Here are our Tottenham Hotspur talking points from their 2-2 draw at Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday evening.
After that performance at Old Trafford, Ange Postecoglou refused to speak negatively about his Tottenham Hotspur team.
He became irritated during a radio appearance when it was claimed that Spurs should have capitalized more on their dominance. Why is he so angry? It’s because the Australian has never been more proud of his squad than he was on Sunday evening, and he wasn’t going to let anyone say anything negative about them.
Despite the incredible obstacles thrown at Postecoglou and his team throughout their first six months together, this week has reached new heights.
The Tottenham manager couldn’t even enjoy bringing in early January signings in the form of Timo Werner and Radu Dragusin because the same week he lost Ben Davies, Giovani Lo Celso, and Dane Scarlett to new muscle injuries. Ryan Sessegnon picked up a short-term “niggle” in Postecoglou’s words after returning from 11 months out, but that wasn’t the end of the problems.
For fate wasn’t finished with his team yet, as illness spread throughout the group. Dejan Kulusevski got the worst of it. The Swede felt better briefly and attempted to exercise on Saturday, but his condition deteriorated throughout the day and he was unable to play on Sunday.
Postecoglou told football.london that Oliver Skipp and Destiny Udogie were among “four or five players” in the team who had also become ill, but the duo ended up pushing themselves to the limit and beyond, with Skipp playing 84 minutes and Udogie the full 95 minutes. Some Tottenham fans would have been reminded of the infamous ‘Lasagne-gate’ episode from many years ago.
Postecoglou had 11 first-team players unavailable, including captain Son Heung-min and vice-captain James Maddison; in fact, he had no attacking creative center midfielders to call on, and the Spurs manager was unable to name a complete bench. He could only choose eight players, including two goalkeepers and three young academy members. Alfie Dorrington, an 18-year-old centre-back, had played the entire 90 minutes for the U21s in their 3-2 victory over Southampton less than 48 hours earlier.
Postecoglou’s starting XI included one centre-back who had not played a minute in nearly two and a half months, as well as another who returned after more than three weeks away and only a couple of training sessions. Furthermore, despite having not played a single minute of football since November 4, Werner was immediately added to the lineup.
So it would have been totally acceptable if Spurs fought bravely but suffered because the Theatre of Dreams instead delivered nightmares.
Tottenham have only won two of their previous 11 Premier League games against Manchester United, with one coming earlier this season at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Rasmus Hojlund unleashed a rocket-like shot past Guglielmo Vicario barely two minutes and 32 seconds into the match, ensuring defeat. United have won all 15 of their previous Premier League games at Old Trafford before the break.
According to Opta, Tottenham have lost 1-0 in 25 of their 32 Premier League games at Old Trafford, the most times one team has conceded the first goal away to another in the league.
The fact was anything but, and Spurs may consider themselves unlucky to come away with only a point. The away side played some exquisite stuff throughout, passing around United with triangles and Postecoglou-inspired patterns of play, with guys in red chasing shadows.
Both teams struck the woodwork, but Udogie scored for United with a header off his own post, while the returning Cristian Romero hit the crossbar at the other end of the park.
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