Tottenham must show character against Brighton
For the first time under manager Mauricio Pochettino Tottenham dropped their third match in a row with their loss to Inter Milan.
This season is too important for Tottenham to allow themselves to be distracted in any way. Things are bad at the moment. The team has lost three games in a row and has played rather poorly in all of them, despite Poch’s attempts to defend the team. If Tottenham are truly the contenders they say they are and that they have the talent to be then they will need to dig deep and find an ugly win against Brighton on Saturday.
Things are not flowing well for Tottenham at the moment. That happens in football but it is the great teams who find a way to win. If it means winning 1-0 with a penalty and a defensive performance and parking the bus then they have to do it. Results matter. Sure, of course it’s better to play beautiful football and entertain and score three or four goals in a match. But you know what’s not OK now? Trying to do that and then losing again. Imagine that four losses in a row and two of them to teams that Spurs should be collecting six points against. The luxury of deciding how to win is gone now. Tottenham simply have to do it by any means necessary at this point.
Tottenham should recall Alderweireld and maybe give Vertonghen a rest. He wasn’t very good against Inter and sending a message to the rest of the team about their performances wouldn’t be a terrible thing for Pochettino to do. It’s not necessary but it could work.
More from EPL News
- Antonio Conte not wrong about Tottenham, but only half right
- Tottenham Hotspur picked a good day to bounce back with a win
- Spurs player ratings in 1-2 Tottenham loss to Liverpool
- Antonio Conte deserves more credit from Tottenham fans this season
- Five keys for Tottenham Hotspur to beat Arsenal in the EPL
This is another case where the transfer policy of the summer needs to be questioned. Harry Kane has finally, sadly, started to look tired and off the pace. I’ve said before that I didn’t think he would but things haven’t been good recently. He should start against Brighton and Tottenham and Tottenham supporters should be praying to whatever deity they choose that Kane is able to shrug off his current tiredness and form. Unfortunately, that is simply because they don’t really have another strong option to back him up. Llorente is a good footballer but he doesn’t strike fear into teams. If he can’t shrug off this current form then things have officially gone from bad to worse.
Next Lucas Moura should be an automatic starter from this point forward. Embarrassingly until his involvement against Inter the best player in the side for Tottenham had been Serge Aurier. Moura’s dribbling, creativity and running style add a threat to Tottenham’s side that creates more space for the rest of the team.
If Tottenham can just put their feet down and stop this slide from continuing they’ll be in good shape again. The season is still young and there’s plenty of time for them to make it up but they need to start now. Things can snowball in either direction at the moment to good or bad and Tottenham must force the issue this weekend against Brighton because THAT is what good sides do.
The game doesn’t always come to you. When it does it can be marvelous, gorgeous, even poetic at times. But on the days it doesn’t sometimes you need to grab it by the throat and drag it kicking and screaming across the line, through the mud and muck and rain to victory by any means necessary.
That is the sort of performance that Tottenham must put in against Brighton. No prisoners, no negotiating, winning football.