Now that's what I call falling back down to earth with a bump.
Wigan didn't park the bus in front of the goal. They all screamed shotgun and drove it around White Hart Lane. Credit to them for their hard work off the ball, closing us down, not allowing us time to stick a foot on the ball and take control of the tempo. They did park up second half, but not because they ran of gas. Shame on us, however, for not having the tenacity to push them off the ball, stick that foot on it, and smash 'em out of N17.
It was made even more so comfortable by our lack of composure. Sloppy, uneasy early play gave confidence to Wigan and not a lot in the way of penetrative football from us. Defoe had a couple of decent efforts, but lacklustre in comparison to what we are capable of. Champions League hangover? I hate that phrase already. Not something I want to be hearing again this season.
We turned up the pace in the second half, but it was still all a bit stuck at the 60% mark. No swagger. No clean, crisp, classic Tottenham movement. Shades of last season's dark moments at the Lane. Basically, on days like this, you tend to get the following head-shaking components:
We start slow
We survive a couple of scares
We fail to take hold of the game
We retain possession
We create some chances, but don't finish them
The game progresses
And continues to progress
But we never truly dictate
And we never actually visibly shift gear
What you have here is break-down of the quintessential Spurs home game non-entity, which results in a long walk home up the high road and Match of the Day removed from your recording schedule.
Assou-Akotto gave his doubters ample evidence of his sometimes-dodgy concentration. Off he went at half-time, Kranjcar on, with Pav on for Crouch. We had most of the possession, Wigan defende and remained disciplined. For us, frustration personified. Ominous. You could see what was coming. We've seen it before.
How we joked pre-match we'd win comfortably. I guess if we're going to earn distinction on the lessons learned from last season by losing again to remind us of our frailties, we may as well get them out of the way early doors because any more misfiring like today and we'll regret it towards the back end of the season when we tally up the points. One mistake at home, that's your lot Spurs. No room for more, ok?
We lacked any sort of individual magic, talismanic inspiration or moment of brilliance to get us out of the sleepy performance. You know the sort of thing, when you play below average, but someone out there does something completely out of the blue and out of sync with the rest of the game to win the points.
How long is Modric out for?
Assou-Ekotto going off and having Bale move back to left-back meant we lost that power going forward, but then he wasn't overly impressing today anyway. No one was.
It's funny how nowadays, when we drop points, its usually because the side don't quite get it together, rather than being abjectly rubbish or outplayed off the park. Ordinary is enough for a hard-working side to get the better of us. Yes I know - it doesn't happen often but that doesn't mean we can't be displeased when we see it play out again. It's easy for the opposition because all they need to do is the same thing all afternoon because we're not going to try anything different to shock/surprise them. Granted we came close, but it was all apologetic. And this allows them to the opportunity toperhaps steal all points.
Then we enter the final ten or so minutes of the game. That's when we completely switch off, fall apart. It's getting a bit silly this. I still struggle to see a leader on the pitch. 78 minutes (Alcaraz). 79 minutes (Gomez). Two massive misses from Wigan. Phews everywhere. "Lucky escape", you thought to yourself. So we let them have another go. 80 minutes (Rodallega), 0-1 Wigan.
We had a couple of chances to equalize through Kranjcar, Dawson and most clearly Kaboul, but what does it matter? Banana skin well and truly slipped on.
This is the fourth time (recently), so it seems we are not quite grasping the solution to this problem. Perhaps it was written in the stars, redemption for Wigan for last season's humiliation and their nightmare start this term. But no scapegoats, the whole team and Harry need to get to grips once and for all why we stuttered and slumped. And Harry in particular needs to work hard on this. Tactics, they don't win you games, players do. So he says. Well, our players still have a chink in their armour that I'd rather not be seeing. And there's an argument that when the opposition do frustrate you, if you do happen to say, change the formation (and thus tactics) they might not be able to cope, what with the onus on the opposition to stop a renewed and different charge forward.
Losing at home to a side that we should never be dropping points to. We all didn't expect this because it was way too obvious for it to happen. And yet here we are about to knee-jerk (let's not):
Two home games, one point. Let's try not to do this after every Champions' League game please. Because I reckon that's going to be the excuse for this shower of nothingness. It poured in the first leg against the Young Boys. It dripped today.
Wasted afternoon. Wasted for everyone other than the 60 away supporters who travelled down probably believing they would witness another spanking for their miserable side. Not so miserable today. Ridiculous is football. Champions League? This is not meant to be the way we roll.
Tactics
We have the players so lets see more of an in-game evolution from 442 to 433. It's going to be a necessary ploy for us in Europe. If a side is parking the bus, or hassling us, there has to be a positive change. Harry has gotten it right before with substitutions, so I can't help thinking that we are still slightly fragile to some extent. We appeared to be - as eleven players - one predator that couldn't quite muster up the effort to chase and kill its prey.
I wont knee-jerk because this type of performance will only happen two or three times a season - but that's potentially nine points lost. So, greedy as I am, I want to see it eradicated from our match-day make-up. Completely.
Individuals
No point singling out and criticising anyone in particular. It was a collective fudge-up. Everyone was low-key, lacked urgency, no game-changer. Under-par all over the pitch.
Creative spark
We have plenty of players to supply one, so let's not be knee-jerking about Huddlestone or Bale or anyone else. As above, collectively, nobody was on-form today. Simple as that. Shame of course, that nobody was able to lift the team for that moment of inspiration. Because, its what the big teams do, even when they play badly.
Wigan
They got their own tactics spot on. Considering they took all three points in similar fashion to how we lost them last season in the same ilk of depressive defeats. Talking of which...
Wolves, Hull, Stoke and now Wigan
No more. Breaking down these types of teams appears to be our main gripe. Taking all the good things into account, the fact we can beat Arsenal, Chelsea then Man City with the pressure on (at the end of last season), but fail when we're favourites to win at home against an inferior side proves there's still an issue.
Redknapp post-match
He called it a rare day. And I agree. It's good we can name and shame disappointing games because they don't came around that often any more. Let's not forget that. But like I've said already, it's not excusing it, because if we want to push on, we can't afford to be baffled too often, especially on our own patch.
COYS.
