because it leads to misery.
We all knew it wasn’t good, even with the three wins and Spurs atop the league but what’s followed, culminating in the most abject performance in the NDL, to sink into the bottom half, is a shocker.
Abject. Clueless. Spineless. Many more words.
Three league games since going top. Three defeats. Three goals conceded in each one. Yeah, we all knew Nuno getting manager of the month in August was a kiss of death but this is beyond our wildest imagination. not just the final scorelines but the ease with which those scorelines came.
A team that doesn’t look the remotest bit interested, just nine games into Nuno’s tenure. They’ve looked bothered for one ECL game, part of a half of a league cup game, and in the league, well, the opener against City the first half against Chelsea and the second half against ARSEnal.
The easy with which Arsenal went through Spurs in that first half was beyond belief. You would have thought after the previous outing, against Chelsea, there’d be more of that first half but no it was more the Palace. Unbelievable.
Yup, looks like I got that starting XI lineup image wrong in the Chelsea post. Dele and Ndombele showed a real lack of giving a stuff tracking back. I know I said you don’t want the latter actually doing that but strangely in the previous games some of Dele’s best work has been getting back and doing a bit of work. Of course I added an extra defender in that lineup, which might have helped.
No it was a back four and one that had looked reasonably solid in parts of the earlier games, here were just full of gaping holes. Hojbjerg wasn’t exactly helping either with the opener, after just 12 minutes, just meandering back to the edge of box, as a simple cross found the scorer – weird looking creature – all alone in the box.
The second didn’t take much longer to come and highlighted something else Spurs had to contend with. Inept officiating. The ref just basically letting Xhaka away with everything. Their goalkeeper played him into trouble, as Hojbjerg got between him and the ball on the edge of their area, Xhaka kneed him up the arse – of course glossed over by the media – which got him the ball back. Three passes later and it’s past Hugo.
The third started on the edge of their box as well. As Kane did his best Bob Mortimer impersonation – “I’ve fallen” – tumbling over on the ball, three passes later and they were in Spurs’ box. Finally a challenge went in, it was Kane but he just ended up blocking the fourth pass back to Sake who scored the third.
Nuno at least made changes at half-time, Tanganga and Dele making way for Skipp and Emerson. The former made a difference to that midfield, actual tackles were made. The latter looked better going forward. It took 25 minutes for Ndombele to depart for Bryan Gil, who added more life to Spurs in the final third. He fought for the ball, which he knocked on to Reguilon who crossed, probably for Kane, which Son knocked in for the consolation.
The thing for the home fans who were, of course, ecstatic, I don’t know if they should be. Yes you stuffed us in that first half. All over an abject team that didn’t turn up. But could have easily lost that game. By the time of the consolation, Kane should have score at least two, and had a penalty.
A header just went past the post, while he was through on the keeper and seemingly half arsed an attempt he would have buried in previous encounters against this lot. The penalty came when White caught him just inside the area. It’s a stonewaller – again mainly glossed over by the media – and the type of inept on field decision that VAR was supposed to eradicate. A clear and obvious error.
Moura, who did a lot of running inside and passing backward or sideways – had a late attempt that the keeper just tipped over the bar. Honestly, this shambles, could have come away with the three points.
But it’s a result which at least keeps their manager in place – this’ll be the season highlight – while piling the pressure on Nuno. It wasn’t a good day for him. He looked lost on the touchline. Post match he said there was a plan. Now either the players ignored the plan or the plan was possibly something even worse than Joseball. If that was the plan it was a couple of passes, then lump it forward, while not attempting to win the second ball. It didn’t quite appear to be the defensive tactics that Fabio Paratici apparently wanted. While non of the summer signings, or indeed Skipp, the player who was going to be given a pivotal role, started.
The plus and difference from Jose was the way Nuno conducted himself in the post match interviews, no picking out players – who probably deserved to be picked out but it never helps – but where does it really leave him? You can’t say it’s one game, when it’s been most of the games. Yes there’s reasons, though Nuno to his credit isn’t making excuses, with the international break fiasco, the Kane fiasco, and of course Levy.
What did Levy want from the manager? At Valencia they wanted attractive football and Champions League, he got them that. At Wolves they wanted promotion to the Premier League and stability once there, the style of football was unimportant, he got them that. Levy says he wants attractive football. Paratici wants defensive. We’re not getting either.
The stats are shocking. Spurs ranking bottom of the league in shots, chances from open play and distance covered, while second bottom for shots faced.
A two year deal looks like just a typical Levy cheap stopgap and Nuno looks lost…