Youthful Tottenham saved by super subs at Coventry: Match Report

Starting Eleven

With first-team players like Micky Van De Van and Cristian Romero not in the squad, a Tottenham side dominated by young players were nearly turned over by Coventry City, managing to get the job done with two late goals to keep the drive for the first trophy in over a decade alive.

With Ange Postecoglou naming Ben Davies as captain, Tottenham lined up in their regular 4-3-3 system, with a back 4 including new signing Archie Gray making his first start at Right-Back. Lucas Bergvall lined up with him in a midfield 3 of the Swede, Sarr, and Rodrigo Bentancur. Further forward Dominic Solanke led the line alongside Werner and Odobert.

With Archie Gray playing as a right-back. Postecoglou deployed a 2-2-3-3 buildup system, allowing the English midfielder to slot into midfield alongside Sarr and Bentancur. At the same time, pushing Lucas Bergvall further up the pitch to play in James Maddison’s position as an Attacking Midfielder.

First Half

Due to this setup, Spurs largely dominated the opening 20 minutes of the game, with 78% possession. The only thing Postecglu’s side was lacking was the number of attempts made on goal. However, Postecoglou‘s side were dealt an early blow, with Wilson Odobert limping off with an injury, forcing the Aussie to introduce Brennan Johnson to the fold amidst recent media and online criticism of the Welshman’s performances.

Following the change, despite their dominance in possession, Tottenham looked largely uninspiring, struggling to break down the low block deployed by Coventry, the majority of the chances came for the Home side, with Rudoni, and Basette both firing over dangerous chances before the end of the first half.

Second Half

Going into the Second half, Tottenham were largely unchanged despite the underwhelming first-half performance, with the only substitution being a like-for-like replacement that saw Djed Spence come on to rest Destiny Udogie ahead of the Brentford game.

And due to the lack of changes, Tottenham continued to struggle, with the second half going nearly the same way as the first. With Spurs dominating once more, it was the opening two chances that fell to the home side, with Mark Robins’s side offering a significant threat in transition with Tottenham struggling to hold onto the ball in the final third.

Following a ball in behind the high line, Coventry looked certain to score, as Forster misjudged a ball into the box, the Sky Blues starlet Haji Wright looked certain to score, only being stopped by a heroic goal-line block from Ben Davies. But once again, Coventry piled the pressure on Tottenham, with one shot coming after another, Postecoglu’s side looked second best compared to the Championship team.

The main issue with Tottenham’s second-half performance was in possession, for a side so heavily dependent on possession-based football, Spurs were abysmal on the ball, giving away the ball in dangerous areas on multiple occasions, and the writing was on the wall because minutes later, the Sky Blues were leading.

1-0 Coventry

With Coventry breaking on the counter, it was Djed Spence and Ben Davies who failed to deal with the danger, allowing Thomas Ashante to split the two defenders and fire home easily. However, the main focus is the Transition leading to the goal. With Tottenham being so poor in possession, it exposed how weak Postecoglou’s side are in transition, as Coventry cut them open on the counter on numerous occasions prior to the goal.

If Tottenham are so poor when it comes to creating chances, what’s the excuse for this high-risk defence system that makes us look terrible at the back as well as in attack as well? This is surely something Postecoglou will have to think about as his side continues to struggle.

Super Substitutes

But, even as bad as we looked, we still managed to rescue the game thanks to a late combination between two super subs, following a goal from Djed Spence assisted by Dejan Kulusevski, and it didn’t take much longer for Tottenham to grab the winner, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time for the goalscorer, Brennan Johnson.

With Rodrigo Bentancur turning over possession in the midfielder, the Uruguayan found Brennan Johnson with a ball in behind, allowing the Welshman to get one over the doubters as he slotted it home, to save Tottenham’s skin in a match they looked certain to lose.

Full Time: Tottenham 2:1 Coventry

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