Another day, another home loss for Tottenham Hotspur. This time hosting Fulham and riding an unusual wave of cautious optimism after a weirdly compelling loss to PSG in the Champions League, Spurs found themselves down 2-0 inside five minutes after goals from Kenny Tete and Harry Wilson. Spurs managed just one shot and an xG of 0.01 in the first half.
Spurs at least made it somewhat interesting in the second 45. They put together about 30 minutes of cromulent football capped by a banger of a goal from Mohammed Kudus, but ran out of gas late in the match and couldn’t complete the comeback. The match ended as a 2-1 loss, with Spurs’ inexplicably woeful home form continuing for another match; Fulham won away from home for the first time all season.
After an impressive? is that the right word? loss midweek to PSG, Thomas Frank opted to set up his Tottenham team in a similar way. Kevin Danso slotted in for the suspended Cuti Romero, and Destiny Udogie started ahead of Djed Spence. Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall retained their spots in midfield, with Joao Palhinha replacing Rodrigo Bentancur at the base. Randal Kolo Muani and Richarlison started up top, with Mohammed Kudus also in the attacking band.
Here are my match reactions to another disappointing night in North London.
Match notes:
What a dumb first goal. Chukwueze’s pass was a badly-placed one but it caught Bergvall in between moves and he couldn’t cut it out. Tete happened to be open and his shot was deflected past Vicario. Surprised Yakkity Sax wasn’t playing.
I have no idea what Vicario was thinking and why he didn’t yeet that ball into the sideline upper deck. Insane decision to try and pass his way out of that situation. Absolutely Olympic levels of head-losing.
Look, it’s bad that Spurs went down 2-0 inside five minutes to a team that hadn’t won away from home all season, but at least the football was also hot garbage.
Neither of those opening two goals were on Thomas Frank, but what IS on Thomas Frank is the complete and utter lack of a tactical plan when Spurs have the ball. It was incredibly clear that Spurs had no idea what to do going forward, and how do you not have something you’re working towards at this stage of the season? Plenty of blame to go around for this Tottenham team, but as head coach you have to give us something to hang our hats on and right now there’s just NOTHING.
I don’t like it when fans boo their own team but it’s pretty easy to understand why the fans were doing it at halftime. Spurs managed one shot, that sailed 30 yards wide of the post, in 45 minutes. At home. Against FULHAM. While letting in two goals in the first five minutes.
The second half was quite a contrast from the first half — exciting play, quick movement, and chances created. I need to acknowledge that Spurs played decently well in the second 45 even if I had a hard time enjoying it after how poorly they were in the first half. The problem, of course, was that Spurs dug themselves such a hole in the first five minutes that getting out of it needed a herculean effort, and they didn’t do enough.
A silver lining: that Kudus goal was a banger. The 15 minutes or so that included the goal was probably some of the best he’s had in a Spurs shirt.
Another silver lining: RKM is as good as advertised. He had a rough start due to injury, but he’s rounding back into form now and is looking really sharp.
I don’t know if they’ll ever be world-beaters, but it’s nice to see that young players like Odobert, Gray, and Bergvall are turning out to be serviceable players that occasionally do nice stuff. Whatever else you want to say about them, they’re useful players, and Spurs need useful players right now.
I could spend a lot of time criticizing individual players, but I’ll single out Pedro Porro, Guglielmo Vicario, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Xavi Simons as anti-exemplars. Porro had a shocker on both sides of the ball, Vicario was inexplicably poor on both goals (especially the second), and neither Bentancur nor Simons did much in their substitute appearances to impact the match.
I don’t know whether Frank’s job is actually in jeopardy, precisely because who would take the job at the moment? But I do think Spurs need to clean house next summer, including finding a real Director of Football and a coach who can actually do something with this collection of misfit toys. Because this right here is just not fun, and I don’t see it getting any better.
Spurs’ next match is away to Newcastle, and St. James’ Park hasn’t exactly been a fun place for Spurs to visit in recent seasons.