Following Tuesday’s humbling defeat at the hands of Sporting CP, our attention now turns to Spurs’ 7th match of the Premier League season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against the division’s basement side, Leicester City, this coming Saturday, kicking off at 5:30 pm BST.
After the postponement of domestic matches following the tragedy that swept the nation last week, this match is well and truly on. For better or for worse, however, we shall soon find out.
Now with Lucas Moura still the sole absentee from our squad, Antonio Conte, as has been the case for weeks now, has a mini-selection headache ahead of our last match prior to the final international break before November’s World Cup. A brilliant debate has been brewing with regard to this issue, and one you can view and contribute to here should you wish to do so.
However, with the Leicester match fast approaching, Conte himself has given his take on this selection dilemma. Speaking to Football.London in his pre-match briefing before the media, Conte addressed several issues that have been feverishly debated by our supporters this week. When asked if he deemed Heung-min Son “undroppable”, in spite of his goal drought this season, this is what he had to say:
“There are no players that are undroppable. This has to be very clear. There are no players that are undroppable. Because if I tell this, it’s only to try to help my players and to try to avoid injuries, to try to have players at the top of their form and to have a good performance. If I am telling this it is only to protect my players and to give them the possibility to be, in every moment, at the top.
Then you know very well you can play one game well, another you can score, another not, but my task is to try to protect my players and to protect the team. Also to find the right way to have a result.
Don’t forgot sometimes when you don’t start with certain players, it means during the game you have this player with the possibility to use him during the game. But I repeat if we want to play this four competitions and especially I repeat the Champions League because it is different to play Europa League or Conference League.
Europa League and Conference League can give you the possibility in the group stages to make rotations and then also if you drop a bit the quality of the starting XI, maybe you can win the game. In the Champions League they are always massive games and for this reason I need to have all my players available. I need all my players available for rotation to be in every moment ready when I call them to play and to play well for the team, for the club, for the fans, for everybody.”
When discussing the potential selection dilemma regarding wing-backs, he expressed his contentment with Emerson’s displays thus far, whilst noting that he may be due a rest given how he has started every game this season:
“In my opinion Emerson, he had a good start in this season and he can play in this position and is doing well. In the last game, in Sporting Lisbon, he can score three goals, not one, he can score three goals. In every game he is totally involved and don’t forget Emerson played every game in this period. For sure now he can be a bit tired because the wing-back, you can be fatigued because you become a striker when you are going to attack and you have to become a defender when we have to defend, but I’m really happy about Emerson’s performance because you have to think, compare last season and he’s made a good improvement.
He has to continue to work to do it and at the same time you know that we also have Ivan Perisic who can play on the right or left and Sessegnon, he is fit and he’s in a good moment of form. For sure maybe he’s one of the players that in this moment deserves to play, like Deki, but we’ll do it with the right time and the right patience, to try to do the best for our team.”
Conte then proceeded to discuss the midfield options presently at our disposal, stating that Yves Bissouma was still “struggling with the tactical aspect” of his methods. When pressed further on this issue by the reporters at the conference, he expanded on his stance by stating:
“If you compare other midfielders I have seen that other teams spent £60m, £70m, £50m. It depends on the view. I think that we spent the right money. Don’t forget that we spent a lot of money on players that now have gone out on loan.
It doesn’t matter if you spend money, you need to have players to go into our idea of football. There are players that do this quickly like Richarlison, Lenglet, like Perisic and then other players that need a bit of time.
Also the midfielder is a specific role for us, with the ball and without the ball. It’s not simple. I ask for some moments, some positions. They have to be a point of reference in every moment of the game.
The midfielder for sure, to go into our idea of football is maybe the most difficult position, but we are talking about a player that has great skill, good running. With the ball he’s really good, defensively he has to pay more attention. More attention because especially we only have two midfielders and then they have to be good with the ball and without the ball, but I’m really happy with his signing.”
These quotes provide a fascinating insight into the manager’s current thinking towards our options looking forward and open up a whole raft of questions going into this match.
Indeed, does Conte persist with Son in one, last bid to break his goal drought before the international break?
Will we see Emerson rested, and subsequently, Perisic shifted to the right, and Sessegnon brought into the left? Or do we see a first start of the season for one of Spence/Doherty? Given Conte’s reference to Perisic’s ability to play on the right, I think this is more likely, but I would not be surprised to see Emerson start from the off despite Conte’s allusion to his ‘tiredness’.
