| S |
|
51% |
| P |
|
58.33% |
| U |
|
46% |
| R |
|
48.33% |
| S |
|
37.16% |
| = |
|
48.16% |
P W D L F-A GD Pts
6 3 0 3 7-8 -1 6
Position:-
7th
3 Cup matches
Antonio Conte
| Team Selection |
5.26 |
| Tactics |
5.23 |
| Substitutions |
6.15 |
| Overall |
5.55 |
· Last month's figures - December 2021 figures
· Last Year's figures
January 2021
January - good or bad for Spurs health?
Following Spurs on social media (Twitter in particular) was painful for virtually all of the month of January. At the start of the month some optimists thought we would sign Dusan Vlahovic from Fiorentina and Luis Diaz from Porto. Vlahovic went to Juventus, and after Spurs managed to negotiate the price of Diaz down to “Levy levels”, Liverpool hijacked our deal, and the player expressed a desire to play for a team competing for this year’s Champions League and of course one of the hot favourites to be playing on that level next season. Liverpool are still (just) in the hunt for this season’s Premier League title.
Why, Spurs were even turned down by 19-year-old Ollie Tanner, who plays for non-league Lewes. Tanner is a one-time Arsenal academy player, and perhaps thought (wisely) that his own social media abuse of Harry Kane two years ago, along with his Arsenal antecedents would make a career at Tottenham a no-go affair.
Only on transfer deadline day did Spurs finally confirm the acquisitions of two players, both from Juventus. Left-footed attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski has been signed on an 18-month loan deal that should turn into a purchase in the summer of 2023. “Kulu” is a 21-year-old Swedish International who can play anywhere across the midfield behind Harry Kane. He is apparently a player who was coveted by Antonio Conte when at Inter. Kulusevski will wear the number 21 shirt.
Rodrigo Bentancur is a 24-year-old Uruguayan International, currently busy in South America who will compete with Hojbjerg, Skipp and Winks for one of those two defensive midfield positions. Rodrigo will wear the number 30 shirt. Whether “Spurs Twitterverse” will be satisfied with our two acquisitions remains to be seen.
Conte’s influence can easily be seen in the departures of Ndombele, Lo Celso and Gil (all on loan) to Lyon, Villarreal and Valencia respectively. Tanguy Ndombele might have played his last game against Morecambe when he was booed off the pitch at a time when Spurs were losing, and he trudged slowly to the touchline.
The most emotional farewell we have to say is to Dele Alli, who has been snapped up (for free initially) by Frank Lampard on his first day in charge at Everton. Depending on appearances and achievements, Spurs could eventually make a profit on the £5 million they paid for an exuberant 19-year-old in 2015. Dele quickly won the affections of our fanbase, and great memories come to mind of his debut goal at Leicester – "Alli stings, but Mahrez bites back", a classic goal at Selhurst Park, and two goals at Stamford Bridge in our historic 2018 away win. Whilst wishing Dele the very best for his future, we must hope he doesn’t bite us back when Everton come to Tottenham on 7th March. There is a Spurs Odyssey tribute to Dele here.
The outward loan of Bryan Gil, who was only signed in August is something of a mystery, but he has yet to have an impact, and we must hope that more time playing in La Liga will help his development. Bryan came to us in August from Sevilla in a deal which took Erik Lamela (plus some of our cash) the other way. Incidentally, Erik’s audacious rabona goal against Arsenal last March (in a game we lost) won the FIFA Puskas award, which recognises the best goal in world football during the year. After Son’s award for his end to end run and goal against Burnley in 2020, that was the second consecutive season for a Spurs player to win that award.
Another disappointment for some was the departure of Dilan Markanday for a fee reported at £500,000 to Blackburn. Dilan had scored 12 goals (from midfield) for our Under-23 side this season and was thought to be a good prospect. Clearly, the very experienced Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray thought the same. He quickly gave Markanday a debut, but the player sadly suffered an injury that is going to keep him out for a while.
Jack Clarke, for whom we paid Leeds good money over two years ago has been loaned to Sunderland. Other young players loaned out in January were Kion Etete (Cheltenham) and Nile John (Charlton).
Regarding the football in January, Chelsea were certainly not good for our health as they beat us three times. Two of those defeats ended our chances of a Carabao Cup Final. The other dented our hopes of a top four place. We haven’t even managed to score against Chelsea in five attempts in a competitive game. The last Spurs player to score against Chelsea (in a competitive game) was Erik Lamela in the League Cup in September 2020.
Arsenal cried off their scheduled match at The Lane. They had many absentees, but only one due to Covid. That has led to a change in the Premier League rules which means that a team must have a minimum of four players absent due to Covid before a game can be postponed. Like Spurs, Arsenal also lost their Carabao Cup semi-final – against Liverpool.
Hugo Lloris signed a new contract which lasts until June 2024. Hugo has now made 396 appearances for Spurs and with another 10 appearances will reach the all-time top ten of Spurs players in terms of appearances. Two of those above him were goalkeepers - Pat Jennings (590) and Ted Ditchburn (452). Once again Hugo was our Spurs player of the month. Honourable mentions go to Harry Kane and Eric Dier this month, but Eric only played in the first and last games of the month. Hugo still leads the accumulating Spurs Odyssey player of the season vote.
It is easy to see which players have won the favour of our manager. Ben Davies started every game this month and has played 90 minutes of every one of his last 11 games for Spurs in all competitions. Harry Winks (4+2), Harry Kane (5+1), Lucas Moura (4+2) and Oliver Skipp (3+3) played in every game in January. Against Morecambe, Winks scored his first goa since last January, which was also in an FA Cup game. Harry Kane scored his 250th club goal (234 for Spurs) against Leicester. It was also his 18th goal in 17 appearances against Leicester.
Our three wins this month were an added time (96th minute) win at Watford, the win against Morecambe which required the big guns to rescue a losing situation, and the sensational 3-2 win at Leicester when Steven Bergwijn’s equaliser and winner came in the space of 80 seconds at the end of added time.
Eric Dier played in only the first and last games of the month due to injury. We’ve been without Romero since 7th November and Son since 5th January. Bergwijn’s appearance at Leicester was his first of the month and he scored his first Premier League goas since last May.
With our games in hand, we are well-placed mathematically to win a top four place, but our six scheduled games in February include a trip to The Etihad. (Our postponed away game against Burnley has now been fixed for 23rd February) It has been strange to have this International break, but the action begins again on Saturday with a home FA Cup tie against Brighton. Let’s hope we can report in a positive fashion at the end of February.
· Review the 2021-22 Premier League season here
...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review performances over the last 21 years!
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