Finding positives in mediocre Tottenham draw at Newcastle

Sometimes it can be difficult to try and find the silver lining as your team again lets a golden opportunity slip through their fingers. However, such is the life of a Tottenham Hotspur fan – until it is not – and we are stuck looking for silver linings. As the opportunities to gain ground grow fewer, each lost chance is another nail in the coffin of a lost season. So what good did we find in an otherwise dour draw at Newcastle?

Two Strikers are Better than One

In a somewhat surprising move, José Mourinho and Tottenham Hotspur kept two forwards to start the match. Last week, HotspurHQ was extolling the value of using the two striker system and some of the results were the 1-2 lead at the break. While no one is going to argue that Carlos Vinicius played a good game, his mere presence on the back shoulder of the last defender created space and opportunity for Kane and others.

In the second half, as Heung-Min Son replace Carlos Vinicius and Tottenham went back to their more traditional 4-2-3-1 formation, that same openness – particularly in the middle of the park – was gone.

Tottenham was open a bit in the first half and only a miraculous double save from Hugo Lloris kept them in front. However, to get the open offense the Spurs need to win, the concession is apparently a more open defense. Given that Tottenham conceded anyway with a more conservative second-half formation and approach, might as well stick with the two upfront and stay in attack mode.

Tanguy Ndombele looked good in a true two-man midfield

The first half of the game against Newcastle was almost as good as I can remember seeing Tanguy Ndombele for Tottenham, ever. The Frenchman was defending, he was dribbling, he was assisting.

Harry Kane scored the goals but Tanguy Ndombele was a big part of that happening, particularly on the second goal with his perfectly weighted pass to Kane in space. Ndombele was 36 of 38 passing in the first half and in short dominated. Ndombele was another impacted in the second half with the change in the formation as he had less space to operate leading to more dribbling to maintain possession and less passing, with only 27 attempts but five dribbles.

Tanguy needs that freedom of a true two-man central midfield as we saw in the first half, hopefully, we will get more moving forward.

Two points  for Tottenham are better than zero

The last bright spot from the day has nothing to do with the game, rather it is about the bigger picture of the season. Tottenham taking only two points from two matches against Newcastle is bitterly disappointing. That said, it could have been worse just look at Everton.

Everton actually lost twice to Newcastle and sits two points behind Tottenham. While the Spurs team and fans both left both matches with Newcastle upset, frustrated, and disillusioned, those two points may be the difference between making a European place or not for next season. So while yeah it sucks to lose the four points, at least they did not lose all six.

Not much of a bright spot but then again it was not much of a performance when we really needed it. I suppose like the two points, for now, it will have to do.