Tottenham Hotspur continued their shocking form in the Premier League in the early kick-off this afternoon, losing to an in-form West Ham side at the London Stadium.
Let’s take a look at the five things we learned –
Sanchez and Dier – This partnership seems to have a mistake or two in it each and every game so it begs the question, why does Mourinho continue to stick with it? Personally, I would love to see a centre-back partnership of Tanganga and Rodon. At least we would see some kind of nod to the future and development then.
Gareth Bale spark – The Welshman provided the spark off the bench today after his superb display in Europe on Thursday. West Ham were sitting back by the time Bale got into the game but there were definitely positive signs. Hopefully, the on-loan Real Madrid man can now get a run of games under his belt and reach somewhere near his optimum level.
Fatigue setting in – It does now feel as if fatigue is setting into a few of the Tottenham players. The likes of Heung-min Son and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg have played the vast majority of minutes across multiple competitions and now seem to be hitting somewhat of a slump. Mistakes are creeping into Hojbjerg’s game and Son seems far from the attacking engine he usually is on the left.
The Mourinho way – Mourinho’s management style has always been built upon a solid foundation of defence. Mourinho teams have a strong and consistent back four above all else, then they create a side from there. At Tottenham, The Special One is as far from that model as he could possibly be. Instead, it seems to be a case of giving up on the defence for this season and accepting the lack of clean sheets now.
Too little too late – It seems to be a pattern this season. Spurs start slow and go behind by one or two goals then finally wake up and start playing. Unfortunately, as is often the case, it was too little too late and the damage was done. A lot of this is likely down to opposition teams sitting back more after going ahead, raising question marks over why Spurs can’t play well when under pressure.
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