IT’S SOMETHING that is starting to become a real problem for Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs. A lack of intensity and a lack of creativity.
They were fortunate to get a point at City last week and they made hard work of beating Aston Villa after going 1-0 down.
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And it’s down to the fact they didn’t create enough – and it was exactly the same against Newcastle.
Everything was at a slow pace. Every pass was slow and every cross was slow. There was no pace to their game whatsoever.
Harry Kane had to keep coming deep, and when they finally got a chance they fluffed their lines.
Why on earth would you leave out your best two players, other than Kane, in Christian Eriksen and Jan Vertonghen.
Without Eriksen in the team there is definitely a lack of creativity.
Pochettino has a big decision to make – either getting cash for him in this window or letting him go for nothing. But right now they just cannot afford to let him go.
Tottenham are in need of a fully-firing Eriksen from the first whistle in every game to get their season up and running.
Yes, Dele Alli will be coming back from injury soon, and Pochettino’s plan of bringing Eriksen on in the second half worked against Villa.
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But this time it just didn’t – they didn’t create enough.
For Newcastle, it was a huge win – a complete contrast to what we saw last week against Norwich.
We saw a team that was very well organised and their 5-4-1 set-up worked to perfection. They had everything in that performance.
Grit, determination, togetherness and a system they look to be enjoying. They made it very difficult for Tottenham and they deserved that magnificent win.
I hope there’s more of that to come in the following weeks. Not many gave Newcastle a chance so to go to Tottenham and perform in the way they did is a great credit to the players, Steve Bruce and his staff.
You can’t judge someone like Bruce after two or three games, it’s ludicrous. There’s been a lot written about him and he’s had to defend himself.
But when you lose like they did last week you have to respond, and that was the perfect response – his players did the talking on the pitch.
They looked compact, tight and worked their socks off.
It could have been different had Tottenham been awarded a penalty late on for Lascelles’ challenge on Kane.
But with the amount of people disagreeing on whether Mike Dean was right to wave it away, that tells you it was not a clear and obvious error.
I actually thought at match speed it was a penalty but slowed down I changed my mind.
If the ref had given it I couldn’t have complained but no way was it a clear and obvious mistake that should have led to him changing his mind.
