Cartilage Free Captain

“Definitely [conscious of Romero’s absence] but also [I’ll] just try to fulfill the role the best I can. Obviously he’s a very important player for us and for me it’s just doing a job, defending first and foremost and trying to replace him as best I can. I think [Sunday vs. Villa] was an OK game, unfortunately we didn’t get the result we wanted to, but the aim is to win here tomorrow.”

”I think, for me, Brennan is a very important player. He had a fantastic, important goal last season. Also the top scorer, I think, in the club last year. He also started the season well. He has scored two good goals. So, again, probably a little bit down to how do we put the players out that make it fit.

”Brennan has trained very well the last couple of weeks, doing what he’s doing very well, scoring goals in training, which is important to keep [doing], showing that I’m not taking the right decision if he’s not in the team. I think Brennan can play both to the left and to the right, as we said before. Of course, Mohammed Kudus has done very well on the right, for example. Then on the left, I actually think Wilson has done well. So it’s just a little bit of competition. Brennan just needs to keep going. He will get his games.”

Tottenham Hotspur Women defeated Birmingham City in the Subway League Cup thanks to a brace and an assist by recent standout Olivia Holdt. The solid victory was only marred by Maite Oroz’s ACL injury. Spurs sit atop their Subway Cup group one point ahead of Aston Villa.

With a week to prepare and only international break to follow, Martin Ho sent out a relatively familiar-looking lineup. Notably, Maite Oroz started over Olga Ahtinen, Josefine Rybrink reprised her role at right back over Ash Neville, and captain Beth England began the game on the bench so Olivia Holdt could re-enter the lineup as the 10.

Spurs started the first half clearly stronger than our WSL 2 opposition, but were unable to turn the early dominance into any kind of lead. Birmingham’s Viatriki Sarri caused a few problems including a goal rightly ruled offside, but they left Lize Kop largely untroubled. Olivia Holdt continued her recent excellence and broke the deadlock in the 40th minute. Maite Oroz set up the goal with a lovely sidefoot pass to Matilda Vinberg. Matilda slotted in Olivia Holdt through the center, and Olivia calmly chipped Birmingham’s keeper despite the sharp angle. Incredible work by all three players to split Birmingham City down the center, and a wonderful goal to watch.

Ten minutes into the second half, Amanda Nildén continued the scoring with a Son-esque curling shot from a wide position inside the box. It was, once again, Olivia Holdt’s excellent work that set her up. The real low point of the game was Maite Oroz’s ACL injury in the 57th minute, which she sustained successfully challenging a Birmingham City player for the ball. I wrote about what a shame this is here. But to reiterate – it’s just devastating for this to happen when Maite was stringing a bit of form together, and I wish her a very speedy recovery.

After Maite’s injury, Ho made a triple change. Olga Ahtinen replaced Oroz, Beth England replaced Tinka Tandberg, and Martha Thomas replaced Jess Naz. Additionally, Charli Grant replaced Amanda Nildén in the 71st minute. These players helped shore up Spurs’ dominant performance without really changing the game too much. Holdt added a third goal in the 74th minute off another Vinberg line-breaking pass, rounding out yet another stellar player-of-the-match performance. The match left Spurs top of the group with one game left to play against Bristol City.

Thoughts

Olivia Holdt is so damn good. When we signed her, she was coming off a broken ankle and needed a bit more rehab before she was fully match fit. At the time, I thought that maybe, possibly, we’d be getting a real gem at a bargain due to her injury, but it didn’t seem likely. Olivia has been our stand out player since our defeat to Manchester City, and I have to say it’s pretty wild to see last season’s hopium actually come to fruition. Someone please bubble wrap her before she goes off to Denmark. We need her! I also particularly enjoyed getting to see more of Matilda Vinberg’s passing since Vilahamn primarily used her as a dribbler, and she came away with two assists for it. Jess Naz also put in a few dangerous crosses, and Beth England looked lively as a substitute.

I don’t really have too much else to say about this game. Many of our players had strong games, and I saw more of a cohesive attack. I’ll be optimistic and say I think this was due to the lower quality of opposition and the fact that Martin Ho’s principles are really starting to sink in. Nonetheless, I love a routine win and an identifiable style of football. Maite’s injury excluded, I think we can be pretty happy.

