There is one big question facing Tottenham in December: Can they can consistently produce their top physical level in a month in which they are playing every Thursday and every Sunday, especially when they are already contending with far too many injuries and absences?
The answer will determine whether they will climb up the table, building on their promising but inconsistent start to the season. It will determine whether they reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, and whether they can take another step towards the last 16 of the Europa League. It will ultimately determine whether people feel the Ange Postecoglou project is heading in the right direction.
On the evidence of Sunday’s game against Fulham, it is going to be tough.
Spurs were nowhere near their best. The visitors were the better team for long spells, and created far more chances. When Tottenham scored through Brennan Johnson, it was against the run of play. Even when Fulham went down to 10 men, Spurs failed to ask them many difficult questions in the final minutes.
This was the first of five consecutive Sunday games for Tottenham, all five coming after a Thursday night fixture. This is the rhythm to which they will have to become accustomed.
Spurs worked hard here on Thursday night in their 2-2 draw against Roma. Postecoglou made four changes for this game, losing Dominic Solanke to illness on Sunday morning and resting Dejan Kulusevski, who has worked harder than anyone else in recent weeks. The other crucial bit of context is that this was one week on from the famous 4-0 win at Manchester City, one of their best ever victories in the Premier League era.
It was easy to think beforehand that all Spurs needed to do on Sunday was replicate what they did against City; to finally show the consistency of application they have lacked all season. If they could just win this game, then they could prove they had broken through that mental block. A new era of relentless winning would be just around the corner.
But maybe that is too simplistic. Maybe it makes more sense not to see this in the context of mentality, of a character-test that Tottenham failed by not simply producing another 4-0 win. Maybe the real question here is of physical resources. Of the players available to Postecoglou and how much potential output they had in their legs.
Because you cannot analyse this Tottenham performance outside the context of who was unavailable. Not just both first-choice centre-backs, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven. Not just their first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who fractured an ankle against City and required surgery. Not just Solanke, who is integral to how they attack, but also Richarlison, Solanke’s £50million ($63.7m) understudy. And Wilson Odobert, signed for £25m in the summer but barely involved so far this season. Rodrigo Bentancur, of course, is two games into his seven-game ban, which is not the same as being injured but is also relevant.
Given all of that, it is extremely difficult for Tottenham to just replicate their performance level from the City game at the drop of a hat.
Postecoglou was clearly frustrated in his post-match press conference about how many questions he had been asked about the City game, and Spurs’ failure to replicate that. He pointed out that Spurs had Vicario in goal that day, and that he was able to bring on Timo Werner and Johnson. Here, he had Fraser Forster in goal and both Werner and Johnson had to start.
“Somehow again, it seems with this club that whatever it is that we do well is then used as a millstone to bring us down at every other opportunity,” Postecoglou said, sounding like a man who had been considering that particular line for a while.
One of the many striking things from this game was that, with Johnson and Werner starting, Postecoglou had very little on the bench. Obviously there was Kulusevski, but behind him there were seven players (Brandon Austin, Lucas Bergvall, Djed Spence, Archie Gray, Will Lankshear, Callum Olusesi and Luca Williams-Barnett) who had never started a single Premier League game between them.
The one other Spurs substitute who had started a Premier League game — Sergio Reguilon — last played for Tottenham in April 2022. Contrast that with Marco Silva, who had far more proven players to turn to among his Fulham replacements. He brought on Harry Wilson and Tom Cairney. They gave Fulham an extra edge, Cairney scored the equaliser, and if he had not been sent off they probably would have won.
Postecoglou could not fault the effort of the players who did feature. Forster came in for his first league start under the Australian and made some good saves. Ben Davies made some crucial interventions. James Maddison tried to run the game and was a threat from dead-ball situations.
“The players have given absolutely everything and that is all you can ask for,” said Postecoglou. “They are working their socks off and digging in as deep as they can to try to keep us progressing.”
The problem is that Spurs are not themselves without their physical edge. They need to be able to out-run teams to impose their football. That was what we saw in their big wins here against City and Aston Villa recently.
But with their injury crisis piling up, and a dauntingly tightly-packed December calendar ahead, there might be more days like this to come — when Spurs do not look themselves, and somehow need to find another way.
(Top photo: Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)
