Bruce’s bonus after
going back to basics
Ah, the glorious uncertainty of football;
part of its immense and endless charm,
so often the source of frustration.
This season was still very young when
we saw abundant evidence of all this. Not
least at Tottenham Hotspur, where Spurs
against all expectation found themselves
beaten by a Newcastle United side which
had lost its first two matches and had
deserved to.
The Sunday which would see
Newcastle rise from seeming disaster,
tightening in defence with five at the
back, a newspaper had criticised their
manager Steve Bruce for an allegedly
too open and attacking policy. “Go back
to basics defensively,” it urged, accusing
Bruce, not welcomed by the fans though
locally born as a successor to the much
appreciated Rafa Benitez, of adopting
too open a style.
Whether Bruce read and followed
this advice, who knows. The fact is that
at Tottenham his team was aligned with
five men at the back and produced only
a sporadic counter-attack, one of which
produced the decisive goal.
The goal, when it came, was the result
of an elaborate and impressive move.
Christian Atsu’s pass cut out no fewer
than three defenders, enabling the
£40million striker Joelinton to control the
ball elegantly, thus finding the space to
shoot inside the keeper Hugo Lloris’ near
post.
Spurs had already been given warning
when the home keeper had tipped a
drive by Sean Longstaff over the bar. It
is one of the oldest unwritten rules of
football that when a team doesn’t score
after dominating the play it will be in
danger from a sudden breakaway.
And Tottenham? Was Mauricio
Pochettino, their manager, wise to keep
Christian Eriksen, his salient playmaker,
on the bench for so much of the game?
Yes, the playmaker wanted to get away,but in the meantime leaving him out for
so long was surely Pochettino cutting off
his nose to spite his face.
“We can’t justify our performance, we
should play better,” admitted the Spurs
boss after the defeat. “Eighty per cent
of possession is too much in the Premier
League for so few shots on target.
“You need to create a very good
dynamic and a strong team bond at the
moment. That situation in our group is
still far, far away in that respect.”
No rescue came this time from VAR,
which Pochettino had eulogised in the
previous game when Spurs uneasily
prevailed to draw with Manchester City.
Should Spurs have had a penalty when
Harry Kane seemed to have been fouled
in the box not just once but twice in
succession? Pochettino wisely did not
labour the point.“Eighty per cent of possession is too
much in the Premier League for so
few shots on target”
Mauricio PochettinoTHE VOICE OF FOOTBALL
Brian
GLANVILLE
Criticised...
Steve BruceElegant...
Joelinton (in
orange)