Looking ahead

We now enter international break, which will see some of our players head off on national team adventures. Eveliina Summanen, Olga Ahtinen, Olivia Holdt, Tinka Tandberg, Tōko Koga, Amanda Nildén, Lize Kop, Martha Thomas, Charli Grant and Clare Hunt will all head to their countries, as well as youngsters Sophie Jackson and Lenna Gunning-Williams for England U19s and England U23s respectively.

Spurs Women will return to action against Liverpool on November 1st. If you’re looking to fill the void between now and then, some of our players will actually be facing each other on international duty – tune in to Finland vs. Denmark or Norway vs. Japan both on Tuesday, October 28th to catch this.

In the meantime, cross your fingers that our internationals will stay healthy in this two week period!

Hey there! Tottenham Hotspur played at home to Aston Villa on Sunday and lost. That wasn’t fun, because it’s never fun to lose. So what do we do here at Carty Free Towers after Spurs lose and people get annoyed? We try and distract you with a fun player ratings theme, that’s what.

Remember that video from last week that showed Johan Lange and Fabio Paratici being interviewed by Tottenham’s media guys explaining their new working relationship whereby they will share a Director of Football role? Sure you do. I just reminded you of it! And you can read the article where I summarized and dug into their YouTube video here.

There’s a lot you can take away from that video, but the biggest is that Paratici and Lange (Paratange? Langatici?) have some real buddy-cop vibes. Look at those two, sitting on a couch together holding cock-on-ball pillows and looking all happy with themselves. Aren’t they sweet? You almost expected Paratici to reach over and pat Lange on the arm a few times during that video, didn’t you?

So today’s player ratings theme is mostly leaning into that. I got the idea from some Carty Free readers in a group chat and I thought it was so good I ran with it. Here are your Tottenham Hotspur player ratings for their loss to Aston Villa to the theme of alternative couples for Paratici and Lange. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which one is which.

No Tottenham players in this category.

Joao Palhinha (Community — 3.5): Look, I still think I’m right about the midfield, but I’ll say it again — whatever else he does or doesn’t do, Palhinha is a generational tackler and defender. He put in some world class open field tackles in this one.

Kevin Danso (Community — 3.5): Kevin doesn’t have the wand of a leg that Cuti Romero does, but I have to say I was never worried that he was going to get caught out in defense, and he didn’t. I’ve seen enough to feel like he’ll be a perfectly cromulent defender if Cuti or Micky are out for any length of time. Caught two defenders on the ankle, only one was a foul and neither were particularly worrying.

Micky van de Ven (Community — 3.5): Picked up a cheap yellow but otherwise didn’t put a foot wrong. Got back well on the rare times Villa broke, and pocketed Ollie Watkins late.

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 2.5): Yes, both goals were bangers. No, Vic didn’t have a chance on either. No, none of them were his fault. No, he didn’t have to make a single save otherwise. Three stars.

Pedro Porro (Community — 3.0): Not bad, as far as these things go. Had a couple of very nice switches in play, got forward into space pretty often, and his delivery was decent. Earned a few good fouls as well.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.0): Not his best effort and stayed mostly deep as Spurs looked content to focus their attacks through Pedro Porro. Did fine defensively, but not quite enough to post a “Matty Cash Welcome to the Penitentiary” graphic on Insta, which is what I was really hoping for.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 3.0): I mean, he ran around a lot and passed the ball sideways impeccably. Was it what we needed? I say no. Was it in and of itself an okay performance? …I guess.

Mohammed Kudus (Community — 3.5): Had he managed to stay onside for the ball he had in the net, he’d be ranked higher. He continues to confound with his final pass as much as he impresses with his dribbling. The wheels fell off midway through the second half and he should’ve come off for Johnson a lot earlier.

Thomas Frank (Community — 2.5): Spurs lost, so the ratings will be lower because that’s how this works. That said, while I’ll never agree with the Bentanhinha midfield and I’m irritated by the late and ineffective subs, the tactics seem to be… fine? Lots of entries into the final third and not enough talent to convert, that’s not really his fault. Ball no go goal, whatchagonnado?

Xavi Simons (Community — 2.5): God love him he tried, but this was not a good tactical setup for him. Looked to be stymied in the attacking third and a little puzzled that others weren’t making runs or finding him when he made runs himself.

Wilson Odobert (Community — 2.5): Once again, you can see the glimpses of potential but the end product still isn’t there. Wilson’s in a fish bowl due to injuries right now and that’s not helping him. He needs time to develop, but Spurs don’t have that kind of time at present.