At the back, it may be a case of bringing Lenglet back into the fold given his ability to orchestrate attacks from defence, but Conte’s comments regarding Bissouma’s adjustment to his style would seemingly indicate that Bentancur and Hojbjerg will once again form our midfield pairing.
Meanwhile, a quick glance at our opponents really puts things into perspective for those who have been moaning and groaning about our recent performances. Now here we’ve got a bunch who are in the proverbial: no wins in 6, with one point to show for it; a defence that is leaking goals for fun; and causing unrest within a squad that is ostensibly harbouring a minimal interest in playing for their manager following a summer of turmoil that saw them lose key players like Kasper Schmeichel and Wesley Fofana.
In spite of all those problems, Leicester’s squad is in relatively healthy nick coming into this fixture, with only Dennis Praet a minor injury doubt and only long-term absentees Ryan Bertrand and Ricardo Pereira missing out.
Irrespective of Leicester’s problems, however, it is still worth remembering that this is a Premier League fixture, and the Foxes still possess several players that can hurt us. Whether or not he starts, Jamie Vardy will probably feature at some point, and we all know that he loves a goal against us, being Leicester’s top scorer in this fixture with 8 league goals to his name against Spurs.
Moreover, Youri Tielemans and James Maddison are talented chaps who possess the technical ability to fashion dangerous openings against any opponent, whilst Patson Daka, Harvey Barnes, and Kelechi Iheanacho are all a nuisance on their day.
Now I will finish by caveating all of that in saying that, if our attacking players are on it, there is no way that anything those Leicester players I’ve just mentioned can do will prove meaningful to the final outcome. They may score once, they may score twice, but even so, there is no chance they will manage to restrict our forwards if we are on song – and this arguably a big ‘if’, given the disjointed display of our front three on Tuesday night.
Nevertheless, it is ultimately up to us to grasp the nettle, assert our dominance at home against a fragile opponent, and really go out with a bang before the international break. It’s football, anything can happen – but if we replicate a similar performance to the one against Fulham a fortnight ago, we should win this comfortably.
How is it that most teams manage to out pass us ?
Considering Leicester are bottom they played us off the park especially during periods in both halves .
The score line was extremely flattering but I will take it and congratulations must go to Son who was being written off !!
I can’t see that playing top teams we will get a result owing to our very poor passing . Opposition seem to have worked us out and Conte must start to think how are we going to play attacking footie which at present is going against his style of play .
However if we can still continue to get results like today I’ll be happy . I think that playing like 5today in Europe will find us out .
It did seem that when Bissouma joined the midfield that our play from the back became somewhat easier/smoother. Having only two there makes it so difficult to pivot the ball and break the pressure.very frustrating to us get pinned in like that.
Great for Sonny winning his first challenge upon entering the match. It gave him the good vibes to get those beautiful shots off.
Happy weekend now!
So, we are still so very poor!? Are we so poor?! Are we?
Foxes outplayed us… We can’t pass… Etc., etc….
And yet here we are. Still unbeaten, scoring six, and now joint top of the PL with City.
If this is a sign of a poor performing Spurs, then surely we are able to do even better than this. That’s a positive for me guys. Not a negative.
Then, if I imagine a soon to be much better version of the current Spurs, (which I find easy to do), then I imagine a trophy or two by the end of this season. And I’m talking EPL winners and/or CL winners.
Honestly, I can only see us improving…. I can’t see why not.
Another close prediction HT, keep em up
Will agree that we did progress well when. We had 3 in mid field
Will say that a 1/2 game on the bench focused Sonny’s mind.
Even playing ‘bad”in the first half they couldn’t beat us.
Ref did us no favours re the pen save and disallowed goal
But I’ll take 6-2 every time.
Great result..
Love your optimism HT, and yes of course we can and will improve. The issue is time, Conte himself talks of a process of years. In the here and now however the performances have been frustratingly bad relative to expectation and yet the points gained belies that. Would we want to play better and lose more? Of course not, but only an optimist would expect any level of continued success playing so badly. Conte is trying to instill discipline and steel which is great but the rigidity of shape is stifling the ability to control possession. Sonny and Harry will win us a lot of games but not trophies any time soon.
It’s interesting to me, how us spectators can view, perceive and interpret football matches. And how our certain biases and preferences on how the game should be played, seem to play quite a big part on our perceptions etc.
