Cartilage Free Captain

good morning!

Today’s a great day, beccause today marks the first day of the US Open proper. Some of you tennis fans may have watched the qualifying rounds with fitzie (not phsyically, but spiritually) last week. But we didnt’ know the draws.

Now we do. So let’s do some predicting.

Men’s singles bracket:

Favourites: Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Alex Zverev

I’m putting these four as the ones to beat. It’s the top four seeds, unsurprisingly. But there are some question marks.

First is Sinner’s hip. He seems to have had some issue with it the last month. He appeared okay enough to beat Tiafoe in the Cincinnati Masters a few weeks ago, but it’s just something to keep an eye on. Plus this surface is playing a little bit slow. Not sure that suits him.

Novak Djokovic has just about an easy path the the finals as you can get. His knee brace is gone and so is the thousand-pound gorilla after winning the Olympics. Zverev I think is also getting much closer to lifting his first major trophy.

But my money is on Alcaraz. He’s #3 in the world, but I still think he’s the best. The surface suits him the best and he’s a former champ here. He had a tough loss against Gael Monfils a few weeks ago, but I think it’s a one-off.

Dark horses: Tommy Paul, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Lorenzo Musetti

Fritz has the best chance of these four to reach the semis. I think he matches up well against Casper Ruud (potential 4th round), but a quarterfinals vs Zverev is tough. He and Tommy Paul are both progessing really well this year, able to string out consecutive best-of-five matches.

Other than that, I’m looking at de Minaue and Musetti. I don’t think the Aussie can beat Alcaraz, but he can get to the quarters. Musetti could also potentially play Zverev in the R16. Zverev’s forehand is better though.

Fitzie’s predictions: Alcaraz def Zverev

Women’s singles bracket:

Favourites: Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka

We need this final. Women’s tennis deserves it. By far the two best players on the planet today. The 2022 champion and the 2023 runner-up have been the most dominant players this year. Swiatek on every surface other than grass. And no one hits the ball harder than Sabalenka. Her shoulder seems better after skipping Wimbledon. She also beat Swiatek en route to the Cincy title a few weeks ago.

Dark Horses: Jelena Ostapenko, Danielle Collins, Madison Keys, Mirra Andreeva, Victoria Azarenka

I’m really going with players who can just hit the crap out of the ball. I think all five can make a deep run here. But they all can be mercurial too.

Azarenka has the easiest draw of the bunch. Andreeva would play Swiatek in the R16, while Keys would play Sabalenka. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull off the upsets. But it’s a tall, tall task.

Biggest question marks: Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff

We haven’t seen much of Ryabkina since she made it to the SFs of Wimbledon. And I don’t know if she’s even practiced on the USO grounds. It appears she’s ill, and she recently split up with her coach. Something seems off.

Meanwhile, Gauff has had a horrible few months. A R16 outing at the USO, an early defeat at the Paris Olympics, which she backed up with early round exits in Canada and Cincy. Her serve and forehand look awful. Not good for the defending champ.

Fitzie’s predictions: Sabalenka def. Swiatek

Fitzie’s track of the day: Like Someone In Love, by Bill Evans

And now for your links:

Dan KP: Micky Van de Ven says Tottenham are ‘more dangerous’ this season

Jay Harris ($$): Bissouma repays Postecoglou after being included in squad

One of the more pleasant things to come out of Tottenham’s first two Premier League matches of the season has been the fact that they have looked simultaneously more dangerous on offensive set pieces, and less vulnerable on defensive set pieces. What was a major concern last season has improved dramatically this season — though admittedly a small sample size, Spurs have yet to concede from a set piece and have looked significantly better on both sides of those situations. This is despite Ange Postecoglou’s almost dismissive attitudes about coaching that part of the game in the second half of last season and his refusal to directly hire a set piece coach to address it.

Or didn’t he? Tottenham did have a coaching shuffle this summer after Chris Davies left the club to become manager of Birmingham City, bringing in Nick Montgomery and Sergio Raimundo from Hibernian FC and promoting Matt Wells. Postecoglou previously identified Mile Jedinak as being in charge of defensive set pieces with Ryan Mason mostly in charge of offensive corners and dead balls. Football.London reports this morning that starting this season, Montgomery in particular has involved himself in the organization of set pieces on both sides of the ball, though Alasdair Gold takes pains to mention that Postecoglou still sees coaching in all areas of his team as a collaborative effort and there are no coaching specialists.

