A chaotic week for Tottenham Hotspur continued on Thursday afternoon, with Ange Postecoglou‘s aspect slipping to one more Premier League defeat after happening 1-0 to high-flyers Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day.
After an exciting set of outcomes towards each Manchester United and Liverpool during the last seven days – the latter of which resulted in a 6-3 defeat – the Lilywhites have been quite muted on the Metropolis Floor, as issues merely did not click on into gear in an attacking sense.
On the different finish, the north London aspect have been undone simply earlier than the half-hour mark as Morgan Gibbs-White’s threaded cross caught the returning Future Udogie napping, with former Manchester United man Anthony Elanga duly prodding house to take the guests into third in the table.
Having later seen one-time Forest loanee Djed Spence dismissed on the dying so as to add additional salt to the injuries, Spurs, in the meantime, now discover themselves languishing within the backside half following that newest defeat, to pile additional strain on that man Postecoglou.
Djed Spence’s Forest return
A part of the aspect Forest aspect that secured promotion from the Championship below Steve Cooper again within the 2021/22 season, Spence would have been hoping to take pleasure in a constructive return to Nottingham amid his current renaissance in a Spurs shirt.
Handed his third successive league start by Postecoglou – who opted to drop Pedro Porro to the bench instead of the aforementioned Udogie as a substitute – the 24-year-old was largely stable, in reality, for a lot of the affair, having supplied an outlet in assault after chalking up two key passes in complete, whereas finishing 100% of his dribbles.
On the again, the one-time Middlesbrough man additionally received 5 of his 9 floor duels and loved a decent 87% cross accuracy price, even regardless of squandering the ball on 19 events amid his want to make issues occur for his aspect.
As football.london’s Alasdair Gold famous in his post-match participant rankings, the defender’s late dismissal for a second yellow card got here following ‘one other in any other case stable show’, with it one thing of a blow that he’ll now miss the upcoming conflict with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Spence then was no actual villain regardless of that stoppage-time crimson, with the finger needing to be pointed elsewhere amongst his struggling teammates.
The Spurs star who was “terrible” vs Forest
The north Londoners had scored 12 objectives throughout their final three video games in all competitions heading into Thursday’s encounter, with few more likely to have anticipated that they’d hearth a clean this time round.
Performance in Numbers
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That mentioned, accidents have left Postecoglou largely in need of choices in an attacking sense, with the one senior attacker on the bench having been that of Timo Werner, outdoors of teenage marksman, Will Lankshear.
With Werner solely not too long ago copping flak from his supervisor following an “unacceptable” first-half performance towards Rangers, it’s no shock that the previous Celtic boss has saved religion in captain Heung-min Son on the left flank, albeit with questions needing to be requested relating to the South Korean’s limp showings.
|
Heung-min Son – PL stats (24/25) |
|
|---|---|
|
Video games |
15 |
|
Objectives |
5 |
|
Minutes per purpose |
230 |
|
Assists |
6 |
|
Massive probabilities missed |
4 |
|
Massive probabilities created |
12 |
|
Key passes* |
2.1 |
|
Move accuracy* |
85% |
|
Possession misplaced* |
10.2x |
|
Whole duels received* |
41% |
As GOAL journalist Mitch Fretton acknowledged, the long-serving winger was “absolutely awful again“, previous to being changed by Werner within the closing levels, having misplaced possession ten instances from his 52 touches.
In reality, the 32-year-old didn’t step up as Spurs sought to get themselves again into the sport, with the assault in complete manufacturing only a solitary huge probability in Nottingham.
It was for that motive that the aforementioned Gold awarded Son a dismal 3/10 match score for his troubles, whereas writing that the skilled determine put in ‘a largely hesitant and ineffective show’.
With seven goals and six assists to his title this season in all competitions, the talismanic ahead is definitely no busted flush, but questions stay for Postecoglou as to simply tips on how to get the very best out of his misfiring skipper.
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