Leeds 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs limp to loss at Elland Road
· Yahoo Sports
A loss in an early match before an international break is Tottenham Hotspur heritage. That’s exactly what we got today at Elland Road — Spurs struggled with a robust Leeds United press, conceded a late second half goal to Noah Okafor, and managed very little going forward in 1-0 loss that snapped their three match winning streak and sent them to another long dark two weeks of the soul. Second half sub Conor Gallagher came as close as anyone to scoring with a low shot that flashed just wide of the post, and Jan Paul van Hecke had a back post header off a corner tipped away by James Trafford, and Spurs generated very little offense otherwise. The defense was solid for the most part but was under immense pressure in the second half, and Spurs were unable to capitalize on the other end. The final score was 1-0 to Leeds.
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A super aggravating match for a number of reasons. Here are my match reactions.
Match Reactions
- What a frustrating match.
- When the lineup was released we all assumed a midfield pivot of Tonali-Grey with Fernandes back in the 10 role, but at least early on it looked like instead Archie was pushed into the highest midfield position? I thought I needed my glasses adjusted.
- A small surprise on the bench as Luca Gunter is the backup keeper over Martin Dubravka. Not clear why, unless Dubravka has a knock, and also why Gunter got the nod over Brandon Austin.
- On the Fernandes early handball decision: yes, it went off his shoulder, not his arm. Moussa Sissoko vindicated.
- I am FLABBERGASTED that the foul on Tel was not only not given as a card but also that VAR didn’t see anything to overturn the call on the pitch. That was a clear red card and I’m absolutely gobsmacked that VAR didn’t give it after four minutes of review. And then Spurs get penalized more because Tel had to wait a minute before rejoining the pitch, with Leeds nearly scoring in the interim.
- Tottenham had a lot of trouble with Leeds’ press in the first half, especially early on. Mateus Fernandes in particular struggled in possession at times and either got caught out or nearly did so a number of times, but he settled down and was clearly the best player in the midfield until his sub.
- Archie’s also very clearly not a 10, or at least not a very good one, and that filtered down the midfield — Tonali mostly ran around chasing play in that one instead of linking with the attack, because there was no creative ten to link with.
- A real off-game today from Pedro Porro, who looked very rusty on the right flank.
- Omar Marmoush was just an absolute zero today at both striker and left wing. Gave us virtually nothing going forward.
- It’s kind of incredible how Mohammed Kudus can get into so many promising positions and then just make the absolute wrong decision every single time.
- Spurs were not good today, but the match officiating was absolutely scandalous. Not just the Tel non-decision, but there were numerous just flat-out bad calls today, most of which went against Spurs. Premier League officiating is broken.
- The team played bad, but I’m putting this loss mostly on De Zerbi for his substitutions. Taking of Fernandes for Bentancur just crushed any control we might have had in midfield, which put the defense under a lot more pressure, and there were no outlets for going forward. But it started with the injury to Tel — that was the time to take a chance on Williams-Barnett instead of Solanke, who was, again, useless.
- Spurs get a week off to lick their wounds and have two winnable matches ahead — home to Ipswich and at Sunderland. But there are no easy games in the Premier League.