Just when Tottenham’s league season felt like it couldn’t get much worse…
A bleak afternoon at Goodison Park, where Everton inflicted a 3-2 defeat on Ange Postecoglou’s team, left Spurs mired in the bottom half of the table and piled more pressure on the Australian, whose position was already under scrutiny.
We analyse what went wrong for Spurs and where this leaves them.
Can Postecoglou really keep going like this?
Ange Postecoglou tried to change it up, but ended up in a worse mess than ever before at Spurs.
In a desperate bid to get Tottenham out of their tailspin and to cover for their many injuries, he attempted something radical — a back three system, with Archie Gray on the right of the back three. But was this Postecoglou bravely experimenting, or a final roll of the dice?
Because this was a defensively disastrous game from Tottenham, as bad as they have played throughout Postecoglou’s tenure. Of course you expect his teams to accept a degree of risk, leaving spaces that the opposition can exploit. But this was the worst Spurs have ever been under him.
Everton have desperately struggled to attack and score all season. They have often looked like they could play all day without threatening the goal. But today they looked like scoring every single time they got the ball. The first goal came from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had not scored since September, turning Gray inside out. The second from Iliman Ndiaye, running unopposed through the Spurs half, leaving Radu Dragusin embarrassed. The third was the worst of the lot, a cross flung into the box, never cleared, and eventually going in off Gray.
But even worse was the fact that every time Everton launched the ball over the top to Calvert-Lewin, they got straight through on goal. Antonin Kinsky had to make some good saves.
Everton’s confidence had been transformed because they were fortunate enough to play a Spurs team this bad. As Daniel Levy watched on, grim-faced in the directors’ box with fans once again protesting against his stewardship of the club, he may have shared the view of most observers that the scoreline should have been far worse than it was.
Daniel Levy looks stoney-faced as Spurs slump at Goodison Park (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Yes, there was a second-half comeback of sorts, and a finale that was more nervous for Everton than it should have been thanks to goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison. But it felt, overall, like a manager pulling a lever to change things but only making things worse.
The team was a tactical shambles, who would have lost by even more to most other teams in the league.
It felt like a team, or a project, coming to the end.
No Solanke is a big problem
Tottenham had yet another piece of awful injury luck in the build-up to this game, as Dominic Solanke felt his knee in training on Saturday, forcing him out of today’s game.
Solanke has, along with Kulusevski, carried Spurs’ attack all season. For months everyone knew it would be a disaster if he were to get injured. And this weekend that came to pass.
With Timo Werner, Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert also injured, that left Spurs desperately short of attacking options for this game. Postecoglou’s solution was to start Son Heung-Min through the middle as the number 9, a position he struggles with now, especially given his inability to hold the ball up.
Son Heung-Min struggled in a central role at Everton (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Kulusevski and James Maddison were deployed as inside forwards, neither of them able to provide the width Postecoglou normally wants from his wingers.
Spurs did work some good areas in the first half. Three times Son was put through into a position he would traditionally score from. But twice he shot straight at Jordan Pickford. Once he did not even get a shot off.
Son’s decline is part of the story of Spurs’ awful season. He cannot deliver in the way he always used to.
Postecoglou threw on Richarlison at half-time, back from a hamstring injury. He did at least give Spurs a focal point, and managed a late goal against his former club as the visitors desperately tried to save an unlikely point.
If Spurs had him all season they would not have had to work Solanke so hard. But their thin squad and lack of additions meant they were always at risk of days like this.
Kulusevski (again) is the shining light
It should be no surprise that the only piece of quality from Tottenham today, the one glimmer of light on such a dark day, came from the left boot of Kulusevski.
With 13 minutes left the loose ball came to Kulusevski. Pickford was out of position after racing out to challenge James Maddison. There was only a narrow path to goal, given James Tarkowski, Jake O’Brien, Orel Mangala and Jarrad Branthwaite were all standing in front of Kulusevski. But he found it with an artful chip, sending the ball up and over the defenders’ heads, back down and underneath the crossbar before Pickford could recover.
Dejan Kulusevski somehow chipped over four defenders and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford to score (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
It was a piece of genius and a reminder of how good Kulusevski is, how imaginative and technically precise. It deserved to take place in a better team performance than this. But this has been Kulusevski’s lot this season.
He has been brilliant in two different positions, easily Spurs’ player of the season. But it has achieved nothing for the team. Maybe the cups will offer a path to glory, but not if Spurs keep playing like this.
What next for Tottenham?
Thursday, January 23: Hoffenheim (away), Europa League, 5.45pm UK, 12.45pm ET
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(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images))
