How Tottenham Drew: 1 – 1 at Everton

There are two ways of attempting to explain Tottenham and their disappointing opening day 1-1 against Everton.

The first is simple — perhaps simple enough to be meaningless. This was a collection of Tottenham players who looked every bit a team who only began training together ten days ago.

All of the starting XI but Érik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Victor Wanyama enjoyed extended leave this summer after those players’ efforts in the European Championship.

It was rest well deserved, but it came at a cost. Mauricio Pochettino’s preferred team had barely any time to recapture their mojo. Compared to their heights last season, this was a disjointed and sloppy Spurs effort.

The performance as a whole lends credence to this idea, but it was also evident in individuals. Dele Alli stands out. The 20-year-old was far from his best on Saturday, scuffing shots and struggling to get into dangerous positions.

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Eric Dier also didn’t seem at his peak best at the base of midfield. The presence of Victor Wanyama, rather than complementing Dier, only disjointed Tottenham’s efforts in that area. Everton’s counter-attacks concentrated on Tottenham’s flanks, but they too often originated from central midfield.

The player’s conditioning can’t explain everything that went wrong in the draw however. There were hints that some of Spurs’ deficiencies from last season carried over into the new one.

This was particularly true in the first half, when Everton’s narrow, compact defense limited Tottenham to a single shot on target. Pochettino’s preferred narrow game can occasionally find itself blunted by determined opponents. Matches against West Brom, Crystal Palace and — indeed — Everton were similarly complicated last term.

There were hints in Spurs’ last pre-season game that they had started to overcome this. Eriksen, Alli and Lamela all drifted wider on occasion, stretching play. It seemed that crosses came in more regularly. Pochettino even brought on Vincent Janssen in the second half to test out what a two striker system might look like.

Combined with Spurs’ extant talent for crowding narrow areas and taking dangerous shots, the effect was massive. Inter lost 6-1.

To his credit, Pochettino began to remember these lessons in the second half of Saturday’s match against Everton. He encouraged his players into wider areas. He evidently demanded more crosses — Tottenham attempted two crosses in the first half, 19 in the second.

After ten minutes he brought on Janssen for Dier, shifted Eriksen to central midfield and pressed hard against Everton’s narrow defense. It’s no surprise that Tottenham’s equalizer came from a Kyle Walker cross into the center of Everton’s area.

Next: FIve Takeaways from Everton 1-1 Tottenham

It was all too little too late for Tottenham to claim the win. They came close a couple times, but continued to look vulnerable to Everton’s counters through the end of the game.

All of that being said, Spurs fans should resist being too discouraged. The team worked back from a poor first half and, presumably, Pochettino’s most vital players will settle in more in the coming weeks.