Spurs: Start as we mean to go on

Article by David Levy

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It was a frustrating week of football last week. The blow was mildly softened by Liverpool matching our result and not pulling away from us however the draw at Hull has really got some fans down.

It was disappointing, there is no disguising that. After the 1-5 against Man City in the midweek fixture it was a chance to redeem ourselves and continue from the winning ways of Swansea and the previous games.

We once again suffered from a bad start and a lack of clinical finishing.

The bad start has been a feature of most of the games under Tim and Co. It’s as we approach the game indecisively, eventually reacting to how the opposition are choosing to play.

We’ve seen this playing against teams ranging from Crystal Palace to Man City, where our players have a deer in a headlight look about them. I can’t place my finger on what it exactly is but clearly there is something wrong with an aspect of the game preparations.

That being said, I have actually been impressed with how we’ve corrected during games and grown into them more often than not, dominating for periods and coming out eventually as deserving winners. This makes it all the more frustrating as we know there is a capable team on the pitch, they prove it to us eventually.

As an extreme example, the last 15 minutes of the first half against Man City we actually looked like a team that was competing. I’m not naive enough to say we would have gone on and won the game by any means but we were being competitive.

The first 30 minutes were pure domination from City. We couldn’t contend with the speed of their passing nor their movement in any part of the pitch. They had an unbelievable 12 shots and were quite rightly and somewhat thankfully only 1 goal to the good.

Our passing was slow, laboured and not entirely accurate. We could barely get the ball out of our half and rarely managed to win it off City, let alone mount any kind of meaningful attack.

But something changed and for the last 15 minutes and we looked like a different side. We contained them to 1 shot during that period, won more of our tackles, all our headers, had more crosses and passed the ball more times at a higher percentage than City did during the same period.

Contesting. No more, no less…. but at least it was something.

Why could we not come out like that from the offset, same question for Hull, Palace, Southampton, Swansea….. In each of those games we have shown our ability to play well, dominate and create good chances. We know it’s in there but for some reason it takes a period of 20-40 minutes for us to get our bearings and settle into the games.

We were undoubtedly the better side vs Hull in the second half despite no one really shining in our team. We created enough chances and got into enough good offensive positions to have scored more than the 1 goal we did.

Clinical finishing, that killer instinct in the box, once again was a hindrance to our goal haul.

Roberto Soldado I’m looking at you. I know you know that i know that you know OK! So ill leave it there for now!

Onwards and upwards though. Sunday, Everton, HUGE.

We need to start the game on as we mean to go on and pressure them intensely from the starting whistle. I am sure we will see a 4-4-2 hybrid and I'm intrigued to see who makes the starting lineup this week.

Bentaleb needs a rest and I am sure 'The Beast' is raring to go. Hopefully Andros will be available for a spot on the bench too, giving us an option on the left that we haven’t had since his injury against West Ham in the Capital One cup quarter final.

Everton have won 3, drawn 2 and lost 2 of their last 7 games and haven’t scored a massive amount in the process. They do, however create a lot of chances and our concentration levels are going to have to be at 100% from the get go.

A win on Sunday would be a huge statement of intent and it would keep us firmly in place for a top 4 assault, something which despite all of our problems we are still in contention for.

COYS.

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