Three reasons Tottenham Hotspur struggled with Morecambe in FA Cup

By Aaron Coe | Jan 9, 2022

Tottenham Hotspur's English midfielder Dele Alli (R) vies with Morecambe's English defender Ryan Cooney during the FA Cup third round football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Morecambe at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on January 9, 2022. - - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images) /

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Tottenham Hotspur’s English midfielder Dele Alli (R) vies with Morecambe’s English defender Ryan Cooney during the FA Cup third-round football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Morecambe at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on January 9, 2022. (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images) /

Overwhelming favorites coming into the match, Tottenham Hotspur struggled for much of the game and needed the stars to bail them out, why?

It was supposed to be a day when Tottenham Hotspur could get right and show off some of their depth, instead, Spurs looked set to again break their fans’ hearts. Fortunately, the cavalry arrived just in time to save the day for Tottenham. So why besides the players simply are not good enough, did Tottenham struggle with a relegation battling League One side? Here are three reasons Spurs had such a difficult time with the Shrimps.

Tottenham has lost the movement to make plays

In the pre-season under Nuno Espirito Santo, we saw a Spurs side that was making runs off the ball and creating opportunities as a result. However, as the bullets became real and the pressure from the opposition started to intensify, Tottenham stopped making runs and the team slowly went into a shell.

It seems like that same thing is happening again under Antonio Conte, as some of the early runs to get behind defences that we saw initially have disappeared. Outside of a few times, Bryan Gil flashed diagonally, Spurs were simply devoid of movement in the attack.

When a defence is struggling, staying in your spots and not being stretched is a good way to gain confidence, which is exactly what happened in the first half for the Shrimps. The longer Tottenham went without making the defence uncomfortable the more confident they became and the tougher they were to break down.

Not having the kind of movement needed to move the defenders and create space for others has been a problem for a couple of weeks now and was readily apparent against Morecambe.