This is anecdotal and very much based on the “eye test” from watching two Tottenham early season games — set piece statistics are difficult to find without an Opta subscription — but Spurs have looked different thus far. While much of this is a result of Tottenham’s overall tactical system, in their opening two matches against Leicester and Everton Spurs have attempted the most corner kicks (25) of any team in the league, converting one, and have faced just seven against. This is I’m certain partially because they have faced two very bad teams.

That said, I’ve noticed tweaked and different routines off of corners on both the offensive and defensive ends, and while new Premier League rules about impeding keepers on set pieces has certainly helped, Spurs also have defended the few corners they’ve faced more robustly and with fewer lapses in concentration. Not that there haven’t been nervous moments — set pieces are notoriously chaotic events and there have been a couple of scary set pieces where the ball’s pinged around the box or forced Guglielmo Vicario or Spurs defenders into making saves — but particularly on the defensive side Spurs’ players have looked generally more organized and disciplined, knowing what their assignments are and even employing some flexibility on zonal vs. man marking depending on the situation.

Gianni Vio is long gone, now working with the USA National Teams (and reportedly doing very good work), and it would be foolish to look at the opening two matches and think that Tottenham’s set piece woes are over. It’s a long season. Spurs will inevitably concede set piece goals, because every team concedes set piece goals. We won’t know whether this is a short term improvement or evidence of a systemic change until much farther down the road.

That said, Spurs HAVE looked better, and if Gold is right, Nick Montgomery taking a more active role in this area is a strong suggestion that, despite his terse comments to the press, Postecoglou did recognize that set pieces were areas of concern and has taken steps to address the situation. That’s a very good sign.

Well, that was an improvement! Tottenham Hotspur fans were hoping their team would respond after a frustrating 1-1 draw away to Leicester in the first match of the season. They sure got an improvement. Tottenham got a brace from Son Heung-Min to go along with an opening blast from Yves Bissouma and a late header from Cuti Romero, as they rolled to a 4-0 home win over a pretty hapless Everton at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

This was pretty much a comprehensive beat-down, and it was super fun to watch. A club debut from Wilson Odobert, an incredible box to box run from Micky van de Ven, and some really good performances today, too and that’s where you come in!

It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.

Now that’s more like it.

Tottenham Hotspur bounced back from last week’s dropped points against Leicester City by absolutely clattering Everton in Spurs’ first home match of the season. A double from captain Son Heung-min took the headlines, but it was really a dominant team performance that saw Spurs put four on the scoresheet against Sean Dyche’s struggling Toffees.

That lackluster Foxes performance as well as an injury to new signing Dominic Solanke meant changes for Spurs, with Son shifting into the striker role and Dejan Kulusevski and Wilson Odobert coming into the XI for Solanke and Pape Matar Sarr. The new-look starting lineup began brightly as well, with a flurry of chances in a frantic opening: Cristian Romero found himself through on goal following a set piece, with the Argentine unable to take his chance; a deflected effort from Son was saved by Jordan Pickford; and there were further opportunities for James Maddison and Brennan Johnson.

Dejan Kulusevski had looked sharp early on, and he helped set up the opening goal, weaving his way through the Everton box before laying off to Yves Bissouma at the top of the box. Bissouma hit it first time, and his shot clattered off the crossbar and into the back of the net to put the Lilywhites into an early lead.

It was soon two for Spurs, this time with the Tottenham press playing creator. Spurs had been putting Pickford under pressure regularly in the early moments of the match, and that pressure told as Son busted a lung to close down the Everton keeper. Pickford’s touch was poor, and the Spurs captain robbed the ball from Pickford’s feet to tap it into an empty net.

Of course, with everything proceeding swimmingly for Spurs in the first half it was high time for something to go wrong, and it almost did as Micky van de Ven looked to have picked up a significant injury while challenging Dwight McNeil. The Dutchman collapsed to the ground holding his knee, hyperextending the joint and in apparent pain, and though a substitute looked imminent, Micky managed to see out the half.

So too did Spurs’ two-goal lead, though not with some challenge from Everton as a flurry of late set pieces put the Tottenham goal under pressure. The defense held strong, though, and the half-time whistle blew with the score still 2-0.

