Tottenham were lacklustre and complacent against Ipswich Town as we fell to a 2-1 defeat at home. The entire performance felt naive from way too many of our players and Ipswich Town surely could not believe their luck as they claimed their first win of the season. Tottenham’s opening few minutes looked bright as Heung-Min Son whipped in a brilliant ball which Brennan Johnson prodded just wide. That was the only notable chance until Dominic Solanke tested Muric just before half time when we were already behind. Sammie Szmodics had way too much space for the opener as neither Pedro Porro nor Brennan Johnson closed him down. They both just stood there expecting the other to move and deal with the situation. It was a class finish from Szmodics. Radu Dragusin was way out of position as he was on his left touchline – a position where Destiny Udogie should be taking up. This led to Cristian Romero, Porro and co to bear left to cover resulting in everybody being out of position and giving Szmodics all the time in the world. There was no urgency. It was as if Tottenham just expected to win without doing too much. The defending for the second was no better. Guglielmo Vicario parried an Ipswich cross into a dangerous area and the ball deflected off of Dragusin and fell fortunately for Delap to fire home from a few yards out shortly before half time. Rodrigo Bentancur, who was Tottenham’s only real bright spark on the day, scored a bullet header from a Porro corner, but that cross aside everything was too comfortable for the towering Muric in the Ipswich goal. Way too many poor crosses as we just swung the ball in hopelessly and looked frustrated when it did not amount to anything.
While hunting for at least a point, we played right into Ipswich’s hands and gave them countless free kicks for stupid fouls that did not need to be committed. We play better when the game is flowing and all these needless stoppages in play caused by fouling was exactly what Ipswich wanted. Only Tottenham could have the opportunity to go 3rd by beating a relegation fodder side at home, and lost the game and now sit 10th, giving Spurs fans another negative result to stew over for the next 2 weeks. There is a clear complacency issue within the team and that stems from the board, all the way down to the players. Ange Postecoglou needs to be quicker to react and you cannot help but think James Maddison alongside Dejan Kulusevski in the midfield for this game might have been a better solution in unlocking the stubborn Ipswich defence. Fair play to Ipswich for a solid defensive performance, but from a Tottenham perspective it was nothing short of shambolic. This result now means Tottenham have lost the last 5 games that lead into an International break, and the others include a 3-0 loss to Fulham, that narrow loss to Newcastle, that embarrassing capitulation against Brighton. Perhaps the players clock out mentally for International football too early? Either way, it is not good enough and we need and deserve much more than this. Losing to two winless sides in Crystal Palace and Ipswich within a fortnight is so, so poor.
There are many expletives that could be used for this game, and the Galatasaray game which has not been touched on yet within this article. Will Lankshear and Dominic Solanke both scored in a 3-2 loss away at Galatasaray. Yunus Akgun scored a beautiful strike to put the Turkish side 1-0 up early, before youngster Will Lankshear responded after half-volleying home from a Brennan Johnson first time cross after a world class pass from Archie Gray. It was not the only eventful moment for Lankshear though, as he unfortunately got sent off midway through the second half meaning he will not be available for the Roma game. Dominic Solanke scored a backheel flick, and that was perhaps the only positive from the match. And the fact we only lost 3-2 when in reality it could have been 6 or 7 for the hosts. Victor Osimhen scored a brace, in what can only be describled as a similar scenario to the Nicolas Jackson hat-trick last season against us, where he had about 17 chances and only buried 2 against a vulnerable side who kept leaving him open again and again. Ange Postecoglou made 7 changes to the starting team midweek and took off Son and Johnson, almost admitting defeat at 3-1 down at half time in Turkey, presumably with a focus on the weekend’s game against Ipswich. But that decision was made redundant as we lost to Ipswich.
There is, however, no need to panic just yet. We have an all too familiar cycle of sacking managers after a poor run of form, but we keep going round in circles. Antonio Conte, Nuno Espirito Santo, Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino have all had poor runs of form, and it is clear the mentality issue within the club lies deeper than the manager, and the players to a certain extent. We have changed players countless times over the years. The back line used to have the likes Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Davinson Sanchez and Juan Foyth, and the midfield the likes of Harry Winks, Moussa Sissoko, Moussa Dembele, Dele Alli and Victor Wanyama – completely different teams – and this mentality issue of not being able to constantly win these types of games has remained. The only players who currently consistently play well are Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke and that drastically needs to change. Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie look like shadows of themselves from last season.
We need an overhaul somewhere, and you can’t help but point fingers up at the board and Daniel Levy as well.