Spurs Match Zone

Spurs 1-3 United: Embarrassing performance heaps pressure on Jose

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Where to begin.

You’d think that with the news of Harry Kane wanting to play Champions League football, with the horrid performance against Newcastle last week and with United playing most of their players in the Europa League game against Granada on Thursday, Spurs would be well up for this one.

It was a dubious decision to say the least that prevented Spurs from going 1-0 down before half-time, as Scott McTominay caught Heung-min Son slightly with his fist before Edinson Cavani peeled away and slotted home, only for VAR to rule it out.

Not quite like Conor Benn last night in the Boxing, but still we have seen those decisions given before, with the most recent example being Erik Lamela’s second yellow card against Arsenal when he caught Kieran Tierney with a flailing arm.

The media did not quite react in the same way as they focused on Lamela in a negative manner for being sent off as they did today when they focused on Son for making the most of it and ‘cheating’ – but either way, we were still lucky to see that chalked off.

It was then temporarily nice to see Son enrage social media and Roy Keane even further when he finished off a wonderfully crafted move by Spurs to put us 1-0 up, as Tanguy Ndombele’s whipped ball to Harry Kane was exquisitely placed into the path of Lucas Moura by the England captain, for the Brazilian to square back across the face of goal for the Korean to tap home.

Stats-wise, we were the better team in the first half, and but for the VAR decision, we would have deserved to be in the lead, and with United becoming increasingly frustrated, taking out their anger on the Spurs players on a few different occasions, the last thing that Jose Mourinho should have said at half-time was to protect the lead.

However, we did not continue to play the same way as we did when we came out for the second-half, as we had 26.8% possession in the time between us taking the lead and throwing it away, contrary to the first-half when we had the majority of the ball.

Fred would equalise for the visitors 13 minutes after the restart, tapping in to an empty net after Cavani forced a save from Hugo Lloris, with question marks on the defence for not tracking the Uruguayan’s run or not helping out the keeper and getting to the second-ball first.

The next goal was a superb team-goal as United carved through our midfield and defence with ease, before Cavani got away from Eric Dier way too easily and made no mistake, contrary to the Spurs defender who already should have done more for the first goal.

Mason Greenwood wrapped the three points up for the visitors, but again it was just diabolical, or dierbolical as Paul Pogba outmuscled the defender like he was nothing before Greenwood skipped past Sergio Reguilon like it was training and then fired beyond Lloris who could not stop the shot from that close.

There were minimal chances for us in the second half, and we just never looked like scoring – which you have to say is down to the lack of ambition, determination and adventure in our game, particularly after we go in front.

We are not Chelsea in 2005, we are not Porto in 2004 and we are not Inter Milan in 2010, we are a shambles of a Spurs side who are failing to live up to our motto: ‘to dare is to do’.

Right now, there is no daring, but there is also no encouragement from the touchline to get the players playing with a bit more creativity, determination and ambition – so it seems like Jose’s time is just about up, or should be at least, unless he starts getting the team to play with more confidence.

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