Tottenham Hotspur: Dissecting Spurs’ loss against Newcastle
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00:00Hello and welcome back to Talking Tottenham with myself, Daniel, and my co-host here, James, from National World.
00:07Well, James, it was an interesting lunchtime kick-off against Newcastle United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, White Hart Lane, whatever you want to call it.
00:14Spurs certainly played probably the best they've played in a good few weeks, especially in that second half.
00:20You could argue that they were unlucky to come away with nothing in that game, but nothing again. That's the main point, isn't it?
00:27Spurs, once again, not picking up points.
00:31Yeah, I mean, I was as frustrated as I've been in a long time from Saturday's game, not from the performance.
00:38You know, I thought we were absolutely outstanding in the second half, considering the circumstances.
00:43You know, so many injuries, illness sweeping through the camp.
00:46I mean, we had to lose Rado Dragos in at half-time because he just couldn't keep going.
00:50Archie Gray had been on his sickbed all that morning, I understand.
00:53And, you know, he got out and played a terrific match.
00:56And, you know, to end the game with, you know, Jed Spence at centre-back, Archie Gray midfielder, who's 18, at the heart of the defence as well,
01:03and Sergio Reguilon, who's, you know, had one foot out the exit door for about three years at Spurs.
01:08He barely kicked a ball.
01:10You know, the performance, you know, hats off to the players.
01:12It was a terrific performance.
01:14I think it shows we're still with the manager, you know, we're really playing for him.
01:18And, you know, on another day, I think, as you said, after the game, you know, all things being equal, we were well worth the draw on the day.
01:25I mean, very, very contentious equaliser, in my opinion.
01:29You know, albeit, as we said, you know, second half, we pushed on, we pressed, had lots of energy and intensity in our play,
01:36had a couple of really good chances, Ben and Johnson at the post, Maddison, inches wide when he came on, but we didn't really create.
01:43Lots and lots of clear-cut chances we were, as I could knock in the door down in terms of Dubravkin making a lot of saves.
01:48But, you know, as you say, good performance.
01:52But, you know, the bare facts are that's 10 defeats in the league this season, and that's, you know, simply not good enough.
01:57No, it's really not.
01:59And, I mean, we've spoken before about sort of Andrew Postacoglou's naivety, perhaps, in terms of his management style.
02:05But I think, to be honest, when you had such issues with the squad in terms of availability at the weekend,
02:11I think, actually, going forward, it was probably the only way you could have got something against the Newcastle side, who are flying at the moment.
02:17Yeah, and I think it showed in the second half.
02:20You know, the system works when we're fully charged and we're fully energised, and when we play the way that Andrew Postacoglou wants us to play, we get the press on.
02:27You know, like I say, Jed Spence and Archie Gray, the makeshift centre-back pairing in the second half, we're regular on that left back.
02:33And, you know, really, Newcastle barely had a sniff, to be honest with you.
02:36One chance for Gordon, obviously, that he smashed over the top.
02:39Should have done better, really.
02:40Perhaps that would have put the game out of sight.
02:42But apart from that, I mean, Jed Spence, you know, he's becoming a bit of an unsung hero.
02:46He's filling in at left back.
02:48He's obviously had his chance rationed, really, at right back.
02:51And then at centre-back, he was terrific.
02:54And Archie Gray just continues to put in, you know, solid performance after solid performance.
02:59So, you know, again, shows that the system can work, you know, when we do get the personnel back.
03:04I think it was almost maybe a bit of a turning point, perhaps a bit of a watershed moment to all the players and the fans.
03:10You know, we've had a big malaise recently.
03:13The performances haven't been brilliant.
03:15We've played in spells and the results are obviously certainly not there.
03:19But, you know, as I say, that performance almost can be the blueprint now to get us back and almost make us turn the corner.
03:26You know, hopefully a couple of players are on the way back soon.
03:29We're with Charleston and Mikey Moore.
03:31Van de Ven, Romero, not a million miles away, I think.
03:34And hopefully we're going to make some early moves in the transfer market.
03:36Is the worry for Spurs is that as good as you were in the second half and as good as you actually started the game as well,
03:42there was that period sort of in the middle of the second half to right to the end of it where Newcastle did completely take charge.
03:48And ultimately, that's what's won the match for them.
03:51And it was sort of Spurs' own downfall in the sense that obviously we've mentioned the handball,
03:56but it comes from sort of Spurs giving the ball away cheaply at the edge of the box.
04:00And then the second goal, of course, Izak's.
04:03It's a lack of marking right in the middle of the in front of goal as well,
04:06where Murphy plays a pretty average ball across goal and Izak's completely unmarked in the middle.
04:14Yeah, I think Radu Djurgisim was a little bit unlucky for that one.
04:16He got a turn to it, didn't he?
04:18And it sort of deflected onto Izak, who didn't really know a huge amount about it.
04:22But yeah, the first goal, you're absolutely right.
04:24Again, we get in front, good start, great goal from Solanki, brilliant cross from Poro.
04:29He had actually one of his best games of the season.
04:31I think Poro, he was terrific, especially in that second half.
04:35But again, yeah, a little bit of naivety.
04:38It was a poor pass from Sarr in the first place into Bergwald, who was on the stretch.
04:41And obviously then he sort of tried to flick it out wide and it deflected off Joe Linton's hand.
04:46But again, a little bit like we spoke about previously, it's that game management.
04:50You know, we're in front.
04:52Let's go for the second goal.
04:53But, you know, let's have full concentration if we are playing out.
04:56Let's make sure we're playing through, assured in that passing and not taking any unnecessary risks.
05:01And we did again and got punished, albeit a slightly controversial one.