In a nutshell
I've done the deep soul searching write up. Here's something more contained. The only type of stats that give me the wrong type of shivers.
Spurs 0 Leicester 1
21 shots (5 on target)
61% Possession
352 completed passes
16 Corners
No goals
Spurs 2 Leicester 2
24 shots (8 on target)
73% Possession
646 completed passes (I think this is correct, grabbed it from the Official site)
9 Corners
Two goals (one penalty)
That's 45 shots. Lions share of the ball. We're doing most of it right, getting into the final third, having a go. We can make it work with what we have but it's not clicking where it matters most: end product. So we need to change it up.
Consistency can lead to lethargic movement and ideas. Tired in mind and legs. Although I take nothing away from the visitors stealing in for the 1-0, they scored because of mistakes we made. It's an invitation they're not going to turn down. Teams can read us and set up accordingly. Although granted, LC rode their luck a touch (let's face it, on another day we'd have scored long before the 83rd minute). Their tactics worked.
Looking at the stats, that's a lot of hard grafting and endeavour and not a lot to show for it. I've already discussed in the previous blog about what we need to do. In a nutshell, we need to be far more concise and precise in and around the opposing pen box and not repeat the same wave of attack, reliant on the single spearhead. But we also need a healthy dollop of the unexpected.
Fix-it suggestions:
Second striker.
Dembele at number 10.
Alli in the middle next to Dier.
Son, a catalyst, involved from the start, providing something more direct.
I'd suggest Andros Townsend off the bench too, as he's something completely different to what we have on there. Love him or hate him, he'll run at defences and give us something less deliberately acute.
All obvious changes as we've experienced them before and they work. So hoping Pochettino freshens it up.
Not a lot is wrong but what there is remains problematic. It's an easy puzzle to solve. We've only got the one missing piece and we'll have to purchase that separately.