Both sides struggled to impose any level of control on the match through the early period of the second half, and Dyche attempted to take advantage of this temporary malaise with two substitutes, as Iliman Ndiaye and Jesper Lindstrom came on for Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jack Harrison. Postecoglou responded not long after with substitutions of his own, with Richarlison continuing to build his fitness as he came on for Odobert and Kulusevski making way for Sarr to solidify the midfield.

A great chance to threaten the goal once more presented itself in the form of an attacking free kick for Spurs after Son was fouled just outside the box; Maddison, however, could not hit the target, with his strike flashing past the right-hand upright. His delivery was pinpoint soon thereafter though, with a corner finding the head of Cristian Romero, as the Argentine thumped his header against the crossbar and in for Spurs’ third.

More substitutes followed for Spurs, with young players Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, and Djed Spence all seeing the pitch for the Lilywhites, the latter after Destiny Udogie seemingly picked up a knock. The fresh legs told against a tired Toffees side, their fatigue perhaps most evident in the build-up to Spurs’ fourth goal. Van de Ven, having shook off his earlier injury scare, picked up possession at the top of his own box before driving forward almost the length of the pitch. The Dutch defender laid the ball off to Son, who then cooly finished through the legs of Pickford to take Spurs to a 4-0 win.

Reactions

Manor Solomon pretty clearly isn’t a part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans this season. I’m not going to rehash the whole “situation” around Solomon, but the reality is that Tottenham Hotspur are limited as it is in terms of registering foreign players for Europe - and Solomon is well down Spurs’ depth chart, with even the likes of youth talent Mikey Moore playing ahead of him through preseason.

With his future thus determined to be elsewhere, the only question remaining was one of where.

Dustin wrote a couple of days ago about potential interest from various clubs, with Championship club Leeds United apparently leading the way, according to Israeli media. This interest appears to have now escalated, with reports now coming out that Solomon is very close to completing a medical ahead of a loan to Elland Road.

Fabrizio Romano and Paul O’Keefe have both posted that the medical should happen today, and Joe Donnohue at the Yorkshire Evening Post had some further details of the deal, in which it looks like Leeds are covering at least a chunk of Solomon’s wages, which is a bit of a win for Spurs:

There are more details in Donnohue’s report, including Solomon’s preference to remain in England, which has also been backed up by Alasdair Gold, amid interest from the likes of Marseille and Getafe (who, according to Romano, Solomon rejected) - which is a choice. The Championship over Ligue 1 or La Liga? I guess Solomon got a taste of injury last year and has decided he’d liked to get kicked a bit more instead of enjoying the sunshine on the continent.

Let’s see where this one goes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it wrapped up by the start of the week.

This morning, Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou gave a press conference where he announced that new club record signing and striker Dominic Solanke will miss tomorrow’s home opener against Everton after picking up an ankle injury in the opening stages of Spurs’ 1-1 draw vs. Leicester. However, he gave further comments, embargoed until this evening, where he provided additional clarification on Solanke’s injury, and gave some hints about Richarlison’s fitness.

First, Solanke’s injury isn’t as serious as it could be, and Postecoglou said he fully expects he’ll be ready to go after the international break, when Spurs host Arsenal in the first NLD of the season on September 15. And possibly earlier.

“It’s not serious enough to keep him out for five weeks, he’s still got a chance for the Newcastle game. That’s the extent of it, it’s just about how quickly he recovers. Every story is written differently. They’re not all fairy tales where you come and make your debut and score a hat-trick. He was very good for us at Leicester and we’re disappointed because it was really exciting to see that he is going to fit in really well with what we’re doing.

“I’ve no doubt about that. It’s just a small hiccup. He misses a game or two, it’s game one of 50-plus games. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to recover from that. For me the exciting bit was just watching him in the team last week. I can just tell he’s going to be a really good fit.

“It’s all good. We didn’t sign Dom for one match and he knows that. He’s here hopefully for a long time to have a real impact at this club and bring success to it. I was excited with what we saw last week and this is just a small bump in the road. I’m sure he will be looking forward to getting back out there.”

Postecoglou also spoke highly of Solanke’s likely replacement in the lineup, Richarlison, and stressed the importance of having two solid strikers at his disposal for just this sort of situation.

“Yeah, absolutely. Richy is not going anywhere but if he did leave, I’d definitely sign another striker,” said Postecoglou. “We had that issue last year where we were really short in that area. To be fair, the whole pre-season we played without a striker. I was playing Deki Kulusevski through there the whole pre-season because we hadn’t signed Dom and Richy was out.

