  Bloody hell – and Dele Alli didn’t make the 18.  Even with Toby on the bench, it’s still a day for looking at our ex’s with Pierre starting the game.

Our new high defensive line looks like becoming an issue in the first minute as the ball is played up over the top of KWP and Son is away down the left. He hooks the cross over everyone but Doherty arrives from right back and heads it back across and Kane crashes it first time into the net. Fuck me what a start. It’s being checked by VAR, Time goes by, civilisations rise and fall and then Son has decreed to be offside by toenail. Hurrah it’s still 0-0. It was a great goal by Kane, made possible by some sharp movement by the England man and also made possible by our centre backs just watching him move and not reacting.

Saints make the most of their let off and with 5 minutes gone, it’s clearly time for one of the certainties in life – Death, Taxes and Romeu to launch Hojbjerg up in the air – Up you go Pierre and here’s a yellow card.   We start playing quite well however and create a great chance when Bertrand hits a free kick into the box which bounces down and like he did at Crystal Palace, Che Adams absolutely smashes it goalwards but too close to Lloris he pulls off a blinding save.   On the replay you realise that he shouldn’t have been given a prayer from that range and it’s another one for the unlucky versus not good enough debate.

Our next attack Adams release Ings behind the Spurs defence and Lloris comes flying out miles out of the penalty area and I don’t know quite what he’s doing but he ends up getting his head to the ball and it pops up to Danny Ings who steers it into the empty net. There is something about this goal that stops me jumping up and down celebrating in my front room I’m sure enough, VAR comes out again and the ball has bounced up and hit Danny on the arm. He didn’t mean it of course but it doesn’t matter these days, so it’s ruled out.

Saints are playing really good football down the left hand side and Spurs can’t get near us.  We are quick in possession and looking to get forward all the time.  It’s great.  Armstrong has come over from the right to combine with Bertrand who sends Djenepo away down the left hand side. Djenepo was confronted by Doherty and makes him look a complete idiot as he goes past him with ease before get to the line and rolling it back for Adams. Adams should hit it first time but takes a touch and then hits the prone figure Davies who is lying on the ground in front of him and the danger is eventually cleared. Fuck.

Our defensive line has clearly worked as Spurs get the ball in the net as Moura’s cross is converted by Kane but Moura well offside but the linesman is following the new rules of not sticking the flag up until the ball is in the net. I kind of understand why this way of deciding offside is in place but surely if it’s that far offside, just do your job and stick the fucking flag up.

Saints really are playing well and passing the ball about and Spurs still can’t get near us. Stephens and Romeu combine to give the ball to Walker Peters out on the right and he gets his head up and chips it over Dier’s head to meet Danny Ings run and the King of Scummers takes an unbelievably good first touch before from a tight angle, passing it across Lloris into the far corner of the net. It’s an absolutely brilliant finish and the main man is up and running again.

Saints still dominated the game after the goal and it looks like we’re going to get to half-time with a lead but if there’s one thing that you can rely on is that Saints will fuck it up when it seems like there is no way that they can.  Ndombele has literally not kicked the ball in the right direction all game but he manages to spin out of the combined challenge of Romeu and JWP and feed Harry Kane on the left. His ball to Son is perfect who has got in behind the defensive line. McCarthy thinks about coming out and does a bit and then goes back and he’s going backwards as Son’s shot disappears into the far side of the net. McCarthy didn’t have his feet planted at any point so I was never going to be set to be able to push off to save a ball that went quite close to him. Bullshit. Spurs have been shit really and we’ve been the better side by mile but a combination of the quality they have at their disposal and our ever present self destruct button means that its level at half-time.

If we can get back to the same level is that we showed in the first half straight away then this is anyone’s game but our high defensive line is something that needs addressing because it is too easy for them to get through. Despite having a major hand in the goal, Ndombele has not come out for the second half and Mourinho summons one Galactico off the bench, this time Lo Celso.

 

Adams misses another presentable chance at the start the second half that he really should’ve scored and directly from that Spurs win the ball and Lo Celso finds a Kane in midfield, one pass through and Son he is bearing down on goal. He has Stephens to get past and the Saints centre half makes one of the biggest power puff bottle job challenges I’ve ever seen in my entire life and Son walked past it and passed it into the net. For fuck‘s sake.

 

After crunching Hojbjerg in the first few minutes, Romeu has been walking a bit of a tight rope and after trashing through the back of Lo Celso, Ralph decides that it’s time to take him off before he gets the seemingly inevitable red card and so will Smallbone, all seven stone of him, is on to play in the centre of midfield. Once again, Kane goes deep, no one picks him up and he quickly turns and chips the ball over the defence. Three of our defenders are in a line but Bednarek, who probably should’ve gone with Kane, is five yards behind everybody and Son is clean through again and guess what happens. Bednarek has the nerve to stand there appearing for offside when he was the one who played them on. Dickhead.

 

A few minutes later and let’s have another one shall we, as Spurs break and this time Kane takes a heavy touch and goes out of the right wing but he still got enough time to turn and hook up all over our ball watching defenders and Son is clean through again.  Bednarek and Stephens are not marking anybody, in addition, Stephens is miles back behind everyone playing Son onside and KWP has just let Son run past him and what do you know, 4-1.

 

It’s one of those games where you know that things are going to get worse and they do as another chip over the top fines Lamela who drills is in a shot, McCarthy makes a good save but the ball bounces up off the post and there is Harry Kane to get the goal but he thoroughly deserves.

