At the end of August, Tottenham were stationed at the top of the Premier League table after winning their opening three matches without conceding a goal. Arsenal, meanwhile, were bottom.
Fast forward a few short weeks and Spurs have slipped below their local rivals in the standings following a calamitous run of London derby defeats against Crystal Palace, Chelsea and now Arsenal themselves. The combined scoreline of those three matches reads Tottenham 1-9 opposition.
Tottenham fans were never enamoured by Nuno Espirito Santo’s appointment and it is easy to understand why given Daniel Levy and new managing director Fabio Paratici had set their sights on luring a big-name coach to north London. Antonio Conte was approached, as was Mauricio Pochettino and countless others, before eventually, Nuno was hired and a 72-day wait to find Jose Mourinho’s successor was over.
Nuno is a competent manager and as the people of Wolverhampton will attest, a warm man who invests his time and energy into the community that he represents, but he is not the box office coach that Levy or Spurs supporters craved. It wasn’t just his profile that put Spurs fans off either; his style of play with Wolves seemed ill-fitting for a club that has, the failed Mourinho experiment aside, generally sought to play on the front foot.
Addressing fans in May, Levy said: “We are acutely aware of the need to select someone whose values reflect those of our great Club and return to playing football with the style for which we are known – free-flowing, attacking and entertaining – whilst continuing to embrace our desire to see young players flourish from our academy alongside experienced talent.”
There was little evidence from Nuno’s four-year spell at Wolves to suggest that he would provide the free-flowing, attacking and entertaining football that Levy was supposedly after. It was even reported that part of the reason for Nuno’s downfall at Molineux was due to the board’s desire to see a more entertaining brand of football.
It would be churlish to suggest Nuno didn’t do an excellent job with his former club. During their three seasons in the top-flight with Nuno at the helm, Wolves were renowned for being well organised, tough to break down and a threat on the counter. Unfortunately for Nuno, none of those qualities currently apply to this Spurs side.
The statistics make for grim reading for Nuno. Spurs are 19th in the Premier League for chances created – and will drop to 20th if Crystal Palace create more than three against Brighton on Monday – and have been outscored by 16 teams in the division. At the other end, only Leeds and Newcastle have allowed more shots on their goal and Spurs have conceded three more goals than any other side over the last three gameweeks.
They aren’t any better to the naked eye either. Nuno’s Spurs badly lack identity, desire, shape, togetherness and any sort of coherent strategy. The first half performance against Arsenal was as bad a 45 minutes that Spurs have put together in the Premier League era, which considering some of the dross that was served up during the 90s and early 2000s is some statement. Spurs were second to every ball, had a yawning chasm where the midfield was supposed to be and the players looked as though they had never played alongside each other before.
When asked what went wrong, Nuno responded: “I decided bad[ly]. I didn’t make the right decisions. I refuse to go much further than that but it’s my responsibility.”
Not all of this is Nuno’s doing. Tottenham have been on the slide for a long time now, arguably even before reaching the 2019 Champions League final, a feat that feels as though it happened in another decade rather than in the last couple of years. Arguably the last good football-related decision Levy made back in 2014 when he appointed Pochettino.
The players are not blameless either, having allowed the club to slip aimlessly over the past two and a bit seasons. Perhaps only Hugo Lloris, Son Heung-min and at a push, Sergio Reguilon, can emerge from the opening weeks of the campaign with any credit. Bryan Gil and Oliver Skipp at least offered hope for the future in the second half of the Emirates.
But Nuno is most certainly contributing towards this sorry mess. His game plan, as he acknowledged himself, was non-existent, the team selection was muddled and his in-game response was ineffective.
Tottenham may possess the best stadium in the country but they have a team that is rapidly sleepwalking towards mid-table mediocrity. And Nuno looks powerless to stop the slide.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3AJTKTa
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