Tottenham Hotspur continue to struggle at home as Aston Villa come out on top
The 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa underscored a persistent issue for Tottenham Hotspur. First of all, absence of captain Cristian Romero, who was injured in the build-up to the game. Two, worrying form at home despite immense and glaring quality in the squad. And third, interlinked with the second issue: Points dropped from winning positions at home since last season.
According to stats from Opta, Tottenham have dropped more points from winning positions at home (19) than any other side, with five losses after taking the lead, a league-high tally.
This underlies the recurring inability to maintain and hold on to leads, going back to the Ange era. With him, it was the issue of sticking to Plan A, or rather, not having a Plan B. With Frank, at least until now, it is hard to think beyond the same theme. The Dane somehow does not trust his bench enough and takes his sweet jolly time to incorporate reactive changes, more often than not, leaving it too late.
Villa’s goals exposed vulnerabilities, with Rogers’ long-range strike and Buendía’s curling finish capitalising on defensive lapses. Too much open space in the middle of the park for the first concession. And the good-old set piece coming back to bite Spurs up the backside. Better love-story than Twilight. The issue is all over matchday reports on Sky, all over Football Twitter and group chats across the world, but we are yet to see Tottenham work on it.
Even with a big strong attacking presence like Romero, we tend to be on the backfoot on set-pieces. Without him, it was almost certain to catch the team lacking on some front or the other. Thomas Frank now faces mounting pressure to address this home form crisis.
We need more bodies in the middle of the park in defensive transitions. The frontline has to realise the importance of tracking back, for firsts. The boss has to be tactically astute and make sure we improve on all fronts, and promptly.
Even though it is only early doors for Frank at Tottenham, challenges like this one will determine whether or not he’ll be a successful boss at Tottenham Hotspur. The fans coming to watch the games deserve better, trust Frank to deliver as well, but there has to be tangible change in approach.
