Tottenham Hotspur Women handed a much improved Liverpool side their first victory of the season. Mia Enderby’s stoppage time brace was the nail in the coffin for Spurs’ lackluster performance.
Lineup
Martin Ho brought Drew Spence back into the side at the expense of Matilda Vinberg but otherwise left the side unchanged.
The Match
Liverpool, replete with reinforcements, dominated possession for the first twenty minutes. An Alex Bergström shot off the crossbar proved to be their best chance of the spell. Spurs looked uncharacteristically shaky in any attempts at keeping the ball – players mislaying passes or dribbling straight into pressure. When we were able to keep the ball, we struggled to advance it much out of our own half thanks to Liverpool’s organized high press and compactness.
The second half began with counterattacks from each side. Drew Spence and Olivia Holdt combined well to put Signe Gaupset through on goal, but Gaupset put her shot straight at Liverpool’s keeper. Beth England also whiffed on a cross that Maika Hamano put over the bar shortly after. The sides traded spells of possession throughout much of the half. Spurs were unable to capitalize, but Lize Kop was called into action to make a few fine saves.
Matilda Vinberg and Julie Blakstad replaced Maika Hamano and Amanda Nildén in the 64th minute, and Tinka Tandberg came on in the 73rd minute in her first start since picking up an injury on international duty in November. But the substitutes never really clicked together, and if anything, the side just looked even more disjointed. Matilda Nildén and Olga Ahtinen (also returning from injury) replaced Olivia Holdt and Beth England in the 87th minute, but neither had much chance to make an impact.
Mia Enderby’s stoppage time brace sealed Spurs’ fate. Liverpool retained possession after Ceri Holland’s free kick. Jenna Clark got a cross off around Matilda Nildén, and Mia Enderby acrobatically sliced a foot between Clare Hunt and Tōko Koga for the finish. Right from the restart, Eveliina Summanen slipped on the ball and Mia Enderby took it off her and made no mistake with the finish.
What went wrong?
It was… not our best performance. Nobody brought their passing boots, and our main ball progressors – Signe Gaupset and Olivia Holdt – were both kept quiet for much of the game. We seemed to struggle to play through Liverpool’s high press, and while they left plenty of space in behind, we were mostly unable to exploit it because our forwards aren’t particularly fast, and our nominal starting wingers (Olivia and Maika) are both players who are more comfortable playing centrally.
When Liverpool had possession, it sometimes looked like the entire Spurs side had forgotten how and when to press, or where to stand to stop Liverpool from carving the team open end to end. Liverpool’s new signings appear to be excellent (how about Aurelie Csillag??), and while ours showed plenty of promise against Leicester, they didn’t quite connect with the rest of the squad on the day.
Martin Ho tried to change the game with substitutions, but they only served to further destabilize the side. In the end, Mia Enderby capitalized on some lapses in organization and focus in our defense. A devastating ending to a generally anemic Spurs performance.
How concerned should we be?
I’ve got to be honest, my first instinct after many years of watching Tottenham Hotspur Women is to freak out at the first sign of a downturn. We’ve got a history! Skinner brought the side to a record high 5th place in the WSL before nearly leading us to relegation. Vilahamn took us on a legendary cup run with a 6th place finish before also nearly leading us to relegation. Both Skinner’s and Vilahamn’s sides fell apart a bit in the latter stages of their successful seasons, so of course losing against the bottom team in the league is going to get my heart racing.
Second, Spurs have experienced a lot of squad turnover this January (five in, three out at the time of writing). So much churn can temporarily unsettle things on the pitch. We saw that today, for example, in the failure to link up between Maika Hamano and Josefine Rybrink, among others. I expect Martin Ho to come up with better solutions for how to use the new players he has at his disposal.
Individual performances will also improve as players grow more accustomed to the league. For example, we knew going in that while Gaupset is kind of already a star, she turns over the ball a lot and is still working on the defensive side of her game. Sure enough, she gave away the ball quite a few times against Liverpool, and that left us scrambling to cover behind her. But I strongly suspect this part of her game will improve as she settles in.
All that said, I am a little concerned about squad construction. We have way too many central players. We had like four number tens in the starting lineup (OK, I’m stretching the truth a little bit but technically Olivia, Signe, Drew and Maika all fit the bill so let me have it) and no true wingers. It’s been obvious since the start of the season that we need high quality wingers. We’ve had plenty of time to arrange this. Where are they? Additionally, Eveliina has played through broken ribs and all sorts of hard hits this season, and we don’t seem to have prioritized bringing in another defensive midfielder to give her some cover. We saw the worst possible consequences of her exhaustion after her slip leading to Mia Enderby’s second goal.
We still could bring in more players before the transfer window closes on January 31st, but the longer it takes, the more concerned I get. I suppose the squad in general is stronger and much deeper than it was prior to January 1st, so the downside here is like “we come in 6th or 7th instead of 3rd or 4th.” This would still be an improvement upon last year, and maybe we’re planning a bunch of astonishing transfers for wingers and DMs in the summer. But I just want us to be smart now!!!
Anyway, we face West Ham next, another side that’s been struggling at the bottom of the table and looking to bounce back. Let’s see what happens, both on the pitch and off. I’m expecting a big response from Martin Ho and the team in the intervening week.
