I took a day of vacation to watch my beloved Spurs go to Stamford Bridge. Not because I was overly optimistic that we would win, but because I was hopeful of a miracle.
The first 15 – 20 minutes were beautiful and promising. Spurs pressed, dominated possession, and had Chelsea on their heels. Unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities in those 20 minutes and put up a score. Chelsea took our best punch and quickly responded by taking advantage of our mistakes and putting two quick scores on the board. At 1 down, I felt Spurs were still in the match, but the second goal squashed all hopes of a miracle happening. Although the match was essentially over at the half, I was very interested to see how Pochettino’s squad would respond.
In my opinion, there are no such things as moral victories. A loss is a loss. However, managers, squads, and fans typically learn more from defeat than victory. I learned a great deal about our squad against Chelsea.
First and foremost, our players never quit. Their effort was tremendous from start to finish. They didn’t roll over after going down 2 goals like the squad from a season ago. I’m starting to see an edge, attitude, and fire about our players that I like. The second half tested our character and we definitely passed the test. We played a solid second half. I can honestly say that the result Wednesday had nothing to do with effort. Chelsea was just the better team on Wednesday. I was very proud that our players fought for the full 90 minutes.
Second, we have a good young nucleus of players but they lack big game experience. Although Mason struggled at times in this match, Mason and Bentaleb make a solid midfield tandem. They are composed in possession, athletic, and are not scared to make a tough tackle. However, their inexperience showed against the stronger, more experienced midfield of Chelsea. Kane and Eriksen are good, quality attacking players but they couldn’t finish plays on Wednesday. These four players should be key building blocks for our future.
We have struggled at the RB position all season and Wednesday was no different. Chelsea consistently attacked us our defensive right side. It is very clear that we miss Kyle Walker. Chiriches and Dier are just not BPL level right backs. They dohhn’t have the foot quickness to defend top class wingers and they provide very little in attack. Naughton is a slightly better option (not sure why he didn’t start) at RB than both Dier and Chiriches, but we need Walker’s tenacity in defense, his attitude, and his pace in attack. Walker is gaining fitness and will hopefully be back in the next few weeks. His return should drastically improve our squad.
Our season will not be defined by this loss and the squad should not be hanging their heads after Wednesday’s defeat. However, the team, the managers, and the players must learn from this defeat and quickly rebound against Palace.
We must eliminate unforced errors and stupid mistakes. We were our own worst enemy against Chelsea and gifted them many opportunities. Second, we have to finish chances and take advantage of opportunities.
Wednesday showed that we have the quality to compete with top tier teams as shown in the first 20 minutes of the match but we have to play consistent for 90 minutes.
Most importantly, we must continue playing with the same effort, passion, and team chemistry as we did against Everton and Chelsea.
We have many winnable matches on the fixture list to close out the first half of the season, if our effort stays high and we learn from this defeat, Spurs can close the out 2014 on a positive run!
@BrentWeber73
Unfortunately, I wrote this article before the Palace match! I think it was obvious we didn't play up to my hopes or expectations......again!
ReplyDelete@BrentWeber73