After a dismal display against Crystal Palace away from home last weekend, it has been a strong reaction from Tottenham to beat Manchester City in the Carabao Cup to advance to the quarter finals, and batter Aston Villa in an enjoyable second half at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. At home it feels like we can beat anyone on our day, but away from home is where the struggles occur as shown by 3 away wins in the calendar year of 2024. For me the real test will be Galatasaray away on Thursday, and our next Premier League away game.
Regardless though, Tottenham have put in 2 great shifts since the Palace horror show, with Dejan Kulusevski at the heart of everything good about us right now. It was he who set up Timo Werner midweek for the opener against Man City with an inviting cross, and he who laid it off for Pape Matar Sarr to sweep home from about 25 yards. Kulusevski also assisted Dominic Solanke brilliantly for his first goal against Villa yesterday. James Maddison has been notably benched in both of these games as Ange Postecoglou has opted for a double pivot of Rodrigo Bentancur and Pape Matar Sarr to accompany Dejan Kulusevski in the midfield. Maddison has been important off the bench and scored a well taken free kick to make it 4-1 against Villa, highlighting that he still has an important role to play within the side, and highlighting the strength in depth that Tottenham have in attack, despite having Wilson Odobert injured, and potentially Richarlison again now after he was forced off feeling his hamstring against Villa
Defensively is more of a current issue as Micky Van De Ven is out until after the International Break, and Cristian Romero took a knock against Aston Villa and was forced off so that might leave Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin to be the only fit centre backs for both Galatasaray and Ipswich, and both players could tire playing 2 90 minutes in 3 days after barely playing much football at all in recent weeks. But that is what a squad is for and it is their moment to step in.
Guglielmo Vicario was suspect from another set piece, and although we have only conceded twice from a set piece this season it feels like we are suspect from these situations all too regularly and teams capitalise on it. We need our players to help out Vicario and Vicario to step up more as a new vice captain within the team to stop the vicious cycle or teams will continue to be extra physical to try and catch us short from set pieces.
Despite brushing aside Manchester City and Aston Villa, the tough period is not over as Thursday brings a European challenge at Galatasaray, where the fans will really be up for it. We will need so much mentality there to get any form of positive result. COYS.