Home Again!

After what seemed like an endless procession of away days, to the Midlands, western Germany, the south coast and Merseyside, it was great to finally get back to our north London home.

Article by Ian Gunn

We hosted the current 'Champions' on Saturday and the mood amongst the Spurs faithful was bullish. Indeed, most of the e-Spurs Podcast team had gone for a home win (of increasing magnitudes).

As I walked down the High Road towards the ground, the cranes overseeing the construction of the new stadium, it soon came into view. Having purchased my joint Spurs/Poppy badge for Remembrance Sunday, I caught a glimpse of how far the new build had risen. Indeed, as I made my way to my seat, I walked under the new west stand.

It was then that I discovered our starting XI. No place for the ill Lamela, a midfield of Wanyama and Dembele and Janssen up front, with Eriksen, Dele and Son behind him. The back 5 picked itself, with Dier partnering Vertonghen at the back, with our premier wing backs (Rose/Walker) preferred.

Prior to the game, a selection of our armed forces marched into the ground and spread out along the west stand touch line. There then followed one of the best 'Last Post's' that I have ever heard played by a trumpeter of the Central Band of the RAF. The silence that accompanied this was impeccably observed.

The game kicked off and it became apparent that our visitors game plan was to defend in numbers, but to hit us on the break. However, Leicester's front men, did their best to keep Dier and Vertonghen on their toes.

Leicester were their usual combative selves, and as the game progressed, the Spurs faithful became increasingly angry with the lack of sanction from referee Robert Madley. By the end of the game, Leicester had committed 20 fouls to our 9. The card count was 3/4. Indeed, after a number of heavy challenges, it was the booking of Danny Rose, which seemed to spark the WHL faithful into life.

In the first half, Schmeichel was the busier of the two keepers, with decent saves from Dele and Rose. However, he was a mere spectator, as Dele's thunderbolt smacked off the bar. In the 43rd minute, Huth was found guilty of pulling Janssen down in the box. Our Vincent took control of the ball and calmly put us 1-0 up from the spot.

In the second half, we started well, but a wayward header from Wanyama released Vardy, who managed to cross the ball for Musa to level the score.

We had opportunities to regain the lead, Janssen fired a free kick just over the angle and another shot narrowly passed a post. Vertonghen rattled the word work again and a shot in injury time had Schmeichel scrambling.

The 4th official had to resort to boards to deal with substitutions and injury time as his technology had failed him and the displayed 5 minutes soon evaporated.

Ratings

Lloris (6) - had very little to do, but became busier in the last 10-15 minutes as Leicester tried to grab the winner. His distribution was better today, although Leicester didn't press him with the same intensity as Man City had during our last home outing.

Rose (8) - was a constant thorn in Leicester's right flank. Defended resolutely, marked Mahrez out of the game. You can tell that our Danny has converted from a winger to a full back.

Vertonghen (7) - has developed a good partnership with Dier of late; had a couple of late chances to win the game. Unlucky with the header that crashed off the bar in the second half.

Dier (6) - a really steady performance from our Eric. In most cases he had the pace to cope with Vardy (and both he and Jan kept the England striker quiet). Slowly moved up the pitch as the game neared its end.

Walker (6) - another efficient performance from Kyle. He got forward a great deal, but allowed Musa to steal a march on him for Leicester's equaliser.

Wanyama (6) - another solid performance from Victor. One misplaced header directly lead to Leicester's equaliser. Made way for Winks.

Dembele (6) - was his usual self, with many a pirouette, drop of the shoulder and interception. Needs to be more direct in the final third.

Eriksen (5) - was anonymous for the majority of the match, offered us very little defensively and even less offensively (I almost gave him a 4).

Dele (6) - when he manages to find space, he is unplayable. The Park Lane end cross bar is probably still reverberating from his thunderous drive in the first half. Seemed to tire as the game entered its final stages. Made way for N'Koudou.

Son (6) - was his usual industrious self, but often turned into traffic.

Janssen (7) - I used the term 'indefatigable' in my last review and I am very rapidly running out of superlatives to describe the effort he puts in for the team. Took his penalty well (although I didn't see it in real time, as I can't watch our spot kicks - I guess it's one of my foibles?). Our Vincent showed enough to show the WHL faithful that we have a decent player, with bags of potential. His playing colleagues just need to support him more often and the goals from open play will come.

Subs:

N'Koudou (6) - came on for the tiring Dele. It was what the game needed, as his electric pace gave us an outlet on our left wing. It was George-Kevin's cross that led to Vertonghen's header against the bar.

Winks (5) - probed and tried to influence the game in the short time he was on the pitch.

Tactics/Summary:

It would appear that we were back to Pochettino's favoured 4-2-3-1 formation for the visit of the 'Champions'.

As the game progressed, it became obvious to us how pedestrian we've become in the final third. Indeed, a friend of mine encapsulated it beautifully, when he said that there appears to be a semi-circular force field in front of our opponents 18 yard box which we feel we need to get around?

It also looks as though Son and Eriksen have been instructed to come in field to enable our full backs to get forward. This is fine when Rose and Walker are within touching distance of the final third, but when we are breaking, we need to keep the play stretched.

I am also really concerned about the form of Eriksen. If fit, my 'go to' 3 behind the striker for the UCL and NLD games (in 4-2-3-1 formation) would be Son, Dele and Lamela. If playing 4-1-4-1, I would have Son, playing alongside Dembele, with Dele and Lamela filling the other two berths. I think our Christian needs some time on the bench to provide him with some focus?

With Janssen, he needs to play more on the half turn, as he seems to play with his back to goal (and invariably turns to the right onto his favoured left foot). He also needs those immediately behind him to get beyond him more often, to give opponents something different to deal with.

Defensively we are in a good place, as the back 5 or 6 provide an adequate screen. The unbeaten run is nice, but our inability to turn draws into victories are a chilling case of deja-vu on our experiences last year. The run will count for nought, if we lose pace with the front runners.

Offensively, we seem to have lost our creative spark. Let's hope Pochettino and the team can immediately do enough on the training pitch to rediscover it as a matter of some urgency!

It looks as if Kane and Alderweirald may/should be back for the NLD, which is great. However, we will need to show a little patience with Kane, especially if he fails to find the net in the first few games.

We seem to have developed so much reliance on Kane. I only hope our inability to sign one more striker, alongside Janssen during the summer does not come back to haunt us?

We now enter into one of the most difficult phases of the season. We need maximum points from our next ECL game and need to pick up victories in the Premier League. All I can say is that we will know how the remainder of our season will pan out come the beginning of December.

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