Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s Conference League loss

Tottenham Hotspur followed their win over Man City up with a shock defeat against Pacos de Ferreira this evening, barely registering a shot against the Portuguese club.

Let’s have a look at the five things we learned from the loss:

European problems for Spurs – It happened in the Europa League qualifiers last season, and again in the defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, but Spurs looked sloppy again this evening. Yes, it was a team of players who are not yet match-fit and haven’t played yet this season, but they still should have possessed the quality to control that game. This is becoming a worrying trend for Spurs. I’m not sure whether it comes down to a lack of concentration, a lack of familiarity, missing mentality, or just the fringe players are not good enough.

All to do in the second leg – Spurs now have a deficit to overcome in the second leg back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next week. I’m sure Nuno will be using a fair few of the big guns for that one, with even more on the bench. However, it appears that Pacos de Ferreira will not be pushovers.

Harry Winks nightmare – As one of the senior players out there in midfield, as well as someone who did a full pre-season with the first-team, Winks was shocking this evening. In possession, his touch was so heavy and he gave the ball away a lot. Out of possession, he was run ragged and gave away a lot of fouls. Disappointing.

Sessegnon’s return – It wasn’t always a pretty return for Sessegnon but it would be unfair to mark him down on that. Not only is this his first game of the season/pre-season, but it is also his first game back from injury. He needs to shake those cobwebs off, build his fitness, and push Reguilon for that left-back spot. You could actually see him improving a lot as the game went on. In the second half, he was Tottenham’s most positive and creative player.

Bryan Gil’s dribbling – He faded a little as the match wore on but we were treated to a few glimpses of Brayn Gil’s dribbling talent in the early minutes. He seems extremely positive, always looking to take a defender on rather than passing the ball. That may result in losing possession a lot but, hopefully, the positives will outweigh the negatives.

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