Mathys Tel (Community — 2.0): Go back and read my comment about Odobert — it’s that, but more so. You forget how young he is, and he’s clearly excelling at the international U21 level so the talent’s there, but you simply can’t whiff those kinds of chances when they come and expect to keep getting them. We spent £30m on him this summer and I have to believe the ROI will come soon, but boy he makes it tough sometimes.

Richarlison (Community — 2.0): I really expected Richy to facilitate Spurs carving up Villa’s wide-open back line and he just… didn’t. Barely touched the ball, completely ineffectual. I love the guy but he might now be behind Dom Solanke AND Randal Kolo Muani.

No Tottenham players were as bad as Thing 1 & Thing 2.

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating:

We’re about that time in the lower leagues’ season where many clubs are playing an uneven amount of games. I hate it because it’s difficult to gauge just who really is where in the tables. Are Doncaster Rovers really the 12th-best team in League One? I don’t know!

But we’re still going to do a quick roundup of the other clubs in the English football system. There’s been a lot of club football lately, international matches be damned.

We’re about 25% of the way done with the season and one thing’s for certain: It is very, very tight at the top. Just two points currently separate first from sixth, although some teams have a game (or in Stevenage’s case - two) in hand. Again, this makes it difficult to determine just who is where.

There are a couple things we do know, though. It’s a rough season for Luton Town, who are 5-1-6 in the league and sitting 14th. Just below them? Leyton Orient, who last season were 90 minutes away from promotion to the Championship.

I feel like I have been waiting years for Salford City to be decent after it was taken over by all those former Man U players in 2014. But here we are, more than a decade later, and they’re still on the bubble of the League Two playoff picture.

But at least they’re not Newport County. In a year that’s bringing such great news to other Welsh clubs, Newport are in danger of getting bounched out of the Football League.

I never thought I’d say this, but there are some fun clubs in here I’d like to see on the television. A lot of them I remember from my Fifa days (which were very brief), where I’d loan out my player to these kinds of clubs like Scunthorpe United.

Speaking of Scunthorpe, they’re currently sitting fourth after promotion from the National League North last season.

(Yes, I had trouble with the numbering at the end, but Rochdale is 1, Southend 7).

Fitzie’s track of the day: Sundown, by Gordon Lightfoot

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Tottenham embody this season’s Premier League: Set pieces, long throws, and no cohesion”

Football London: “Xavi Simons needs more time to bed in at Tottenham, Thomas Frank insists”

BBC: “‘We have to pull fans back together’ - Nuno has a ‘problem’ at West Ham”

The Guardian: “‘Little Magpie’ José Mourinho relishing taking Benfica to Newcastle”

Former Brighton, Chelsea, and West Ham head coach Graham Potter landed firmly on his feet last week, becoming Sweden’s newest international manager. That’s a pretty soft landing — Sweden are struggling in World Cup qualification and their chances of making next summer’s tournament are slim, although still mathematically possible. It also means that Potter will be managing and developing Lucas Bergvall during the next few international football cycles.

And that’s not the only Tottenham connection. The Evening Standard writes that Potter has appointed Tottenham Hotspur coach, set piece specialist, and native Swede Andreas Georgson to his coaching staff. Georgson has mostly focused on set pieces, both offensive and defensive, since joining Thomas Frank’s staff this past summer, and if the thought of Spurs losing their set piece coach makes you uneasy then I have even more good news — Georgson doesn’t plan to leave the club, but will work his Tottenham and Sweden jobs concurrently.

This isn’t unusual for Premier League coaches. The Standard also notes that Frank’s top assistant, Justin Cochrane, has a similar arrangement with Spurs and England where he works with Thomas Tuchel during international breaks and returns to Spurs when off of the international cycle.

I have no particularly strong takes on whether or not this is a good thing, so I’ll say it is. If nothing else, there’s a neat little connection for Bergvall between his Spurs training and his Sweden training. And hey, maybe Lucas can help smooth the transition for Georgson as he implements his set piece style on the Sweden players.

“I think the way the game panned out was exactly how I expected it to be, if I’m honest. A very even game against a very good Villa team, set up very well by [Villa manager] Unai [Emery], where I think we performed quite well. What is, [a performance that’s] maybe not through the roof – I’m thinking what is through the roof is that totally dominating Villa, which has been a very good team in the last couple of seasons – clearly a very good team with good players.

