Not a lot is going right at Tottenham Hotspur right now. 1 win in our last 10 Premier League games epitomises that Ange Postecoglou’s squad are running on empty as the same players are playing 90 minutes every 3 days due to a lack of options. The bench on Sunday featured Richarlison, who has just returned from injury, Sergio Reguilon, who the club have been trying to sell for 2 years, and a bunch of kids including 17 year old Callum Olusesi and 16 year old Malachi Hardy.
Postecoglou lined the team up with a back 3 of Davies, Dragusin and Gray, perhaps to limit the amount of defensive work the returning Ben Davies would have to do. This decision backfired as Tottenham fell 3-0 down at halftime courtesy of Dominic Calvert-Lewin making mugs of the entire defence as they were all marking the exact same few centimetres of the pitch, and Ndiaye making a mug of the once again shaky Radu Dragusin by beating him at what he is supposed to be good at – natural defending, as well as an unfortunate own goal. After changing to a back 4 at half time, Davies was exposed to more defensive duties as Tottenham chased the game and despite pulling a few goals back it ended 3-2 to Everton. Dejan Kulusevski’s goal was delightful, as he simply lobbed it first time over the defenders who were racing back to the goal-line. Richarlison’s finish was clinical, from an incredible Mikey Moore cross.
Whilst we can question the decision to start with a back 3 of Davies, Dragusin and Gray because it did not work out on Merseyside, it is hard to criticise Ange for trying something a little different as the previous tactics have not been working and Ange Postecoglou has been criticised before for not having a plan B. Ben Davies was not meant to play the full 90 minutes, but had no choice due to Radu Dragusin being forced off at half-time, and that is just how things are going at Tottenham right now. There was another handball involved in the build up to a goal against Tottenham, meaning unfortunate decisions have gone against us in each of the last 3 games, but this cannot be used as a key excuse. We aren’t in 15th place because of a few dodgy referee or VAR calls.
Injuries have played a big role with Micky Van De Ven and Cristian Romero both being out since the start of December. Daniel Levy and Tottenham have had loads of time to recruit a new signing to help the squad out as we have been at our bare bones for weeks now. But not a single outfield player has joined the club. Antonin Kinsky has done well overall in goal, but outfield the squad needs major help and quickly. The injury front is not improving anytime soon as Yves Bissouma has strained his hamstring and Brennan Johnson will be out for a month as well. This came the day after Dominic Solanke jarred his knee in training causing him to be out for at least a few weeks.
Ange Postecoglou will need to trust Will Lankshear and Mikey Moore on Thursday night against Hoffenheim, because if he doesn’t it will run either Heung-Min Son or Dejan Kulusevski into the ground, or risk giving Richarlison a work overload when he has only just come back, and if he gets injured it gets even more bleak.