Soul Deep at the Lane
With the New Year comes the proliferation of self-improvement advice to enhance physical and mental well-being, and goodness knows I should pay more attention to both. The joys of a late winner are strangely not included in any of the options I’ve come across. I really think the advice gurus are missing a trick here. It’s obvious there’s nothing like it for instant gratification and lasting exhilaration, especially if it’s banged right into the roof of the net, no messing.
This is the bit football fans can’t explain to those who don’t follow the game. Their reactions towards us range from patronising tolerance to outright pity, as we spend a lifetime fretting over eleven players kicking a ball. But we feel sorry for them, because they’ll never feel the heartpumping thrill of a late winner, the uncontrolled limbs of the celebration dance, shared with 62000 strangers. All the things that excite the uninitiated – no, you’ll never feel like we do. Toxins purged, I can face the coming week with renewed enthusiasm. Boring meeting? Tricky situation at work? I’m nodding earnestly but inwardly, I’m smiling. You know why.
Plus the added bonus of being particularly pleased for Johnson. Cost a fortune but looks like a little boy to me. You’ve got to be pleased for him as he needs not just a goal but the confidence that comes from attacking a bouncing ball in the box at a crucial moment so assuredly. He’s a player I so want to come good. And he will. He is.
A game not so much of two halves, more of four quarters. Brighton on top at the start and finishing stronger, Spurs exerting a measure of control before and after half-time. Some disappointment expressed about us but overall, it wasn’t a performance that is straightforward to judge. The value of having almost everybody fit showed in the strength of the bench and the quality of the substitutions available to Ange. However, there’s fit to play, fully fit and Ange fit, the last being the ability to go flat out for 95 minutes. Players coming back from injury and in our case Afcon and the Asian Cup aren’t there yet.
Yet to us, this comes over as them having a bad game. I thought our attacking edge was blunted by Porro and Udogie not getting forward as often. I wondered if this might be tactical tweak to give more cover at the back but probably it was because they are understandably worked so hard.
Bentancur was another example. He’s a top quality midfielder, no question, but was little influence yesterday, although he improved in the second half before being taken off. Comments this morning that the coaching staff are not expecting him to be up to his pre-injury standards until next season, which puts impatience from fans into context. Also, he was assiduously marked, a Brighton forward going to him as soon as we picked the ball up in defence. They clearly saw him as key to our transition to attack and worked their plans around stifling him.
So I’m not judging him on all that. As for the team, we weren’t as fluent as we have been, and should be. Our movement of the ball in possession was frequently stilted and restricted, but it’s only partly down to us. The next challenge Ange’s Spurs have to face is that teams have sussed us out. In varying degrees, Brighton, Brentford and Everton have taken a similar approach to playing us. They press hard up the field, stay tight on our midfielders if we progress the ball and try to get inside the pass as the receiver prepares to control it. Brighton’s press was better than ours. Time and again in recent games we’ve given the ball away by being caught playing out. Bentancur yesterday gave the ball away at the edge of the box just before their penalty. Udogie and Hojbjerg have been culprits too of late. Our set-up means we are brutally exposed in these situations, despite the pace and strength of our back four. We seldom have extra cover back and are moving to attacking mode as soon as we get the ball. It’s not just about individuals. They have to have (ready yourself for stunning tactical insight ) someone to pass to. The days of Dembele fending off half a midfield on his own are long gone.
Spurs’ approach works best when everyone is flying, at 100%. We give ourselves less margin for error than other teams. I’m all aboard the Ange train until the end of the line. It’s just that watching Spurs protect a lead is a strain at times. Dealing with it is a better guide to my health than the blood pressure meter, I reckon.
Often the best guide to any side’s progress is how well they do when they are playing at 60% or 70% effectiveness. Yesterday, Brighton gave us several scary moments and were on top for extended periods, but they failed to score from open play. Vic made two excellent saves, otherwise they had little on target.
How we respond at the crucial moments in each game is a benchmark of how we are doing. Kulu was in and out, but that pass to Sarr for the opener was instant, and a gem. Maddison didn’t dominate but makes something happen. VDV conceded the penalty but made several vital interventions. And our winner was a terrific piece of football, the pass to Sonny, his run and Johnson, again off the pace when he came on, delivered when it mattered.
Good for my heart and soul to be back at the Lane. I watched the City and Brentford games from my sofa rather than the South Stand, a victim of the governing principle of the universe, Sod’s Law. For perfectly reasonable caring reasons, I prefer to stay home most nights. Faced with the prospect of three Spurs’ outings in 10 days or so, I opted for the launch of Julie Welch’s new book about the best Tottenham strike partnerships (out now, highly enjoyable and recommended) and the City game. However, at the last minute I couldn’t attend the latter as the dog was being sick repeatedly in every room of the house. It’s the glamour of my life that gets too much, truly. And as I move to remove my Bees ticket from the exchange, the email arrives to say it’s sold.
It’s worse at home, watching the gaping fissures open up in our defence, like the TV documentaries covering millennia of earth’s history by fast-forwarding a graphic of shifting tectonic plates, rift valleys and mountains. The Brentford game was the prime example of the ‘we’ll score one more you’ elements of our manager’s approach, and we did, in the end, so that’s alright then. Or is it? It was hard watch at times, even at the end with three centre halves. We shouldn’t have to rely on unaccountable opposition misses in both games, although when City pinned us back, we defended well for the most part. Brentford will be furious that they did not score a third, though.
But Thomas Frank is a canny operator. He kept it tight at the back and told two strikers to stay up top, with the dangerous Toney often drifting wider right to open up more space and more doubt in the minds of VDV and Romero. Ange wants defenders who are good one-to-one, that’s what ‘s got in our first choice back four. More sophisticated tactical analysis is available but two v two like this with Porro and Udogie pushed inside in midfield and we’re always going to be onto a loser at some point in the game, however good that partnership is, in my view very, very good.
In praise of Vicario. He’s an excellent keeper. His saves, acrobatic again yesterday, his presence, his speed off the line – I could go on. I question the level of recent criticism about dealing with set pieces. This season he’s been good at the physical side, especially given his stature. He goes for the ball and usually gets it. I don’t accept this ‘could be stronger’ stuff. He never takes a backward step and confidence is unaffected by problems – next time it comes over, he’s going for it. There is little he or any keeper can do if he is fouled. Everton hassled him. Sometimes it was legitimate physical contact, sometimes he was fouled, and their first goal is a blatant foul.
Other teams protect their keeper, and yesterday Maddison took on that duty. Although I detest managers refereeing from their press conference (Pep, Arteta, Klopp all do it, as did JM), I’m glad Ange played the game and spoke to PGMOL about this. It’s now in referees’ minds.
A final word for Sonny. Already much loved, his reception yesterday was deafening and elevated his status to the returning hero we all need.