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Tottenham Hotspur, Harry Kane (Photo by Nikolay Doychinov / Getty Images)
Tottenham Hotspur overcame a late deficit to advance into the Europa League, qualifying 2-1 over Lokomotiv Plovdiv, thanks mainly to Tanguy Ndombele and some silly mistakes from Plovdiv.
Tottenham Hotspur were poor against Everton at the weekend, leaving their coach questioning his fitness and desire. On Thursday in Bulgaria, anyone who watched would have had a hard time questioning Spurs’ desire on the field, as there was little doubt about the effort shown.
While the effort that wasn’t present at Everton was in Plovdiv, the team’s overall play was not great, but it was good enough thanks to the introduction of Tanguy Ndombele and a couple of red cards from Plovdiv for stupidity.
So what happened in Bulgaria for the Spurs to advance?
Tottenham problems
It’s hard to question José Mourinho and we know he prefers a 4-2-3-1 lineup, however starting the game with two midfielders was too conservative an approach. In our projected XI, we recommend a 4-1-4-1 lineup as just one defensive midfielder would suffice, especially if that midfielder is Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Instead, Jose decided to use two containment midfielders in Moussa Sissoko and Hojbjerg. While the combination kept Lokomotiv’s lethal attack at bay, the pair did little to move the ball forward and are two slows recycling the attack to play together.
Maybe it was the pitch or the temperature or something like that, but there were several Spurs who just didn’t have contact today. There were at least two or three balls that went into both Sissoko and Heung-min Son, where instead of controlling them, the ball appeared and became a 50/50 that it never should have been.
While they weren’t the only players who struggled with their first touch, they were probably the most egregious and obvious. That is something he can get away with in Bulgaria, but not in England and he needs to improve. Poor first touches contributed to the collapse and multiple potential attacks tonight and simply need to be improved.
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