Lacklustre Tottenham repeat same mistakes in Cup exit

Tottenham Hotspur put on another lacklustre display, falling in the fifth round of the FA Cup for the third consecutive year.

As FA Cup games go, it wasn’t very magical. The troubles for any Tottenham fans who couldn’t make the trip to Middlesbrough firstly revolved around the BBC broadcast of the game, or lack of it. Fans sporadically watched a black screen which then returned to the game with a lack of scoreboard and time display. Plus, the ongoing excruciatingly monotone voice of ex-Spurs midfielder Danny Murphy on co-commentary was irking, to say the least.

The game itself was largely flat until extra time, but what do you expect from a matchup of two teams who mirror each other tactically?

Arguably, the biggest difference between the two sides was desire and urgency. Aside from Hugo Lloris, Cuti Romero, and Eric Dier, who gave it their all last night? Moments from the wing-backs provided reasons to get excited by Tottenham going forward, but one handful of decent players was being canceled out by another group of half-asleep, lacklustre teammates.

Tottenham midfield is problemmatic

In midfield, it was the dangerous duo of Harry Winks and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Dangerous for Tottenham, that is. I’ve stated on HotspurHQ multiple times that it’s a midfield partnership that goes beyond the idea of offering very little. Especially when you’re not playing teams like Leeds United, who have been overly keen to expose themselves in the middle of the park whilst Kalvin Phillips is sidelined.

In fact, I would loathe having to watch Hojbjerg and Winks play together as a midfield two ever again. They’re establishing themselves as the worst midfield partnership we’ve seen at Tottenham in a very long time. Individually, you can find their positives, but put them together and Spurs are automatically down to 9 players due to their apparent complete lack of shape and ideas both defensively and offensively when playing alongside each other. This is a situation Spurs seem to face in every game they play together.

Is that too dramatic? I’m not sure. I’ve said it numerous times, along with many other fans, that when our midfield duo is Hojbjerg and Winks, Spurs are already on the back foot. And had Leeds applied some basic tactics last Saturday, you may have seen that midfield issue arise there, too.

A common theme they’ve developed as a duo is following each other around the pitch. Almost as if they’re man marking one and another. When on the ball, Winks will mostly look backward towards Eric Dier, which I suppose is better than Hojbjerg against Boro, who was chaotic at almost every opportunity. Losing the ball regularly or holding onto it for far too long, before being tackled. Many of his first touches put him straight into danger of turning over possession too.

Whilst I criticise players who are prone to be torn apart by pundits and fans alike, it’s only fair to comment on the poor displays from Heung-Min Son and Emerson Royal as well. With Son looking as un-threatening in front of goal as possible, and Emerson only appearing to come on to play Boro on-side in their move to score the only legal goal of the game. Highlighting once more, that Tottenham simultaneously has inconsistency issues across many players and the lack of quality in depth to switch it up and break habits.

The referee did his best at destroying the game where he could. Running around the pitch with less control than Tottenham’s fumbling midfield partnership. All whilst the commentary applauded him throughout.

For those of you who may be noticing an increase in referee praising, it’s because of the controversy of the referee and VAR seeing a blatant handball in the Everton versus Manchester City match from last weekend and ignoring it, sparking claims of corruption and incompetence. To calm the fury of football fans around the world down, pundits seem to be praising any old refereeing decision, or lack of it.

Speaking of Everton, they’re up next. Tottenham host the Merseyside club next Monday night as one side now must battle for the last Champions League spot and another hopes to begin form to fight for survival in the league.

The way Tottenham is going, it’ll be quite a big ask from them to be the club that looks like they’re challenging for European football come Monday night. The potential return of Rodrigo Bentancur may hopefully re-install some stability in the middle with a desire to look forward and bring both Spurs’ wingers and wing-backs into the game.

Nevertheless, Tottenham has been on a ride of form and emotion in the last two months. A situation that doesn’t seem to necessarily be better now that we’re out of the Cup and can only concentrate on the league.

However, to close this rant with some positives. Bergwijn looks like a livewire from the bench and should be given the opportunity to attain more minutes. He provided a unique threat on the ball that both Son and Dejan Kulusevski were struggling with. He and Lucas Moura may be interesting Plan B players for the remaining league games this season.

Sessegnon and Doherty look like they’re growing in confidence and self-belief. This may bring the best out of Sergio Reguilon and maybe even Emerson in the future.

With both Bentancur and Oliver Skipp soon to be returning to the first team, Tottenham can finally look at keeping Winks and Hojbjerg apart thanks to some real talent and prospect, rather than just because they’re available names on the squad list.

Oh, and Antonio Conte recently praised young starlet, Dane Scarlett. It would be fantastic to see him given more opportunities in the first team, even playing alongside Harry Kane.