Tottenham fell to a crushing and disappointing defeat at White Hart Lane at the hands of Aston Villa. Mauricio Pochettino’s men came out second best to Tim Sherwood’s side, who made his return to North London. So, what actually went wrong for the Lilywhites?
Well, where do I start? The performance was lacklustre, full stop. Too many passes failed to reach their intended targets, and what happened to the crossing? Or lack of it, should I say? There was always one needless pass that was made before the ball was delivered, and the ball was actually delivered into the box on very few occasions.
The pace of the game was very much dictated by Spurs, and for me, the pace of the game was far too slow, and the unwillingness to play a long ball forward was very frustrating to watch. It very much reminded me of the AVB days with the slow build-up play, which was also very frustrating to watch.
Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen failed to perform. Now, I am not saying that I have a problem with this, but the sign of a good team is when other players can step forward and perform when the best players don’t, and unfortunately, this isn’t something that happens at Tottenham Hotspur.
Everybody seemed to have an off-day (apart from Danny Rose), and that simply is not good enough. Harry Kane looked like the only man on the pitch that could make something special happen, and got a few shots on goal off. However, the rest of the players simply didn’t perform, and shows that we cannot become too reliant on the likes of Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane, because we have just seen what happens when we are.
For me, Mauricio Pochettino made his substitutions way too late in the game for them to have any impact. DeAndre Yedlin for Vlad Chiriches in the 79th minute was not the substitution to make at all from the Argentine coach. If you must make this change, it must be made at half-time or on the hour mark at the very latest. A right-back for right-back was not the right substitution eleven minutes from the end when you are chasing the game and searching for an equaliser.
Eleven minutes is not enough for a substitute to make an impact, it is as simple as that. Erik Lamela played a solid game, and so did Roberto Soldado, who was brought on in the 62nd minute.
Spurs must invest in squad depth during this summer transfer window. Looking at the bench from today, there wasn’t really anybody that could turn the game on its head for us, and that needs to be rectified ahead of next season.
