Tottenham: Despite loss, poor performance, Nuno made right call

Tottenham Hotspur was far from impressive in a very poor performance against Vitesse in the UEFA Europa Conference League. Despite the loss and bad play, Nuno Espirito Santo and Spurs made the right call in resting the top line.

Spurs second team is not up to the task

There is no doubt that Tottenham was thoroughly outplayed on Thursday by Vitesse. There really was not one player you could point at and say that player played well. Maybe the most disappointing part of the performance was the lack of any real urgency from anyone on the pitch.

From the first minute with poor decisions from Pierluigi Gollini and Joe Rodon in trying to build under pressure out of the back, Spurs were on the back foot.

The midfield simply was going through the motions as Harry Winks took time out of fouling to occasionally play the ball backward. Dele Alli gave almost zero effort in what has to be his worst performance in a couple of seasons of poor performances.

While it seemed like Giovani Lo Celso was putting in some work, the idea that Gio is either a 6 or an 8 is just ridiculous and is a waste of the man’s talents. Lo Celso needs to be in the #10 hole or played in a  wider attacking position similar to Christian Eriksen or not on the pitch because he is not a holding midfielder.

If anything came out of the midfield, it was that resting Oliver Skipp and Pierre Hojbjerg was a smart idea as apparently, Spurs have no cover.

Tottenham had no target offensively

Since the midfield was not up to beating Vitesse with a passing game, it was going to be another Spurs match that relied on the longball. The problem was there was no target. Steven Bergwijn made a few early runs but really showed very little coming back from injury.

Dane Scarlett was up for the match and played hard, but physically he was dominated by the more experienced defensive line and he is not a target striker. His game is running not playing as a hold-up striker.

With no target or outlet to pass the ball up to – remember Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane were home – Tottenham had no ability to maintain possession and create real chances to worry Vitesse.

Add in a defense that has holes like swiss cheese, particularly on the left where Ben Davies simply refuses to get close enough to prevent crosses, Spurs were never going to win on Thursday. Tottenham just wanted to draw or keep it close, which ultimately the team did in the 1-0 loss.

Despite poor play,  Nuno right

The reality is the Sunday game versus West Ham is far more important than the Vitesse contest was. Even with the loss, leaving Spurs third in the group at current, Tottenham can win the group and advance with three wins and Spurs still have two home games, against Vitesse and Rennes.

It was important that Tottenham was resting players because West Ham was resting some too. Declan Rice played an hour, while Aaron Cresswell and Tomas Soucek played the entire match, several Hammers were rested including Michail Antonio, who was not in the squad, as well as Pablo Fornals and Lukasz Fabianski who spent the match on the bench.

Tottenham is currently in 5th place in the league, one point and two positions in front of West Ham, who just beat Spurs to 6th place last season. With matches at West Ham, against  Manchester United, and at Everton before the next international break, along with games in between, in two different competitions, this week was the most realistic one to get some players some rest.

Pierre Hojbjerg has been playing almost non-stop since last season when he led the team in minutes and then went on the Euro 2020 and all the qualifiers for Denmark. Likewise, while Harry Kane has seen a little rest with England, he plays a ton as does Son with South Korea.

If there was any game over the next three weeks Tottenham could afford to lose, it was yesterday against Vitesse. Now if Spurs come out on Sunday – after the rest – and lay an egg and lose to West Ham, then maybe it was a mistake. However, assuming the energy, effort, and ideally win is there on Sunday, then Nuno did make the right decision for a team simply not deep enough to compete on four front.