5-a-side: Thoughts on Defeat at Craven Cottage | OneFootball

Fulham away is a difficult game, particularly this season. Even so, Spurs did not show enough.

1. No Mickey van de Ven

Mickey was welcomed back in midweek, went off in the second half, and did not play today. Let us hope this is a precaution with the idea of easing him back in and knowing the Frankfurt Europa game is far more important to us. Too early to worry, but as the AZ Alkmaar game showed, he is extremely important to the team, arguably our most important player. Christian Romero looked more like his old self before he too went off. Again, I am hoping it is a deliberate choice to manage his minutes rather than anything else. Both defenders are needed for Europa and our lack of strength without them showed towards the end of the game.

2. Early Intent

In both halves, but particularly the second, we started the game on the front foot. This is a welcome sign as something that Ange talks a lot about, and that we seemed to do when he first arrived. Too often this season, however, Spurs have started slowly. Today, at least there seemed intent, even if we did allow Fulham to grow into the game in both halves.Around 70 minutes, Dominic Solanke had our best chance of the game, shooting over on the volley from close range. Looking back, he likely had time to even take a touch before shooting. That effort was our eighth attempt on goal in the second half by that point compared to only one attempt in the whole of the first half. An improvement but we did not compete for the full 90.

3. Another game-changing center back sub

In our game in midweek, Ange made a change at center back in the second half when he subbed van de Ven. He did the same today when he subbed Romero. As mentioned above, this is likely due to managing minutes, so it maybe cannot be helped. We do need to adapt better to this though. Both times now this sub has resulted in our defence immediately going from relatively comfortable to indecisive and confused.Ben Davies has been at Spurs since 2014, and throughout that time, he has performed at a solid level, even if he has not always been a starting player when the whole squad is fit. He struggled along with others after the substitution though. Of course, Sessegnon coming on immediately caused the “ex-player with high chance to score against us” vibes but it was an avoidable goal. He was too strong for Davies, held the ball up well, and put in a decent finish. Davies was not helped by Spence’s positioning there but could have done better. Ben Davies is still only 31 and Spurs have already triggered a 1-year extension to his contract to ensure he is still at the club through the 2025-26 season. This is a good move by Spurs for next season. The goals today were ones to forget though.

4. Impact of Muniz

Rodrigo Muniz made a huge difference when coming on. Not just the obvious with the goal but he changed the focus of Fulham’s attack, held the ball up well, and gave them an outlet who did not let our defenders rest. Solanke has produced performances like that at times but today was not one of those from him. It shows the value of a striker who can bring others into play. Our predictable build up through the flanks produced some good moments, but it was another game where some variety in forward play would have been very welcome. Fulham had that towards the end, we did not. And it showed.

5. The Lucas Bergvall appreciation note

Lucas Bergvall may be earning himself a regular spot in the 5-a-side. He showed some great touches and skill to get past opponents, particularly at 0-0 when he could have had a penalty. The young midfielder was our best player today. He looks like a player that can dictate the tempo of a game as well as put a challenge in. A bright spot in a difficult game. Conclusion really that this is just one more game down until Frankfurt.