“It makes a difference to how we play having a striker in there. It’s really important to us to have two recognised strong strikers in the team.”

But that brings up a big question — Richarlison clearly isn’t fully match fit after missing the entire preseason while recovering from a surgical procedure; the first we saw of him was his brief cameo against Leicester where he flashed a potential game-winning header wide of the post. So what’s the plan?

“That’s the thing with Richy, it’s trying to get him fit. Obviously we have to be a little bit careful with him because he hasn’t played for quite a while. I’ve said before, whenever he’s been fit and available, I’ve always chosen him because he’s a handful for oppositions. He’s a real physical presence in the box, he’s a good finisher, he works hard for the team.

“But hopefully now getting Dom in, the whole idea is that we can share that workload and not be so reliant on one player. I think he’s still at a good age, Richy, where he can still play some fantastic football for us and we’ve got to make sure we keep him fit and manage his workload so we can get the best out of him.

“He’s fit to start the game [against Everton] because he’s training but can he play 90 minutes? No. So that’s where the decision lies. He came on last week, but match fitness is different and he hasn’t played a minute in pre-season. It’s where we give him his minutes.”

With Will Lankshear also out for a couple of weeks with a minor hamstring injury, that leaves Spurs once again thin up top. Previously, Postecoglou had said he had no plans to revisit the idea of playing Dejan Kulusevski as a false nine, despite playing him there all preseason. Big Ange seemed to walk that back slightly.

“It’s an option. I don’t think it’s his best area but through pre-season and at least one game at the end of last season, he’s such a hard worker, he runs the line really well, can link up with the rest of the team in the build-up. I think he can do a job for us there, but I don’t think it’s his best position.”

This makes me think we might see Richy start the match, but make way in the second half for Deki, or perhaps Son Heung-Min or even Brennan Johnson, will deputize at striker for a bit tomorrow.

Finally, Postecoglou addressed the other elephant in the room — Yves Bissouma. The Malian central midfielder is set to return from his one match club-enforced suspension for posting a video on social media of him inhaling nitrous oxide. Postecoglou suggested that Bissouma is now available to start, but that the culture of trust he referenced in his earlier comments is very much still a work in progress.

“You know what it’s like when you punish your child and they do everything right for the next two days? He’s first in the meetings, he’s doing everything right but there’s always temptation down the road, so we’ll see. I’ve always believed in opportunity for redemption and learning. We’re still in that space at the moment with Biss.

“But obviously that door closes after a while if there’s repeated (indiscretions). He’s been good but I would have been surprised if he wasn’t. It’s always the key with Biss is consistency. The consistency of behaviour, what he does… it’s not that he’s doing a lot of bad things.

“Obviously the last transgression was very serious but it’s the little things along the way also. I think sometimes that manifests in his game where he’s really good and he’ll have a moment when he’s not. I think it all correlates. From our perspective it’s about trying to continually guide him, but it’s up to him. He’s got to continue to try to be the best version of himself that he can possibly be.”

I’m not especially wild about the tone of Ange’s comments here about Biss — it feels a little purile, as though Bissouma really is a small child caught with his hand in the cookie jar instead of a grown-ass man who is fully able to make his own choices, or the suggestion that Yves needs hand-holding to make sure he stays on the straight and narrow. That said, I do appreciate Ange’s willingness to be redemptive and forgiving of transgressions and do believe he has all of his players’ best interests at heart. I also hope that this is the last we hear of any issues surrounding Bissouma’s behavior this season.

Remember Jack Clarke? Tottenham Hotspur signed the promising attacking midfielder for a then-eye popping €10m from Leeds United back in 2019 when he was 18 and he was tipped for big things at Spurs, but he never quite panned out. Spurs initially loaned him back to Leeds but he was on the outside as Leeds had eclipsed their maximum number of loans so he barely played at all and was recalled midway through the season. He later had loans at QPR and Stoke City before heading on loan to Sunderland in 2021-22, and he joined the Black Cats permanently the following summer.

You can argue that Spurs abjectly failed with Clarke’s development while at the club, and it’s hard to argue against that point. Clarke has certainly blossomed while at Sunderland, to the point where he’s now close to finalizing a lucrative £20m transfer to newly-promoted Ipswich Town.

So why are we talking about a player who hasn’t been at Spurs for two seasons and who only made one senior appearance? Because the one smart thing Spurs did when they sold him to Sunderland was include a 25% sell-on clause in exchange for a lower transfer fee. That means Spurs are due a £5m windfall when Clarke finalizes his transfer to Ipswich.

