Tottenham Notspurs

After seeing a similar starting lineup to last week minus Bentaleb and a lack of activity in the transfer market apart from the signing of N’Jie I wasn’t filled with much hope, I however remained optimistic seeing as we were playing at the Lane.

We got off to a somewhat positive start and dominated possession, and even though we scored two goals in the first half there were a few worrying moments which I will point out:

1) Our inability to pass the ball forward instead of backwards and sideways

2) Lack of width on the left, initially Chadli started out there but he kept on coming in field and was even out on the right at times. Davies was virtually our left back and left winger rolled into one, there was no one to pass to the ball to on the left, players looked to play the ball to that side but had to keep coming back in field or looking to the right. We definitely missed Danny and his lung busting runs forward today

3) Chadli playing as a “striker”?! There was a collective gasp around the Lane as Kane came off to be replaced by Lamela (who again had a poor game) which shows our lack of strength in depth on the bench. Stoke’s subs came on and changed the game, we unfortunately do not have such a luxury at this moment in time

4) Our inability to finish teams off whilst being in the lead, I’ve lost count the amount of times we have dropped points from winning situations. Once Stoke got their first goal, you could see us dropping deeper and deeper especially with there being no focal point up front for us and no recognised striker; which Stoke used to their advantage and got an equaliser and almost a winner

5) Lack of a leader on field, with our captain being Lloris (who can hardly influence the team from his position) there was really no one on the field to lead by example and push the players on

However it wasn’t all doom and gloom there were a few positives to come out of the game

1) Dier had a good game bearing in mind he’s new to that position; I thought he was Spurs best player

2) The distribution of Alderweireld from the back, he pinged some outstanding passes yesterday. If we get in some signings on the flanks that could prove to be an asset

3) It’s only the second game of the season
Our next match is Leicester which will not be an easy game, with Leicester being on top form so far. Hopefully Kane’s injury is not too serious and N’Jie gets clearance in time to show us what he can do.

COYS