Tottenham Hotspur dropped their first points of the 2025/26 Champions League season on Tuesday night in Norway, drawing Bodo Glimt 2-2. For the third straight game, Spurs drew their opponents and needed a late flurry to avoid a loss to a team with a smaller budget than theirs.
It's been a disappointing run of games for Thomas Frank as Tottenham manager, though, tacitly, that's technically a positive for Spurs, because three draws on the trot is much better than the level of disappointment Spurs were accustomed to under any of his predecessors.
In each of these games, Tottenham have had an overarching problem that they've been able to take away wtih them, and against Bodo Glimt, the most glaring issue is their overreliance on a certain player who was not in the starting lineup.
Mohammed Kudus wasn't the only important player who entered the match in the second half - Xavi Simons also came into the game in the 59th minute - but watching how much Spurs struggled out wide without him was truly jarring.
Brennan Johnson was horrible again
You'd figure that Kudus, one of the best signings of the summer transfer window and a top-class Premier League winer, missing the game would obviously hurt Tottenham. But the extent to which his absence hurt the team was alarming.
Brennan Johnson totally botched any chance he had of getting an extended run of games on the right wing, and it's going to be even harder for Frank to justify resting Kudus when the drop off between the two players all-around is that vast.
Whereas Johnson looked completely incapable of carrying the ball or creating chances, Kudus had five dribbles completed in only around 30 minutes of action, totally transforming the way Spurs played and offering far more positive actions that then opened up the rest of the pitch for his teammates.
Tottenham don't have a single winger they can rely on to create chances, carry the ball into the final third, or penetrate the box off the dribble besides Kudus. He means absolutely everything to this offense, and Spurs biggest challenge in the coming January transfer window is going to be signing another player who can do that.
At least Mathys Tel can offer dynamism and direct play going forward, and Wilson Odobert has flashes of brilliance with his technical quality in tight spaces. But Tel is too inconsistent and Odobert is too weak, so they cannot offer even a fraction of what Kudus does. On the right wing itself, Johnson is a poacher whose all-around struggles as a true winger are well-documented. Kudus is going to continue to be the ride-or-die for this entire Tottenham offense out wide.