Jose Mourinho rotated on Thursday in Europa League and it cost Tottenham Hotspur as a listless first half gifted Royal Antwerp a goal and ultimately the game.
In his post-match pitch-side interview Hugo Lloris noted that Tottenham Hotspur needed to give more from the first minute of the match. His observation was harsh but true, as Tottenham were completely outplayed in the first half, leaving Spurs with a deficit they could not overcome. Now Tottenham are second in the group with a busy period ahead, not what Spurs wanted.
Tottenham Immediately Imbalanced
It only took about 19 second for Tottenham to be completely out of balance and vulnerable in the middle of the park. We noted recently here at Hotspur HQ the role of the two holding midfielders, providing additional defensive width and an extra body in front of the defensive line. This action simply did not occur with enough frequency Thursday evening.
Again, less than 20 seconds into the match, Winks, Lo Celso and Dele were in a diagonal line only about 20 yards apart, with none of the three protecting the two center-halves. In this instance Refaelou was found about 30 yards out and he could dribble straight at the goal and took a free shot from 25 yards away. While the shot did not trouble Lloris, the space surely troubled Jose Mourinho, and the practice for Refaelou would pay off in due time.
Display of Poor Passing
As the first few minutes continues, Spurs look a bit off the pace. While the plan is clear, get the ball up to Vinicius and play off him, the efforts to get him the ball are haphazard at best. Often it is just a pass and pray speculative blast toward the forward that was hit, not a well timed or thought out pass. Often Vinicius was in the middle of checking away or not ready to receive the ball when it came barreling his way.
Interestingly the midfield was overly patient and frankly wasteful with each other, but did a terrible job providing forward service to Vinicius, with hurried, half-hearted passed. What made those passes worse was the lack of any real timing on any kind of runs in and around the striker.
When Tottenham did manage to get numbers, which happened several times in the first half, everyone either tried to force the perfect pass or not seeing it simply turned around that played the ball backwards. That lack of any real push to make something happened ultimately led to the goal Spurs conceded and left the attack soft.
Spurs Gift a Goal
The Royal Antwerp goal began with a Tottenham Hotspur corner kick which was cleared by Antwerp. Dele hustled after the ball and collected it a little before midfield. Instead of playing the ball back in quickly as the defense tried to push out from the corner, Dele did what the Winks, Lo Celso, Dele midfield did for most of the night.
Dele stopped the ball and stood, but at least he turned to face the Antwerp goal from midfield which could not be said for most of the Englishman’s touches. Instead of playing a ball back into the box, he waited for Ben Davies – playing center-half again – to come back and passed him the ball. Davies immediately turned and dribbled forward.
As was the case most of the night, the overall movement around the ball was poor, so Davies ultimately, turned around and played the ball back to Dele who had moved maybe 5 yards since playing the all to Davies initially. From here Dele slowly dribbled toward the middle, where Lo Celso kind of received a pass and kind of did a takeover, regardless it was one of many back passes from Dele.
Lo Celso took one dribble and of course passed backwards to Harry Winks. Winks took one touch and passed it backwards to Ben Davies. Now Davies gets the ball with the defense close and two players not moving to create space in Lo Celso and Winks in front of him. Davies tries to dribble forward past Mbokani, who steals the ball.
Mbokani takes a couple dribbles toward the goal. This forces Davinson Sanchez to take a few steps slowly and begrudgingly toward Mbokani. Those two steps were all Mbokani needed to chip a little cross to Lior Refaelou. This was Refaelou’s third shot of the half and second in the box. Hugo Lloris was frozen as Refaelou hit a nice half-volley past the Frenchman scoring the lone goal of the game 29 minutes in.
Gutless Play Leads to Gifted Goal
Most will blame Ben Davies for the play and of course he made the error that led directly to the goal, Davies is culpable. However, the defender should never have been in that position. To go from their own corner to the ball back with a defender like that is wasteful lazy football. The lack of any desire from any of the midfielders to recycle possession and bring the ball forward following the corner was a microcosm of the day for Tottenham.
Dele was probably the worst offender of them all, as his overall effort was poor at best. In 32 passes on the evening only five were forward and his work in the final third was particularly bad. As the player sitting in the #10 position that was supposed to get the ball to Vinicius and the wingers, to have only five forward passes has a lot to do with why he was taken off. Likewise, for Lo Celso, who played the ball forward more, as he was a bit deeper on the pitch, but lacked any real conviction on the night.
If you look at the position map, from Tottenhamhotspur.com on the game, all three players had nearly the same placement on the pitch. In fact, Dele and Winks had such proximity, you can only see Winks number, but if you hover over, you realize they are both there. Three midfielders, all within their own half of the center circle, surely a recipe for disaster. As this kind of imbalance leaves the defense short numbers in other places on the pitch and Royal Antwerp were in the form to take advantage.
Ultimately, the poor spacing, imbalanced attack, and lack of any real forward drive gifted Royal Antwerp a goal. That goal gifted Antwerp all the life and confidence they needed to see out the match at home. While Mourinho tried to counter with a number of second half changes, ultimately, Tottenham failed and Antwerp succeeded.
Having seen out the match, Royal Antwerp now sit in control of the group with back-to-back matches with LASK coming up, whereas second place Tottenham will place Ludogorets twice in the next month. If Tottenham hope to advance past the group stage, they better find balance, or surely more disaster will befall the team.