As time is running down and the ground is about as empty as it would be if there have been 30,000 Saints fans in there from the start, we get given a ridiculous penalty as Djenepo tried to take on a couple of players in the Spurs box and the ball hits Winks foot, deflects up and hits Doherty’s hand. He can do absolutely nothing about this whatsoever but we get awarded it via VAR and Danny Ings dispatches it easily enough.

It’s hard to know if 5-2 flatters Spurs or whether our second goal makes it closer than actually should’ve been, bearing in mind how shit we were in the second half. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter a fuck and we have started this season with three defeats after we had come in with a high level of optimism. How fucking gullible are we?

The scale of the naivety in the way we played the second half was quite incredible. You can only play a high line if you have pressure on the ball in midfield. If you don’t then you are just going to get turned around every single time the opposition have time to pick a pass. If you’ve got a forward as quick and as good as Son is, then you cannot play that way with no pressure in midfield. Both of our central defenders are not blessed with pace and also, playing this way requires a massive amount of intelligence and concentration regarding your position on the pitch. You have to read what is happening in front of you and position yourself accordingly.  Spurs adapted to the match situation which was down to Mourinho and to their players intelligence.  Kane dropped deep and time and again, no one picked him up so he was able to do what he wanted.  Where was our intelligence?  Where was our leadership?  Where was our captain calling out this bullshit to the manager and where was the leader in the defence realising we were getting done the same way every time?

Jack Stephens had one of those games where he was like the Jack Stephens at two years ago, in that he was absolutely hopeless, not sensing danger, not being in the right place and not picking up any of the players and of course, being piss weak in challenges. Jan Bednarek is also a country mile away from the levels he was showing throughout most of last season. Are they both just chronically out of form or has the new tactical edict frazzled their heads?

It’s no coincidence that the pressure against the ball completely went when Romeu came off. Ralph probably had to take him off because the next foul was going to be a red card and we have no options. Smallbone is too lightweight and has no defensive awareness. In hindsight, it would’ve been better bringing Vestergaard on, dropping the defence deeper and putting Jack Stephens in midfield. A Premier League team should not have this paucity of options though.

Another issue of course is the goalkeeper as Alex McCarthy does not look really comfortable having to come flying off his line and if you think McCarthy looks uncomfortable, wait til you see Fraser Forster trying to do it. He’s probably the worst goalkeeper ever for playing behind a high defensive line so why we bought him back to challenge for a place in the first team is anyone’s guess.  McCarthy should have done better with the first goal but what the fuck was he supposed to do about the others?  A world class forward clean through with just you to beat, four times.

Ralph can blame a lack of options in midfield as much as he likes but the fact remains that we are not equipped to play this high line and that comes down to him. It didn’t work against Crystal Palace and Brentford so how on earth was it going to work against a much better team? Jose Mourinho had problems with his team in the first half in that they couldn’t get near us and we were bossing the midfield but he sorted it out at half time whereas the warning signs were there regarding the high line for us in the first half but we did nothing and paid the price. Ralph’s post match interview basically implied that the defence should’ve dropped off if we stopped winning the ball in midfield but as said, our defenders are not good enough or clever enough to do that.

The positives of the day were a very good team performance for 45 minutes which showed that we can be a decent team. They were good individual performances and welcome returns from Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo. Hopefully Moussa can have a decent run of games now and stay fit. The forwards also combined well with Ings deserving his two goals. Adams played very well apart from when it was time to stick the ball in the net. In all three games so far this season, there has been an element of him being a little bit unlucky but he needs to rediscover the clinical edge he had at the end of last season. There was one point today where Adams had had three chances and not scored and Son had had three chances and scored every single one. I know that there is a difference in the amount of money that these players are worth but we have to be more clinical.

The differences on the bench looked stark before the game and it was proven out during the game. Lo Celso made a huge positive difference for them whereas we had to bring on a kid. I’m not slamming Smallbone as a footballer but he is just not a central midfielder in a two man midfield. It took JWP about six years before he could be trusted with that role and it’s ridiculous to expect Smallbone to be ready for that now. We do have an option who is captain of the B Team is and is a natural central midfielder but for some reason, Callum Slattery appears to be persona non grata as far as the first team is concerned.  I don’t know of course if Slattery would be any better but it does seem slightly odd to me that he never even makes the bench.

We all knew our squad was somewhat lacking. We have a decent first 11 but the first 11 can’t play 90 minutes at high-intensity in every game. You have to have some decent options on the bench. If you look at it harshly, we have no one really who is going to make a massive difference up front. In an ideal world, Michael Obafemi would be out on loan to a championship club somewhere and we all know that Shane Long is not really an impact player who is going to get you a goal off of the bench.

The midfield and wing options are non-existent. Djenepo has come in for Redmond today but other than that, you are looking at Smallbone and Tella who are not ready. In central defence our options are not too bad once Salisu gets up to speed but long-term absences in the full back areas would leave us very exposed again with inexperienced kids being the only options. Before the window closes, central midfield is the most pressing area but I also think we should be in the market for another winger and another striker.

Having been torn apart by Spurs today, we have a slightly different challenge in the next game which is away at Burnley. We know what we are going to get against them and it’s up to us to find a way of dealing with it. I am hoping that a high defensive line is not on the agenda.