£5m isn’t a lot, but consider it’s most of what Spurs initially paid for Clarke back in 2019, so that makes it a pretty great deal all in all. You can argue that it might have been better to stick with Clarke and then we’d actually have a decent young player on our hands right now instead of £5m and a small loss on the books, but hey, this is better than a poke in the nose.

I guess if nothing else we’ll get a good look at Clarke in the Premier League to see if, now that he’s 23 years old, he’s got the goods. Then we can decide whether we want to cry in our beers over how we let his young career stagnate while he was at Spurs. The £5m is still nice, though.

OK, let’s get this out of the way first since I somehow managed to NOT make the most obvious joke-reference the last time I talked about Ash Phillips: I guess we’re going to find out if he can do it on a cold, wet Tuesday in Stoke.

As expected, Tottenham Hotspur have completed an agreement with Championship side Stoke City to send young central defender Phillips, 19, to his second straight loan to the English second division.

Phillips had a fantastic loan with a very bad Plymouth Argyle side last season, where he helped keep them from relegation and was named Argyle’s Young Player of the Season. This time he’s staying in the same division, but with a (slightly) better team — Stoke isn’t very good, but that probably just means that he’ll be able to get a lot of minutes, and that’s exactly what he needs right now.

I know some fans are side-eying this loan because it leaves Tottenham (at present) light in defensive cover, but central defenders typically don’t hit their peak until at least their mid-20s. Ash has got plenty of time to learn his craft and get better. Maybe he becomes a Tottenham regular in a couple of years, maybe he doesn’t. But sending him out to get regular playing time is better than him sitting on Spurs’ bench at age 19, so I’m all for this.

Good luck, Ash! Go lock down that position, and for god’s sake don’t forget to pack your umbrella, you’ll need it.

Why can’t Tottenham Hotspur have nice things? Spurs striker Dominic Solanke, the club’s record signing who made his debut on Monday against Leicester City, never missed a single match last season at Bournemouth, picked up an ankle injury in his first Spurs game and will miss tomorrow’s home opener against Everton.

You can’t make this stuff up, I swear.

Ange Postecoglou tried to minimize the injury, saying it didn’t look particularly serious and that Dom would be back soon, just not in time for tomorrow’s match.

“Dom picked up a knock in the last game. He got through the game but it flared up the day after and he’ll miss the game tomorrow. It’s an ankle injury, he copped it really early on, someone went across his ankle. It just depends on his recovery [when he returns], obviously we’ve got the international break. but it’s not serious.”

So I guess we all need to hope that Richarlison is back and at least close to full fitness, because he’s almost certainly going to be starting against his old club tomorrow. Richy had a cameo appearance at the end of the Leciester game where he flashed a header wide of the post, but that was his first appearance in a Spurs shirt since last spring when he picked up an injury of his own and later had surgery.

Normally this might provide an opportunity for Will Lankshear to potentially make his season debut if Richy isn’t 90 minutes fit, but he’s also out after picking up a mild hamstring injury while playing for Spurs’ U21 team this past week. Football.London is reporting that the injury will cause him to miss a couple weeks of action, but wasn’t serious enough to keep him out long term.

Additionally, Rodrigo Bentancur will also miss out on the Everton match under the Premier League’s concussion protocol after a head-to-head clash against Leciester, but this was expected and reported several days ago. Yves Bissouma is an option to return from his club-imposed suspension for whippets use to start in midfield, but Postecoglou seemed to suggest that he’s not the ONLY option tomorrow and we might see a surprise.

“Biss is available but we’ve got some options there. The whole idea of trying to bulk up the squad is for these situations. He’s available for selection. The bridge building continues.”

What does that mean? Boy, you got me, but it probably involves either Lucas Bergvall or Archie Gray making their first Premier League start.

Tottenham’s newest signing, Wilson Odobert, has secured his work permit and is now available for selection. Postecoglou didn’t get drawn in to whether we’d see Odobert in action tomorrow, but this was his first opportunity to talk about Wilson and what Spurs fans might expect from him.

“We went through the same sort of processes. He’s one that we identified really early on in the summer. It’s no secret we were looking for a wide player and Wilson was one of the ones we highlighted. We had to go through certain steps to get these things done. They’re not as straight forward as saying ‘that’s who we want, go and get them’. Obviously getting big Dom in was very important for us and we spent a lot of time working on that deal but once Dom was done there was one target and that was Wilson and that happened really quickly.