“But I think we dominated in good spells, I think we came out with very good intensity, very aggressive, I think we were good in high pressure. I think first half especially we wanted some very good times and broke and had four or five very good moments where [they were] good transition opportunities, got in front. [That] continued in the second half, actually created some good opportunities, we could have scored both the 2-0 with Mo [Kudus], ruled out for our side and the Wilson [Odobert] chance. And defensively I think we were excellent.

“There are a couple of things you can look into when you look defensively. We gave away eight shots, I think, not even across, more or less. Very, very low xG and Vicario didn’t have to make a save. So we’ve done that and then you’ve done well. We gave two goals away, that were in a position outside the box with a lot of players behind the ball, where you said to me before the game, ‘they will shoot from there, Rogers and Buendia, [in] that situation,’ I’d say, ‘yeah, of course, no problem, it’s not dangerous.‘ But a fantastic quality shot from Rogers. So in those nothing moments or very little moments, they had more quality than they did.

“… I think Villa defended well, which we know they in general do. I think that’s something we worked very hard on, tried to improve. I think the most disappointing thing is the area I’d like to improve a little bit better, was these four or five very good transition moments where we are in good positions, could have done more. And I mean it, I think we performed a good game without being through the roof and part of it was we could have had a bit more offensively.

“… I think we defend with 11 players. We also attack with 11 players. I think it’s the whole team. Of course, it will always be, let’s say, the front four. Today, Wilson, Mo, Xavi and Mati. That is the main guys that will be judged on it, which is fair. Other players coming on from the bench. I like Xavi’s personality today, especially in the first half. I think he wanted to get on the ball, he wanted to create. I think he was very aggressive in the pressure. I think it was a fine game. I think I need to remember it myself when we judge players and they come into a new club, a new country. I know it’s part of football. We judge them with a very small sample of games. I’m not in doubt that it will be good for us. Today was an average-plus game.”

Good morning, everyone. Your beleaguered hoddler-in-chief is back after a week away from the blog. What’d I miss? Also, a big thanks to menno and mattyflatt for steering the ship in my absence.

I’m still trying to get caught up on things here (“things” being sleep), so today’s hoddle is just going to be a short one. I’ll get a proper one sorted for Tuesday.

For those of you curious: No, I have not had a chance to update the track of the day spotify playlist in the last two weeks, although it’s still something I’m hoping to accomplish by the end of the year. Yes, Nickelback will be in it.

I’m about to go to sleep, but I’ll just give a couple of thoughts after today’s match:

I didn’t enjoy it very much.

I didn’t watch most of it, actually. I went for my run at 9am and I got back just in time to watch the second Villa goal. So from what I did see, I wasn’t impressed.

I took a 30-minute nap afterwards before walking to the grocery store.

On my walk to the grocery store I saw how the leaves are falling in Washington and turning colour. And that cheered me up. It was warmer today than I’d have liked it to be, but it is feeling like autumn.

I took another nap later this afternoon.

Welp, that’s it for today. I’ll see you all for Tuesday’s hoddle, but in the meantime I’d like to share some words of wisdom from the Carty Free Managing Editor:

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Fitzie’s track of the day: Calling Doctor Love, by KISS

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Tottenham 1 Aston Villa 2: What went wrong after flying start? Did Danso prove a point?”

Football London: “Every word Thomas Frank said on Cristian Romero injury, Tottenham loss and sub incident”

Matt Law: “Mathys Tel interview: Not making Champions League squad made me mad, but I understand why”

Remember the happy feelings we had after Tottenham went to Leeds, didn’t play perfectly, but had a couple of nice goals for a quality away win? Well, that happened again, but for the other team. Tottenham opened the scoring at home against Aston Villa with a fourth minute goal from Rodrigo Bentancur (assisted by Joao Palhinha), but Villa got bangers from Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Buendia, Spurs couldn’t convert their chances, and Tottenham fell to the Villains by a final score of 1-2.

It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.

If you’re on mobile or found this via AMP and the survey isn’t appearing below, here’s a direct link.

I thought Tottenham Hotspur’s bad matches were supposed to come BEFORE the international break! Tottenham’s front line collectively decided they were going to do things on Hard Mode and laid an egg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Rodrigo Bentancur opened the scoring with a fourth minute goal assisted by Joao Palhinha to put Tottenham ahead, but Villa stormed back with two outstanding goals from Morgan Rogers and substitute Emiliano Buendia, one in the back end of each half, and took all three points today in North London.

