There was a certain irony in the fact that Ange Postecoglou gave his Tottenham players four days off to rest and recuperate and jet off around the world during their 12-day mini winter break, but they looked anything but fresh at the time against Manchester City.
Spurs have mustered plenty of stamina from their deep reserves in recent months when they have been in an injury crisis, but they had to muster belief against a City team they simply showed too much respect for.
Postecoglou pointed out after the game that Pep Guardiola’s team was eight years in the making, while his team is only six months old. Despite this, the Australian version of Tottenham rarely disregards the status of the opponent.
On Friday night, they showed too much of the fear that Postecoglou has worked so hard to eradicate since he walked through the door. City managed to show why they are Premier League champions and FA Cup holders. They had 57% of possession and made 528 passes compared to Spurs’ 385, the reverse of the numbers Spurs make most weeks.
The visitors had 18 shots on goal, five of them on target, while Tottenham had just one shot in the entire 95 minutes, when Brennan Johnson fired a running shot into the chest of Stefan Ortega.
The team from North London defended well, leaving Guglielmo Vicario with only four defences to defend, only two of which tested him properly. In the end, the Italian, who has been so good this season, contributed his share to City’s winning goal when he took a poor shot under pressure into the back of the excellent Micky van de Ven, allowing Nathan Ake to tap in the loose ball.
It was City’s first goal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, their first away goal against Spurs in five years, two months and 29 days since Riyad Mahrez scored at Wembley in 2018.
Guardiola’s team needed more than 100 goals at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since its opening in 2019 to finally end that futile streak in disgrace.
Spurs could be praised for keeping City out until the final moments of the game, but Ryan Mason, who is now on the bench for Postecoglou, did not receive such applause because he did the same when he was in charge at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final against a Manchester team in 2021 when he was in the role of coach. Back then, after dominating the encounter, Guardiola’s team scored a goal in the 82nd minute from defender Aymeric Laporte.
This time, despite all City’s attacking riches, another central defender scored the decisive goal six minutes later. However, Postecoglou said it all after the game as it was impossible to say to the Australian: “Lucky you, you who got away with it”.
Yes, City has grown up under Guardiola and Postecoglou’s Tottenham is relatively newborn, but that doesn’t mean his Spurs shouldn’t be brave and take risks, which he expects as a minimum requirement of his teams.
At the Etihad Stadium a few months ago, Spurs stepped up with more belief after a goalless first half and scored three goals. They might even have snatched an improbable victory at the end of that evening.
However, on their home pitch, when it came to going forward, everything Postecoglou had built up to that point was missing.
Football.london asked the Tottenham manager why his team was so disappointing in attack – was it the quality of the opposition or were the players just struggling to get it together?
“I think it was a bit of both. This is a top team. They are the benchmark. We are not there yet and we are under no illusions about that,” he said. “I thought the whole second half was okay, but in the first half we were too passive in a lot of ways and we let them get a rhythm in their game.
“That’s not what we would have wanted against them. It’s very difficult to stop that in the middle of the game. I thought we started the second half better, with a bit more conviction about our game, but in the end we just tried to stay in the game and that won’t be enough today.”
He added: “In the first 45 minutes it was just about believing and being more confident. You know, once they get into a rhythm, like I said, it’s very hard to get it out of them.
I think we managed to do that in the second half, we created some good moments in the first 15 to 20 minutes.
“I think we defended well. It didn’t look like Vic had to make a million defences or that they created a lot against us. So it’s disappointing to concede the superiority so late, but as I said, that’s not what we’re aiming for.
“We tried hard enough but it seemed we were just working flat out to stay in the game rather than beat them.”
This was Tottenham Hotspur, but more as we used to know it than the version created by Postecoglou.
A loose attack and a dumb midfield:
If there was one player Manchester City really feared at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it would have been Son Heung-min, so knowing that the South Korean was thousands of miles away at the Asian Cup, we would have had a lot less to fear.
Son has scored 12 goals (eight goals and four assists) in 17 Premier League and Champions League appearances against City and every time he runs at them, their defenders worry.
That’s why Tottenham and Postecoglou felt the 31-year-old’s absence keenly on Friday night and those who stayed behind were unable to muster much attacking threat.
In an ideal world, the Spurs boss would have liked to have been able to bring the recovered James Maddison into the game from the start to lift the team and the crowd, as the unexpected return of Rodrigo Bentancur did on New Year’s Eve against Bournemouth.
Unfortunately, the England international was not ready for a game with such pace and ferocity, when City put too much pressure on the midfielder, which was evident when he only touched the ball six times with about 20 minutes to go.
Tottenham’s attack was not in line with its strengths. Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson had pace to burn, but neither really attacked City’s defence, both turning inside too many times and playing simple passes into the middle of the park.
Once they combined, Werner was a little too quick to pass into Johnson’s action, resulting in Spurs’ only shot on goal as Ortega rushed to smother the Welsh international’s attempt.
Werner can be forgiven for not yet understanding Postecoglou’s system, although to his credit he kept trying to run in behind the City defence, but none of his teammates were switched on enough to play the ball so quickly.
Johnson is lacking confidence at the moment, apart from one nice second-half turnover, and the return of Son and Maddison to the starting line-up could end up with both players having to come off the bench as Dejan Kuleshevski makes his way into the top three.
That could suit both wideouts to some extent, as their pace is a dangerous weapon against tiring defences, but both need to show much more than they did on Friday night if they want to start games regularly.
Unable to link up with the full-backs, both were muted in their attacking efforts by the work they had to do trying to silence City’s star-studded line-up – with a bench that looked like the Premier League’s best starting line-up in its own right.
Kulusevski, at least, was effective in the deeper role he enjoys. The Swede failed to make a single key pass and only 67.7 of his 31 attempted passes found their target. Of all the starting players on the field, it is worth noting that his failure in this area and, equally important, Pedro Porro’s 61.8% were the worst figures on the field.
Both players were expected to pull off even one key pass with their creativity.
That said, Richarlison worked hard but fed on crumbs and his 28 touches of the ball were exceeded only by Johnson (22) of all players on the pitch on the night.
The middle of the pitch didn’t help the attacking trio either. Bentancur was not decisive enough, still looking for his sharpness after a year with so little playing time. Even his usually reliable passing radar was worse with a 72.7 percent success rate, and although he still managed one offensive rebound, one steal, three clearances and blocked two City shots, the Spurs needed him to give them more when running the court.
Pierre Emile Hojbjerg intends to LEAVE Tottenham:
Ange Postecoglou would be disappointed, as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg reportedly wants to leave Tottenham Hotspur before the end of the January transfer window.
This was recently reported by Graeme Bailey, who claims that the Danish international is looking for new challenges.
Interest in the 29-year-old has increased in recent months and Juventus have been strongly linked with his transfer.
However, Spurs have so far been unable to agree a deal and have continued to keep hold of the hard-working centre-forward. This could change before the end of the transfer window if a team reaches the Londoners’ valuation.
According to Bailey, there is little desire to keep the former Bayern Munich central midfielder for much longer.
With his contract only due to expire in 18 months’ time, and an extension seeming incredibly unlikely, it’s understandable why Daniel Levy is so keen to secure a transfer fee, either this month or at the end of the season.
Hojbjerg, who has won 73 international caps in four years at Tottenham Hotspur, has directly contributed 26 goals in 167 games in all competitions.