NS Mura (away) 25.11.2021

There were nine changes form Sunday’s win over Leeds, some enforced, some not, but the poor performance cannot solely be put down to that.  Some players looked way off the pace, some made more than schoolboy errors and others failed to spark the team into some sort of pattern of play, leaving the Slovenian side, who are struggling in their own league, to look like world-beaters.  The Spurs away record in Europe is pretty shocking and it is not only the lack of wins that is the problem, but each point means added prize money and co-efficient points that help the club in the long run with seeding, etc.  It has also left us in a desperate position to qualify for the knock-out stages of the lowest ranked UEFA competition and while it is not Conte’s fault the team find themselves there, this was a nightmare performance that must leave him wondering what he has let himself in for.

With Mura not having played for 18 days having games postponed and with the international break meaning there were no league matches, they should have been fresh, but having only won five league games this season, their form wasn’t great.

Tottenham held the ball for a full minute from kick off before Mura got a touch, but their possession didn’t last very long as the Spurs fans sang loud in the background. When Mura got the ball forward and played it into the Spurs box, Tanganga and Rodon were there to tidy up, while Spurs got Doherty away down the right and his early cross was a little behind Bryan, who couldn’t get the ball under control.

Then, out of nowhere, Horvat was freed on their right wing and as he cut inside, Sanchez lost his footing and fell over. Coming into the right-hand corner of the box, the Mura midfielder curled a shot around Joe Rodon into the far corner and it left Gollini standing. Almost every goal we have conceded in this competition has been unstoppable and it left Spurs chasing the game against a poor team.

The Spurs response was quick, with Ndombele lifting the ball through to Bryan, but as he tried to take the pace off the ball with his head as he entered the penalty area, it bounced high and he couldn’t control his shot that went way over the bar. While Spurs had a lot of the ball, they were not making any chances and it took until the 26th minute to get the ball at the keeper, but it was blocked as Sessegnon took too long to sort out his feet after Kane laid it back to him. so the ball gently bounced into the keeper’s hands.

Ndombele made a run past three players and laid it out to Matt Doherty on the right and with a clear shot on goal, he chose to pull the ball across but only found a black and white shirt with his pass. The ball was not being played with any accuracy and there was no tempo to Tottenham’s play, with the home side covering a lot of ground, although that led to the question of whether they would be able to keep it up.

Having been booked for a tackle from the side of a NS Mura player, he stretched for a tackle having seen the ball run away from him and he got a second yellow to walk with 31 minutes gone. It made the rest of the game doubly hard for Tottenham.

With desperate lunges being made by the home players, they were picking up yellow cards, so you felt that Sessegnon might not be the only one to walk, but that wasn’t allowing for the referee’s change of heart when it came to the Mura fouls. From a Spurs free-kick after Kozar was booked for a foul on Skipp, Doherty played the ball across the box and nobody was there to turn it in. Some considered passing from the right inside to Skipp saw Kane played the ball in the box. He turned one way and then the other to get a yard and his low shot went a foot wide of the keeper’s left-hand post, which he wouldn’t have got to if it had been on target.

Dele’s control was poor and he lost the ball a couple of times that put Spurs under pressure, but when players went past or near him, the intensity of his tracking back was weak. Three minutes before half-time a good passage of passing by Mura ended with Horvat curling a shot a couple of feet wide. It could easily have sent Spurs into the break another goal behind. As it was they managed to get to the interval only one goal down and it was down to Conte to get some sort of reaction out of the ten players left, not all of whom I would have started the second half with.

At the start of the second half, the referee showed the inconsistency he demonstrated in the first. Sessegnon’s first booking foul was allowed to go without a yellow card when a Mura player
committed a foul and when the Mura centre-forward went in late in Sanchez, there was no second yellow card to follow the one he got in the first half. It was poor refereeing and it wasn’t helping Spurs when all you want is that the match officials are fair to both sides. It didn’t help when Bryan was obstructed in the box and there was no decision at all from the ref that ended with Dele and Karamarko getting booked.

Tottenham’s passing was poor again and it prevented any forward momentum building up. Four subs were made in one go by Conte to try and kick start something. Lucas, Son, Davies and Dier came on for Dele, Bryan, Rodon and Doherty to change things around.

Ndombele did well to win the ball and run at goal and only an over-hit pass prevented him getting free in the box. Son got the ball just after and ran from left to right across the penalty area and fired a shot from a narrow angle which the keeper pushed over and from Son’s corner Kane had a free header that he nodded down at goal, but without enough pace to trouble the keeper more than him gathering it in front of his line. It was more promising, but when Mura went forward, Tottenham still could not find an out ball. It was a feature of our play prior to this that when we had the ball prior to this in the game, there was little movement ahead of the player with the ball as an option to pass to.

Gorenc got away with another bookable offence after having been yellow carded already as he dragged Kane down ten yards outside the box, but Harry’s free-kick sailed a long way over the bar.  He did a lot better when Lucas Moura played a pass on the turf through the Mura defence and Harry took a touch to the right of the goal and then dinked it over the keeper into the far corner of the net. It was out of nothing and with twenty minutes left, could the ten men do anything more ?

A late corner was flicked on at the near post by Dier and Kane was at the far post, but the ball was behind him and his header went over. Then, the keeper fluffed a clearance and Skipp tried to put the ball back past him but got his shot off target. Hojbjerg slipped a neat pass through to Moura, who ran into the Mura half before blazing a shot over the bar from 25 yards and another yellow card was waved at a Mura player.

Another foul on Moura brought a 35 yard free-kick that Son played in straight and Tanganga got a header to it and tried to flick it on, but it went over the top.  When an aimless ball was played up the Mura right wing, Davies tried to pass the ball inside but it went to a Mura player and a pass sent Marosa away on the right. He came inside Sanchez again to shoot at goal and Sanchez got back to try and block it, but the shot that was going wide was deflected over Gollini leaving him without a hope of saving it as it spun over him.

It was the last kick off the match and the whole performance was shockingly shameful. Even without a first choice eleven, Spurs should have steam-rollered this side and instead we are now left scrabbling for a second place in the group if we can beat Rennes in the last game next week. It is embarrassing and in a competition that is ultimately winnable, we have become an also-ran. Even if we do get second place, we will face a team that drops down from the Europa League in the play-off, so the position we are in is all of our own making. Nuno started it with the side he put out against Vitesse away and now this game isn’t much better than that. When are we going to realise that we will have to field first team players until we are qualified,  rather than going through this same painful process every season ?

Simon Parsons