Tottenham Hotspur Women just managed to scrape a point away at Aston Villa in the second match of the WSL season. Robert Vilahamn failed to find the necessary solutions to beat a tricky Villa side, but Beth England saved face at the end with her first goal of the campaign.
Vilahamn, somewhat unsurprisingly, selected an unchanged line-up from last week’s season opener against Crystal Palace. Young fullback Ella Morris was fit enough to make the bench this time, although she did not feature.
High energy moments filled the opening stages of this game, with each team trying to attack quickly. Spurs looked to gain control of the game and play their typical creative possession, but Aston Villa stayed compact and organized and Spurs were largely frustrated in attempts to make inroads. In defense, Spurs looked to be a bit on the backfoot, although enough players always managed to swarm back to clean up Villa’s attacks.
Aston Villa had the better of the early chances, with Rachel Daly putting away an upsettingly gorgeous volley in a (thankfully) offside position. It was Eveliina Summanen who opened the scoring with a well-struck penalty. The penalty itself was maaaaybe a little soft (at least from the angle I saw on Youtube - other people don’t seem to share this feeling with me, so it’s possible I just didn’t see the obvious angle on the broadcast).
In the second half, Spurs seemed increasingly vulnerable to Villa’s many ideas in attack, especially in transition. Villa played through Spurs’ mid block with ease and found tons of space in midfield every time.
Robert Vilahamn did not seem to have a response. At 55 minutes, he subbed off Jess Naz for Beth England and sent Martha Thomas out to the wing. Considering the front line was struggling to get service due to Villa’s success at disrupting play, this really only served to weaken Spurs’ press and open up more space for Villa between the lines. In the 67th minute, Villa made a triple substitution and brought on fresh, quality players in Lucy Staniforth, Katie Robinson, and Adriana Leon, who only strengthened their attack. Vilahamn responded by bringing on Anna Csiki and Olga Ahtinen for Hayley Raso and Drew Spence ten minutes later, but this did little to change the game or our style of play.
In fact, Villa grabbed their equalizer just one minute later, capitalizing on Spurs’ disorganization on a transition. Spurs played the ball back to reset and escape Villa’s competent press, and for a moment, things looked to be under control. But Clare Hunt mislaid a pass to Eveliina Summanen in the center. Ash Neville was still up the pitch as an attacking outlet, and could not get back in time to mark Adriana Leon’s run at the far post. Leon calmly shot past Becky Spencer into the back of the net, leaving Becky crumpled on the ground after an awkward landing and a collision with Molly Bartrip. Confusingly, she remained on the pitch despite being in obvious pain and a seemingly compromised state afterward.
In the closing stages of regular time, Villa resorted to lumping it long to talented targetwoman Rachel Daly in search of a winner. After a few attempts, they found the back of our net in the 88th minute. Rachel Daly ran across the front of the goal unmarked to meet a long ball that Becky Spencer did not collect. It was a real head-scratcher of a goal to concede. Everyone knows what Rachel Daly can do, and she has no business hanging out in front of anyone’s net unmarked.
Villa tried to squander stoppage time at the corner flag, but Spurs managed to string together one last spell of solid possession. Molly Bartrip’s long, diagonal found Amanda Nildén deep in the box. She popped an outstanding one-time cross directly into the path of Beth England, who had found a bit of space between two Villa defenders. Beth made no mistake and dove to head it home. Spurs’ captain looked to be near tears after grabbing her first goal of the season in such dramatic fashion, and I can only hope there will be many more.
There was one final flurry of Villa activity, but in the end Spurs held out for the win. I don’t necessarily think we deserved points from this game given how we failed to control the second half, but it is frustrating that both of Villa’s goals came from switched off moments from Spurs’ defense/keeper. I’m really hoping this isn’t a trend that continues throughout the season.
The striker question
I’m a little bit worried that Vilahamn hasn’t found a solution to Spurs’ striker question yet after basically an entire season. We have three talented players in Jess Naz, Martha Thomas and Beth England. All three offer enormous amounts of quality, but as they’re playing right now, they all have attributes that make them potentially less than ideal fits in a Robert Vilahamn side.