Whoof. This was a pretty disheartening match for a number of reasons, but mostly because despite Spurs actually doing a decent job of getting the ball into dangerous areas, they simply couldn’t do anything with it in the box when it mattered.

Here are my match reactions from a disappointing home loss.

Match Reactions

Overall, this is a match where the main story was that most of Tottenham’s attacking players had medicore to bad performances and then Aston Villa scored two bangers. I could call out all of the sub-par attackers by name, but is there any point? They were all various shades and flavors of bad, they all deserve criticism for it, and it bit Spurs on the rear end today.

A fourth minute goal by Rodrigo Bentancur with an assist by Joao Palhinha! Just like we all drew it up. Kudus with an excellent cross to the back post, a good header back into the box by Palhinha, and Bentancur in the right spot to hammer it home.

Villa came out pressing high straight out of the gate after Cuti Romero was replaced by Kevin Danso before kickoff. It’s the right idea, but Spurs still looked quite comfortable playing out of the back. Thought Danso played well, despite a yellow and stepping on two Villa ankles.

Look I may not especially like this particular Tottenham Hotspur midfield with him in it, but I have to admit that Joao Palhinha is just a generational talent when it comes to the skill of tackling people. He put in some absolutely world class open field tackles in this one.

Morgan Rogers. Can’t even be mad at that, it was an incredible hit. That said, there was an obvious foul on Mathys Tel in the buildup that the ref just ignored, sooooooo…

Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel showed their youth and inexperience in this one. Got plenty of space to attack behind Villa’s high line but all too frequently either failed to read the game and make the right run, or just screwed up the attack with the ball at their feet. Spurs did a great job of getting balls into Villa’s box and a terrible job at getting shots or attempts on those chances.

Rather than argue about the ref, I shall simply ask this existential question to all of you and let you talk about it: What even is a handball? Discuss.

You can see the general shape of what Frank is asking his players to do to get the ball through midfield and into Villa’s area, but the attack just seemed to stall practically every time they got the ball into the box. A few good attacks got saved or blocked in the early part of the second half, but a lot more that just fizzled. I hope it means that the attackers were just bad today, and not that Spurs have bad attackers, but man.

I thought the introduction of Kolo Muani and Brennan Johnson might change the match, but they both came on far too late and after Spurs were already down a goal for them to have any sort of meaningful impact.

Spurs need to pick themselves up and dust themselves off and quickly, because they have a tough Champions League match to play at Monaco this coming Wednesday followed by a trip to Merseyside to play a resurgent Everton in their new stadium.

Go out and pet a dog or something. You’ll feel better.

We return to London after an international break that just seemed to drag on and on. Our reward for showing patience? A visit from Aston Villa.

Unai Emery’s side had a stilted, stuttering start to the season, really struggling especially in attack, before finding some semblance of fluency in the couple of rounds prior to the break. It’s a trajectory not dissimilar to what we’ve seen with Tottenham Hotspur, the key difference being how often Spurs have managed to turn hard-fought contests into points, as well as the key context of Thomas Frank being a manager still very much finding his feet at a new club.

On paper, I think Spurs should be too strong; but Villa have had Spurs’ number far too often in recent times, and it’s hard to say how much fluency we will see following two weeks off. Will the sides be fresher, or more disjointed? Let’s see.

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Aston Villa

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Time: 9:00 a.m. ET, 2:00 p.m. UK

TV: USA Network, Sky Sports Premier League (UK). Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: nbcsports.com

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

Absolutely no links to illegal streams. They’re bad and they get us in trouble. Violators will be warned or banned.

We have rules against “relentless negativity.” Nobody likes a Negative Nancy. Don’t knee-jerk and post outlandish or hurtful things just because you’re frustrated.

Along those lines, outright abuse of players or match officials is also not allowed. It’s fine to say “wow, that was a really bad call,” but it’s NOT okay to direct copious amounts of abuse in the direction of said official over a call you did not like.

Treat other people in the match thread the way you would want someone else to treat your grandmother. Be nice. This is a community of fans, not an un-moderated message board.

NO SPIDERS!

Finally, while we don’t have a rule against profanity, please try and keep the naughty words in check. Also, language that is sexist, racist, transphobic, or homophobic in nature will be swiftly deleted and you will be immediately banned. This is an open, supportive community.

Have fun, and COYS!