Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s FA Cup exit to Middlesbrough

Tottenham Hotspur dropped out of the FA Cup in a shock defeat to Championship side Middlesbrough last night after conceding in the second half of extra time. 

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:

Another year, no trophy – Tottenham will now be going yet another year without a trophy. Spurs didn’t make it out of their Conference League group. The Carabao Cup was won by Liverpool. And now Middlesbrough knock Spurs out in the FA Cup fifth round. A pretty dismal showing in the cup competitions from the Lilywhites. The wait for silverware, which dates back to 2008, goes on. This is also another year without a trophy for Harry Kane, which isn’t ideal for anyone.

Fatigued squad – While Spurs were not exactly bossing things in the first 60 minutes, they were at least creating just as much as Middlesbrough, attempting to sit back and hit the home side on the break. However, with the same XI having played the last few fixtures, fatigue quickly set in, especially around the centre of the pitch. As soon as Boro smelled weakness there, they carved through Tottenham time and time again.

Didn’t trust the bench – It took Conte until the 81st minute to make any changes. Seeing as Middlesbrough were actually on top at that point, it isn’t a great advert for the players on the bench and how much Conte trusts them. He finally introduced Bergwijn and Emerson with ten minutes to go, then subbed on Reguilon and Scarlett in extra time.

Conte mistakes – The blame has to lie at the door of both the players and the manager for me. Last night, Spurs were sloppy, lacked fight and were not brave enough on the ball when picking forward passes. However, I’m not sure why Tottenham were set up to sit deep and hit a Championship side on the break. No disrespect to Boro, they played incredibly well and deserved the win, but Spurs should have been controlling the game from the front foot from minute one. Not sure what the thinking was there.

Silver lining – If we are scraping the bottom of the barrel for silver linings, it would have to be the wing-back play from Sessegnon and Doherty in the first half. When you see one wing-back crossing to the other, you know the Conte system is working. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them feature together more in the coming weeks. Despite the defeat, I also thought that Eric Dier played very well.

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