Tottenham Hotspur losing two more players to injury on Thursday vs Rennes may be more significant than the two dropped points to open the Conference League.
If there was a bright spot to the loss to Crystal Palace it might have been that the Spurs did not blow the lead in the 3-0 defeat. However, a theme all too familiar from last season, lackluster performance following an early lead, turned into another late deficit and dropped points from a winning position for Tottenham Hotspur.
Likely more significant than the two points lost from a winning position in the UEFA Europa Conference League, will be adding Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura to an already long list of injured Tottenham Hotspur players.
Steven Bergwijn probably should not have played
Steven Bergwijn did not look exceptionally bad or anything during his 30-minutes on the pitch, however, he did not necessarily look like a player who wanted to be playing either. Surely, after the red card on Saturday, the staff talked to the team about maintaining their poise and composure.
Yet, on the first instance of being antagonized with a kick in the back of the leg causing the ball to go out, Bergwijn responded with some malice as his forehead got millimeters away from the defender. Just as the staff likely spoke about composure they would have talked about the atmosphere the team was going to face and the antagonizing that would occur from an overly aggressive Reindeer squad.
Bergwijn’s almost altercation as it simply ended with a brief talking too on all parties was the most exciting thing he did all day and was shortly substituted having reaggravated his ankle injury. Given he was just coming back from an injury and the team is still full of question marks for Saturday, starting Bergwijn probably was not the best move. While we can understand the desire, in hindsight it was shortsighted but we had him in our projected XI too.
Lucas Moura went out for Tottenham too
Compounding the issues on the attacking side of things for the Spurs Lucas Moura was down just three minutes into the second half. Making matters worse, instead of a bad foul going Tottenham’s way and likely a booking as well; the referee made a strange advantage call and pulled back to what he deemed was a foul on Moura.
The result was Tottenham lost both the ball and Lucas Moura on the play. Moura did try to walk it off as best he could. However, on the next attack, Harry Kane and Bryan Gil were pushing forward but Lucas simply could not keep up.
Even when the ball seemingly wanted to come to the Brazilian as he trailed on the play he was unable to react and the opportunity like Lucas was lost.
With Bergwijn already off injured, and Lucas coming off injured, Nuno Espirito Santo made what was likely his best call of the night and made the Lucas change a double substitution and took off Harry Kane as well. Given Kane is the only returning, senior attacking player who is not injured Tottenham should probably put him in bubble wrap until Sunday.
Besides the injuries, Tottenham also lost the lead
Buried behind the lead story of the potential loss of two more attackers to injury was the fact that again Tottenham lost a lead. The Spurs looked good in what was some kind of hybrid 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 for the first 10 minutes or so of the match.
The team was not preseason dynamic but they were in control of the match. Following a nice backheel from Tanguy Ndombele – to keep the ball in play – and a swift touch from Kane following a pass from Oliver Skipp, Lucas Moura was in on the right.
As Lucas attacked the defense retreated and the Brazilian did what he should, kept taking the space. As Lucas got near the box he set himself up and hit a shot that seemed destined for the chest of Romain Salin. However on the way to being stopped the ball deflected off of Loic Bade and went into the goal for a 0-1 Spurs lead less than a quarter-hour into the game.
Energy not the same after the first goal
After taking the lead, Tottenham did not have the same energy or cohesion across the team. After about 10 minutes of Rennes being in control, they managed to tie the game as Pierluigi Gollini was seemingly unsighted and not one player ran to close our Flavien Tait. From there.
From level, Tottenham had their moments but it was mostly Rennes in control. After Emerson Royal and Dane Scarlett came on for Kane and Moura, the formation struggled, and eventually, Rennes took the lead.
On the goal the Reindeer were able to get to the end line and create service far too easily, then Gollini failed to capture the ball and his deflection fell right to Gaetan Laborde who beat Ben Davies to the ball.
Tottenham got a good bounce and the right player was there
Fortunately, Tottenham did not go home completely empty-handed and did not lose all three points. Only a few minutes after Rennes took the lead, Tottenham was attacking. It was Emerson Royal in a hybrid midfield wing role at that point pushing forward and played in Matt Doherty.
Doherty’s cross then deflected up into the air like a little chip, creating a scramble for the suddenly dangerous ball. It was fortunate for Tottenham that Pierre Hojbjerg was up in attack as his awareness and an incredibly deft left-footed touch beat all the Reindeer to the ball and let the Spurs leave with a point in a very hostile environment after losing both the lead and two more starters.
As the Dane ran down the pitch holding his finger up to this month hushing the crowd the story of the Tottenham’s Viking continued to grow. The resilience to come back and draw and get something out of the day was big. Frankly finding a bunch of resilience will be important as the matches will keep coming and the injuries are what they are. On days like that, you kind of feel lucky to take the point and move on.