Tottenham Hotspur followed up three straight victories with a horrendous showing at Elland Road, losing 1-0 to a Leeds United side that had lost 2-0 to AFC Bournemouth a week ago. Spurs have had an established problem of not being able to finish their chances, but against Leeds United, they could not even create them.
Everyone assumed James Maddison would be able to return from his latest injury issue, but he did not even take the field. And in his place, Spurs did not start a real No. 10. It was difficult to tell if Archie Gray or Mateus Fernandes was the playmaker, but it was immaterial either way with how poor Spurs were at creating chances. The way they played, they didn't really have a playmaker.
The midfield trio of Gray, Fernandes, and Sandro Tonali was objectionably bad. At least Gray was the only player on the team to create more than one chance against his former employers, whereas Tonali was downright shocking with a pass completion rate of 70 on only 37 attempts.
Roberto De Zerbi set up Spurs to lose
Roberto De Zerbi totally got Spurs wrong, choosing a very defensive lineup that could not move the ball or create anything meaningful in this clean sheet loss. Spurs looked cowardly and weak, almost like a team coached by Thomas Frank.
And De Zerbi did all this, in the end, just to squeeze both Pedro Porro and Archie Gray into the lineup. Instead of going with the logical option of resting Porro extra through the break and starting Gray at right back so he could continue his excellence in possession and make sure Spurs had another guy to rule the middle of the park, De Zerbi started Porro. And Porro was horrendous.
There is not a single action from that game that Porro did well. He was subpar defensively, he was inaccurate with his passing, he left Mohammed Kudus on an island to struggle, and he could not progress the ball. Archie Gray at right back was better than Pedro Porro at right back on this day, and with Porro starting, Gray in the midfield was meaningless.
Spurs had no 10, no outlet to create for the forwards, who were isolated and poor themselves at taking on creative roles or showing urgency, especially after Mathys Tel's injury. Roberto De Zerbi so badly wanted Porro to play before he was ready in an environment in which he was going to struggle, and even then, Porro could have worked if there was a creative midfielder to bridge the midfield and attack and balance the team. De Zerbi got everything wrong, he chose the false cause of wanting Porro shoehorned in to a defensive team, and he paid the price with a loss.
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