“I really like the way he plays in the wide areas. He’s different to our other wingers. He’s a dribbler, he likes to get into the front third. He can play either side, he can play central. He’s had a really good development if you look at his trajectory from PSG as a youngster to Troyes, playing in Ligue 1, and France and Premier League football before the age of 19. I think he ticked all the boxes for us and he’s a fantastic young bloke as well, so really happy to get him in.

“With all the players we’ve signed, I think irrespective of age we’re signing them because we think they can make an impact. I certainly see that with Wilson. He’s a year older than Archie and Lucas and they’ve already made an impact. We sign players because we’re still in that stage of building a team. I won’t bring players here who I don’t think can meaningfully contribute to us in the short-term and Wilson definitely will.”

Tottenham kick off at home against Everton tomorrow (Saturday) at 10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. BST. The match is not televised in the USA or UK, but will be streamed on Peacock.

For 30 minutes it looked like this might be a season to remember for Tottenham Hotspur...then came an hour of match time that implied it could be a very long year. In reality, the transformation under Ange Postecoglou is still very much ongoing. There will be more bumps and stumbles along the way, but the impressive start against Leicester shows there will be some bright moments as well, and that certainly might be the case this weekend.

Saturday brings Everton to North London after a rough 0-3 opening weekend against Brighton. The Toffees have been in a rough place recently, but last year’s performance actually would have been enough to finish 12th were it not for the points deduction. Still, not much is expected from Everton (aside from avoiding relegation) this season, so this is a great opportunity for Spurs to quickly bounce back.

Tottenham Hotspur (t-9th, 1pt) vs. Everton (t-13th, 0pts)

Date: Saturday, August 24

Time: 10:00 am ET, 3:00 pm UK

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

TV: Peacock (USA)

Like Tottenham, it was Everton who looked the better side at first last week, but the tide quickly turned toward the Seagulls who scored all three goals. Ashley Young’s red card did not help the home side’s cause, but the outcome was determined before his sending off. At the other end of the pitch, perhaps it could be time for summer signing Iliman Ndiaye to enter the lineup. The Marseille transfer made a substitute appearance last week, but for a team who had the second-fewest goals in the league last season, there is a huge need for someone to step up in the attack.

Spurs won the home fixture last year, winning 2-1 behind goals from Richarlison and Heung-Min Son. The Brazilian then bagged a brace against his former club in the reverse fixture before Tottenham conceded a 94th-minute equalizer to drop two important points. Despite all of Everton’s struggles, Spurs have actually not done the double in this tie since the 2017/18 campaign.

Picking out spots

Expected goals are an imperfect measurement, but the big takeaway from Monday’s draw was how Tottenham failed to capitalize on its opportunities. Indeed, this is nothing new: after averaging 0.35 more goals than xG over the first 28 matches last season, Spurs finished the season averaging 0.38 fewer goals than xG during the final 10 contests. Against Leicester it was not just an xG issue, as too often the attack did not even yield a shot, but it is clear this team is missing a killer instinct.

The challenge will not be easy to overcome with Jordan Pickford in net this Saturday. Despite a tough opening performance, the Everton keeper was fourth in PSxG+/- last season, which measures how many goals he prevented compared to how many a keeper would be expected to concede. Combining this strong shot-stopping ability with Tottenham’s own struggles in the box as of late could yield yet more frustration. Everton does have issues along the backline with Jarrad Branthwaite still out, James Tarkowski possibly joining him, and Young suspended, but Spurs must capitalize on their chances.

Invertigo

Aside from Archie Gray’s versatility and the apparent revival of Djed Spence, one spot Tottenham did not really address this summer was fullback. Both Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro had positive seasons last year, but much continues to rest on their shoulders. The transition to Postecoglou’s system is perhaps felt most significantly at these spots, and there really is no Plan B should it not work out.

Porro started the season as well as possible, getting on the scoresheet, but Udogie left something to be desired, likely due to an incomplete preseason. But with Spurs’ issues creating chances, as well as too many opposing counters with very little resistance, both of these players need to consistently be playing at a high level for Postecoglou’s strategies to play out. Everton is not a side that should offer a ton of resistance, so both fullbacks can and must be an active part of the build up, and creativity, in the final third this weekend.