A Side Who Desperately Missed Danny Rose

You can say what you want about Saturday’s match, as there were both positives and negatives to take away from it all. Was there a lack of creativity, or urgency at times? Yes, but a bright spot was the defense keeping Michel Vorm rather bored for most of the game. Wayne Rooney was held in check, while Memphis and Ashley Young had their flashes, but nothing substantial. It took a careless giveaway, one we’ve grown accustom to, for Man United to grab the only goal they needed. Spurs nearly had the dream start with a Christian Eriksen goal in the opening minutes, and had a few chances towards the end, but a lot was missing in-between.

I had no issue with Ben Davies in the defensive aspect of the game, but offensively, it was clear we needed more. Danny Rose picking up a quad injury during the week and missing the match, was somewhat of a shock, to me at least. The question has been where will the offense flow through when things aren’t clicking up top, and with the team as it stands, it is Rose. His runs down the left side somewhat makes up for the lack of wing-play coming from the midfield. Instead we saw numerous attempts to lob the ball over their defense, which posed only one threat late in the game. Eriksen had some chances for nice build-up plays, but the offense was still entirely too predictable, and yet again he disappears in the big stages of big games.

After a full season, and pre-season, Mauricio Pochettino has to know what he has on his bench, and how to use them by now. From the time the goal was scored to 15-20 minutes after the start of the second half, it was extremely slow, and lacked creativity. Once again, this is where we could of used Rose, but still needed to make due with what we had. The first sub of the second half, Ryan Mason, was not going to pose a threat for offense. Twenty minutes or so pass, and finally Poch made a move for offense, and that was Erik Lamela? God help us all if he is going to be the first man off the bench to try and spark the team for a late goal. The addition of Lamela brought zero change to the attacking game, as he is another forward presence who fails to go wide. Dele Alli was brought on entirely too late, trying to push in the last 15 minutes of the game.

Spurs had their chances at the end, but when chasing a game things are supposed to open up. That never happened. It seemed to be a cautious approach by Poch, never really throwing everyone forward. Saturday’s match better have the gears turning for this “rumored signing,” because goals will be rare with performances like that. I highly believe a Rose appearance in the match would of given us a point, and possibly chasing three instead of one at the end. Rose makes Spurs less one dimensional, and if this is what Spurs have to offer, I don’t want to see Rose missing anymore matches.

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