For example; I have read time and again on here about how poor our overall passing has so far been this season. And yet our EPL passing completion stats are second only to Manchester City. City: 90.6%. Spurs: 85.1%
I have read a lot of complaining about our all too frequent and negatively perceived backwards passing of the ball. And yet the team that has by far the highest PL percentage of backward passing is Manchester City. Apparently on 888 PL backward passes. Spurs are way behind this, on 516.
But, unsurprisingly to me, it has to be so that a team with very high average possession stats will surely have to be passing backwards all the more often, than a team with relatively low possession stats. Man City, average EPL possession: 70.3%. Spurs: 49.3%.
So, passing the ball backwards a great deal doesn’t really prove how boring a team can be, or has been perceived to be. (I don’t think that City are seen too much as being boring).
Another regular complaint on VS, has been our lack of crosses and how poor our crossing is in general. And yet from a total of 18 PL goals in 7 matches this season, Spurs have scored 7 of them from headers! (Headers will mostly come from crosses. Whether that’s from set-pieces or open play). And yet Liverpool, (2nd to Spurs), who put in far more crosses than most, ), have scored just 4 headed goals. Along with Fulham.
I could go on, (and on and on and on) but I won’t… 😉
Sorry to be such a bore with stats. But I do find all of this interesting, when looking at these cold hard facts, but then trying to make sense of what we all, as spectators, can perceive when watching football. And how to hopefully get a more clear picture of how it is of course, all so relative to the overall stats of all clubs in the same competition. And how we compare.
Of course…. If you’re unimpressed with our football, then you’re simply unimpressed. And if you’re bored, then you’re bored. And that is that!
Myself? Well I’m fascinated by this season. And I’m excited as to how it could all pan out for THFC……. And I’m unapologetically….. in the positive!
HT what a brilliant post, well written mate and so bloody true!
We are currently top of the league with headed goals this season.
Regards the Foxes, not very Foxy though, yesterday, as in being the better team with the ball/in possession, could it be we let them? awaiting for us to get the ball then hit em hard, oh yes thats right we hit em hard 6 times. COYS
HT,
Of course we complete a large percentage of our passes. Most of the passes are backwards or sideways, where it’s difficult not to complete the damned passes. The percentage drops when the passes are to a moving target going through the opposition’s defense, which, of course, are the passes that thrill when they succeed and can lead to goals. Passing the ball back to Lloris? how can that not be a completed pass?
There are a lot of things to look at from that game.
Maybe the most important is about passing. People talk about overplaying but maybe overpassing would be a better term. To me both Spurs and Leicester (like a lot of other teams in truth) were simply passing the ball when they should have been crossing or shooting. That changed with Bentacur’s goal, no extra passes there. Once Son came on we were much more direct and that is what got us the big win.
Right wing back is clearly a problem position. Conte tried both Perisic and Sessegnon on the right, neither were convincing. For all the criticism Emerson gets Conte clearly believes neither Doherty or Spence is currently up to the job. It may take until next season to sort that one out.
The tactical tweak this time around was simply taking off a forward and bringing on a midfield player while keeping the wing backs. That actually worked pretty well and may be the plan B going forward. I did think Bissouma looked a lot better this time when he came on.
Two goals from two corners, we’ve been scoring about two a season so it looks like the set piece coach we’ve hired is doing his job.
Poor challenge from Sanchez for the penalty, not as bad as the Marseille defender who got sent off for taking out Son but defenders need to understand there are situations where you can’t make a tackle you just have to try and block the cross or shot. Still its a safe bet that even if that’s the only bad mistake Sanchez makes all season we’ll be told repeatedly that he always makes crucial errors with that being cited as evidence. Some Spurs fans have always needed their hate figures.
I think Brentford are more than capable of beating Arsenal at home today. And even just a draw will see us and City still above the Gunners at the end of the day. Come on you Bees!
Then next Saturday it’s the NLD at their gaff. If Spurs win this one, it’ll be looking real good.
Man City and Man U play the following day… I would put money on City winning, but who knows?
Can’t wait for the match vs the arse ‘n holes. (I know, I know, I have to wait, but you catch my drift.)
Given the way our lads have been playing (uninspired for so much of the time), looking at the table today seems like an illusion. I’ll take it though. lol.
Anyway, the season still is young, and the way our lads play come the spring time could be quite different. I’d like to see a couple of new lads in the next window, at least one of whom can come right in and play, as has Perisic.
Great result, delighted for son. But plenty observations with a team bottom of the league were able to have so many attempts.