Spurs are doing well? No I mean the women’s team 👇🏾
The Arsenal Women’s team have been this season’s Women’s Super League darlings, currently topping the table a point ahead of their rivals Chelsea and very much the betting favourites to win the title.
With so much praise being showered upon Jonas Eidevall’s players, you’d be forgiven for not noticing that their North London neighbours, Tottenham Hotspur, too have been paving a route to success.
From a lackluster eighth-place finish last year to third place this season in the current standings, Spurs’ transformation to a fiercer-looking side than their 2019–20 outfit, has been a privilege to watch.
It was last season’s campaign, under the dual-management of Juan Amaros and Karen Hill, that their journey began. The team looked forlorn, fatigued and fairly unclear of their own tactical pursuits. They had a glaring issue up front with no real striker to lead the attack, and their only playmaker – Rosella Ayane – was struggling to carry the team. They also relied heavily on wingback Ashleigh Neville via crosses from the right and still the lack of a central presence meant that her efforts did very little to aid the attack.
In the January transfer window, Spurs brought Orlando Pride’s Alex Morgan into the mix, hoping that, as well as media attention and eyes from the often tapped American market, her experience in attack would give the team a much-needed boost up front. However, Morgan’s fitness remained questionable and in the end she spent more time fixing problems off the pitch (that would be threatening Daniel Levy into ensuring that the Women’s team had training facilities just as good as the men’s team. She succeeded) than on it.
Morgan’s stint did not last long, and she was soon on a plane back to the States, leaving the Tottenham board with proof that something needed to change. Spurs had finished the 2019–20 campaign languishing in eighth position, conceding a whopping 41 goals and scoring only 18. It was clear that the philosophies of Amaros and Hill weren’t manufacturing success. A swift change over the summer saw the dual-managers sacked, with Rehane Skinner the new hire.
Skinner was a manager who boasted quite an exciting resumé. She’d been the coach that led the Leicester City Women to a wonderful campaign in the Championship last season, and even had a role to play in the England Women’s camp as Assistant Head Coach. Her brand of football held much more clarity taking Spurs from a slow and ineffective outfit, to a team capable of counterattacking and inflicting damage.
This much has been evident in their recent games. Indeed, as of writing, Spurs have not lost in their last six games across all competitions, including two 1–1 draws against Arsenal and Manchester United, and it’s all down to the new system.
Two key games in which they’ve been able to execute this are their recent 1–0 win over Everton, and their 1–1 draw against United.
Starting with the victory over the Toffees, it was a brilliant strike by Jessica Naz in the 51st minute that sealed all three points for Spurs but it was the system in which they attacked that caught the eye.
The Lillywhites played fast transitional football that Everton were finding difficult to contend with, using midfielder Kit Graham as the deepest aggressor, so that the attackers could load up central pressing. This gave Everton’s back three quite the task of forcing the Spurs attack into wider positions away from goal, which they frequently failed to do.
Against United, Naz was once again a potent figure, this time operating on the left flank – but perhaps only because her opposition was much better at configuring a back three than Everton were. The attacker wasn’t as successful on the front foot, but was still able to find gaps in which she was able to run and pass into.
Where Spurs previously struggled with a central striker, they’ve now been able to adopt a much more interchangeable attack via the likes of Naz to compensate for the lack of presence up front. They do this by including wingbacks into more central areas, which has also aided their defensive efforts.
When Skinners team defend deep they don’t do it with two banks of four; they find ways to keep out their opposition and still facilitate counterattacks. Five of their six games have come by one-goal margins, they’ve hit back twice in extra time, and have only conceded seven goals this season so far – quite the leap from last season’s 41.
Is this a sustainable approach from Skinner? Winning is winning and three points are three points, but their defense leaves a lot to be considered.
Skinner’s intense brand of football has ultimately left Spurs extremely vulnerable to be countered and it showed in both the aforementioned games. Combine this with the fact that they insist on playing out from the back but lack the experience to do so and often give away possession in danger zones, then you can see why this may turn into a fatal flaw as the season unfolds.
It doesn’t help that their defensive midfield is practically nonexistent. While the double-pivot pairing of Graham and Ria Percival have worked well on occasions, they often mistakenly create spaces that can be exploited by opposition attack, and with no real protection for the defence behind them, teams are able to run through to goal. Spurs do have a brilliant keeper in Tinja-Riikka Korpela who has already showcased her importance this season, but they need a lot more going for them defensively than just her contributions.
In that sense, Skinner and her players still have a ways to go, and they won’t be getting any respite against their upcoming opponents. Their next three games consist of West Ham, Liverpool and Man United – they also have to fit in a game against Chelsea, which was meant to take place last Friday but was postponed as a result of a COVID outbreak in Emma Hayes’ camp.
But going by the current evidence, Skinner’s team will already give much more against the top guns than they have been doing in the last few seasons. Keep marching on this path and there can only be good things ahead.