Martha is an excellent presser and has created tons of chances this year, but her end product so far has not been there. She spent most of the Crystal Palace game shooting directly at the keeper, and much of the Villa game knocking shots and crosses into Villa players instead of toward their intended targets.
Martha is a great Vilahamn striker when she’s firing, but her inclusion at striker forces Jess or Beth out onto the wing, which is less than ideal. This season, Vilahamn has chosen to deploy Jess on the left so far this season, which kind of stifles her abilities. She usually finds much more joy through the center, and much of Spurs’ attack has come down the right with Ash Neville and Hayley Raso this season. When it does come down the left, it seems to be Amanda Nildén carrying the ball centrally. None of this leverages what Jess does best, which is make brilliant runs to find space behind teams’ defense and hold off pressure to take good shots.
I don’t begrudge Vilahamn taking Jess off in this game, as she wasn’t able to contribute much–it wasn’t really her fault, as she was playing in a less suitable role, and most of the attacks died before they even reached her. But as I mentioned earlier, the change Vilahamn made weakened Spurs’ press significantly and contributed to Villa’s ability to play through it. Neither Jess nor Beth was getting much service, so this ended up being a net negative.
As you all know, I just adore our captain, Beth England, and her qualities are undeniable. But her pressing just isn’t quite as strong as the others’. She also needs more game time to get back to her best, and I am still waiting to see where that’s going to come from. I’d love to see Vilahamn figure out a way to have Beth on the pitch with a plan in place that gets the most out of the star she is while still allowing the rest of the team to press effectively.
In the end, I’m not sure what’s best. Maybe Martha and Beth will start firing, and maybe Vilahamn will work out how to get Jess playing through the middle more, or how to have the team press with Beth England up top. Whatever happens, it needs to happen sooner rather than later if Vilahamn is going to get the best out of the talent on this team.
Goalkeeper gripes
I’m also quite concerned about our goalkeepers. Becky is still great on the ball and a solid shot stopper, but she’s not quite as brave in collecting crosses and balls into the box as she used to be, and this seems to have gotten even more pronounced this season. She looked quite fragile in this game, down on the ground receiving treatment a few times, and then visibly playing through pain toward the end of the game. I have no idea why Vilahamn didn’t sub her off–does he not trust Katelyn Talbert or Eleanor Heeps? Was he saving them for the cup game? Did Becky insist on staying on the pitch?
We’ve heard that Spurs have a keeper they’d like to sign in January, so this problem may be temporary. But a rickety goalkeeper roster can do a lot of damage in a half-season. Here’s hoping we get to see some of Katelyn Talbert or Eleanor Heeps in the cup tomorrow, and that whoever it is looks decent. Because man, we need some cover at that position.
New signings watch
Maite Oroz was still brilliant, though I’m starting to see why she gets dispossessed so often (hint: it’s because she takes risks). I don’t mind, it’s a fair price to pay for all the quality she brings us on the pitch, and I can’t wait to see what she looks like when she’s fully integrated with the team and up to speed.
Elsewhere, I thought Hayley Raso was fine but not quite as effective as she was against Crystal Palace, and I thought Anna Csiki looked off the pace against a stronger side. Clare Hunt was a bit concerning on the ball, and I thought she had the most blame in Villa’s equalizer. I think both these problems could be solved by (a) more game time for Csiki and improved fitness since she’s coming back from a bad injury, and (b) more game time with the squad/increased gelling for Clare Hunt. Nothing to worry about too much, but I’ll continue to watch as the games come.
What even is Bob Ball???
Most of all, I’m looking to see more from Robert Vilahamn. Spurs won against Crystal Palace on the opening week by having superior individual quality all over the pitch. The same is simply not possible against Aston Villa, a side teeming with individual quality. I would’ve hoped that Robert Vilahamn’s style would elevate the team and create something greater than the sum of its parts. Against Villa, he didn’t do that. It’s early in the season, and last season he seemed to be a manager who prefers to get the basics down before making tweaks, but I felt that our lack of performance in this game largely came down to his failure to manage it.
That said, a point against a really, really solid looking Aston Villa side is nothing to sniff at. It’s still early days, and as the season goes on, I’ll be looking for a more elevated product against comparable teams.