Battling Display at Everton Shows Spurs Can Overcome Title Collapse

After Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 draw with Everton on the opening day of the season, Mauricio Pochettino admitted that his players had “played badly” in the first half and “showed a lack of energy”, so felt he had to have strong words at half-time. “I was tough with the players at half-time.” 

It’s possible that the manager’s reaction might have been something of a spill-over from last season, given that the Argentine admitted he wanted to “kill” the players after the 5-1 defeat to Newcastle United but never got the proper chance to have words due to Euro 2016, but then the wonder is also whether that first half was something of a spill-over from last season too. 

Because, for all the intrigue at the other leading clubs, Tottenham almost post the most interesting questions in terms of the basic progress of a football team and how they respond. Pochettino’s side may have stayed the most stable given the extreme changes elsewhere, but that team also went through the wildest extremes at the end of last season. 

Having surged into a title challenge with impressively relentless run of form that put it right up to Leicester, they ran out of steam in a 1-1 draw with West Brom before combusting against Chelsea and then collapsing against Newcastle. The key question was what would tell more in the evolution of a young team. 

Would they be emboldened by the improvement that put them into the title race, or scarred by how it ended? Even beyond the mental recovery, though, there was also the physical recovery. That was complicated by Euro 2016, where Spurs were almost victims of their own success with the amount of players they had in France. This has greatly affected pre-season and Pochettino’s famed physical conditioning. 

That is also why, in terms of finally offering answers to the questions, this match was still a little complicated. Spurs still looked jaded in that first half, with Harry Kane almost summing it up. They were just so lax, but a few figures emphasise that. Last season, Spurs made an average of 17 interceptions a game, 21.1 tackles and won possession in the midfield third 27.3 times per league match. Against Everton, they fell to 15, 18 and 11, respectively. 

They were just lacking in snap, in intensity. Kane meanwhile lacked sharpness. He had 6 unsuccessful touches, having averaged 1.8 last season. “I'm probably still not 100%,” Kane admitted after the game. “I had one pre-season game and today. We are training hard and I am sure it will not be long before we are fully match fit.” 

The positive, however, is that new signing Vincent Janssen does look fully fit and seemingly injected so much of that energy into the team when he came on after 56 minutes. The transformation was marked. Most obviously, Spurs went from four shots in 56 minutes, to nine in 34, as they just peppered the Everton goal. Janssen evidently introduced more aggression, too, since he committed four of their six fouls. 

That evidently rubbed off on Erik Lamela, who scored such a forceful header just three minutes after Janssen came on, showing impressive desire and abrasiveness to get into the box in the way he did. The transformation perhaps reflects how some of Spurs’ hangover was mental, given how much sharper they looked. They had that energy again, and the fact they battered Everton back so assertively towards the end of the game maybe shows the effect of Pochettino’s conditioning. 

They just need more players - and especially Kane - to get back to speed. Once that’s the case, Tottenham shouldn’t have too much trouble with responding to last season’s collapse, as this game illustrated. They should be capable of playing with the same intensity, same pressing. They responded very well, after all, to what happened in the first half at Goodison Park.

Can Spurs return to winning ways in the league against Crystal Palace this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below