A draw can sometimes be an exciting thing, like when you achieve a result against an opponent that you know you had no business competing with. Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Manchester United didn’t feel like one of those. The last gasp Matthijs de Ligt header was a gut punch, but considering neither team was exactly setting the house on fire neither did it feel like had dropped points ourselves. In fact, a 2-2 draw in which neither team had an xG greater than 1.0 felt both weird and actually pretty accurate.
The player ratings seem to bear that out too. There were a couple of definitely good performances, and a few moderately poor ones, but nobody was incredible and nobody was abject. Just a lot of meh, more or less. And whatever else you might think about this match, it certainly feels ok going into another international break without thinking about a loss.
Anyway, today’s theme is one I’ve been holding onto for a while. Hang around any football forum and you’re going to see commentators butchering the spelling of footballers’ names. Some of them are honest mistakes because the player has a unique name, and some of them are… look, I dunno but the number of times I’ve see Mohammed Kudus’ name misspelled on this blog’s comments is kind of funny.
So as we head into another two weeks with no real football of which to speak, let’s instead rate the Tottenham Hotspur players to the themes of various misspellings of Spurs players’ names. And yes, I’ve seen ALL of these and have been collecting them.
No Tottenham players in this category.
Wilson Odobert (Community — 4.0): His substitution (along with Destiny Udogie’s) changed the game. He’s clearly figuring out this league and this level, and his performances are starting to show that rising confidence. Heavily involved in both Spurs goals, and grabbed the assist for Richy’s flick (I’m convinced Wilson’s shot was going to hit the post).
Mathys Tel (Community — 4.0): Absolutely delighted with his contribution, and the turn/finish for his goal was very well taken. He’s young and he won’t always be this good, but it’s quite nice to see that he has this in him.
I know we did this already, but it remains baffling that a guy can be at a club for four seasons and people still can’t get his name right
Micky van de Ven (Community — 3.5): Clearly full of confidence after Copenhagen. Had a couple of fantastic defensive stops (the best being vs. Sesko) and looked solid throughout.
Xavi Simons (Community — 3.5): Slippery (in a good way, but also in a bad way as he had difficulty with the slick pitch) in the attacking third but still looks perplexed that his teammates aren’t making the runs he’s used to when he gets the ball around the box.
Destiny Udogie (Community — ): Developing quite a good partnership with Wilson on the left side overlap. Got the assist for Tel’s outstanding goal.
Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.0): Rooted for United’s first goal. Probably could’ve done better to stop the late equalizer, but it’s hard to get too upset with him for not preventing a close-range header off a set piece when he’s done so brilliantly for us in recent matches.
Cuti Romero (Community — 3.5): Picked up a stupid and rash yellow card but otherwise was solid enough? Hope Frank’s not lying about his substitution being for fatigue.
Djed Spence (Community — 3.0): I dunno, this was the Platonic ideal of a “he was fine” match. But I’d still like to see a left footed player as LWB as Spence has some defensive frailties at times there.
Joao Palhinha (Community — 3.0): Another match where Palhinha did Good Palhinha Things, but what we needed wasn’t really Good Palhinha Things, it was someone to pass the ball vertically up the pitch, which he doesn’t do. Still, he wasn’t poor and had a shot saved.
Thomas Frank (Community — ): I officially no longer know what to do about Frank. He’s somewhat hamstrung by injuries but also isn’t really showing that he has any other ideas apart from what he’s shown in recent matches. This is a throw-up-your-hands-whatever three star rating, since we didn’t lose.
Pedro Porro (Community — 2.5): Not one of his better performances. Wayward with his crossing, and let Mbeumo past him more often than I’d like. Didn’t mind him being subbed off since he needs his minutes managed, but it’s a bit telling, yeah?
Pape Matar Sarr (Community — 3.0): As much as I dislike the Palhintancur double pivot, I think I might have disliked this more. A lot of running around, no real production, and a big mistake leading up to United’s first goal.
Brennan Johnson (Community — 2.5): Put a cross on a plate for Richarlison (who whiffed) and had a goal correctly called for offside. Otherwise, pretty unremarkable performance from him in a game where we needed some of that hot back post action. (Yes, phrasing, and I’m leaving it.)
Richarlison (Community — 2.5): Notable that I’m putting him at 2.5 stars after he redirected in a late goal off his shoulder that nearly won the match. But that tells you how off the pace he was otherwise. Whiffed again on a beautiful cross from BJ and was otherwise feasting on scraps. BUT — he was hustling in the press, so there’s that.
Randal Kolo Muani (Community — 2.5): Gets something of a pass from me now that we know he was injured by an errant Slabhead elbow at around 12’ and still played through it. But he wasn’t very good.
Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 3.0): If I’m putting Sarr here then I should also put Lolo here because he provided about the same level of contribution in midfield.
Remarkably, no players were this poor vs. United, and that’s kind of nice?
No Tottenham players were as bad as misspelling Archie Gray’s name. At least this time.
Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating