Another week, more points dropped by Spurs.
Charlie Adam opened the scoring when he headed in Mame Biram Diouf’s somewhat-deflected cross. Steven N’zonzi made it 2-0 when he slotted into an empty net after a mix-up between Hugo Lloris and Eric Dier. Diouf completed the scoring when his shot slipped in at the near post. The win means Stoke have done the double over Spurs after winning 2-1 at White Hart Lane in November.
Wrong defensive selections by Pochettino
Danny Rose was on the bench for Spurs, presumably being rested after playing 90 minutes on his return from injury last week. This led to a back four comprising of four centre-backs; Eric Dier, Vlad Chiriches, Federico Fazio and Jan Vertonghen. Dier and Vertonghen, arguably Spurs’ best centre-backs were forced to play as full-backs. A Chiriches-Fazio combination at centre-back has never been tried in the Premier League and therefore was a massive risk by Pochettino. It did not pay off when Chiriches received a silly second yellow card shortly after the second half had started. Spurs were already 2-0 down and Chiriches’ red card only served to make the task harder. Pochettino should have given D’Andre Yedlin his Spurs debut as there is nothing left to play for and the young American could have used this opportunity to acclimatize to English football for next season. This would have allowed for Dier to play at centre-back instead of Chiriches.
Stoke dominate proceedings
Gone are the days of Rory Delap’s long throws, and long balls up to Peter Crouch. After seven years of effective, but not pretty, football under Tony Pulis – which not only got Stoke into the Premier League but ensured they stayed there – Stoke’s owners decided that they wanted to take a new path. Out went Pulis and in came Mark Hughes. This is Hughes’ second year at Stoke and he has not only improved the style of football at Stoke City but also managed to better Pulis’ achievement of achieving the Potters’ highest ever points total in the Premier League with their win over Spurs. Stoke played some splendid football and central to that was Steven N’Zonzi in central midfield. Stoke dominated the match and created more that Spurs (17 shots to Spurs’ nine). Spurs were poor but Stoke played extremely well and was the much better team.
Spurs’ poor run of form continues
Five points out of a possible 18. Spurs’ season will limp to an end. If drawing with Burnley and losing to Aston Villa was bad, losing 3-0 to Stoke with hardly threatening is carnage. Spurs are playing as if they are already in shorts and flip flops on some sunny beach. The season may have two games yet but Spurs’ players are already on vacation. They are not getting fourth and they will not finish lower than seventh. Spurs face Hull and Everton in their last two games and Pochettino will be demanding full points from those two fixtures. Will the players be up to it? That remains to be seen.
Burn-out factor
When Harry Kane burst onto the scene in November with a late winner versus Aston Villa, the general consensus was that Pochettino could not leave the youngster from North London on the bench any longer. It was his eighth goal of the season in all competitions for Spurs and he was outperforming Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado. Fast forward to May 2015 and Kane is Spurs’ talisman. He has 30 goals in all competitions and has even captained the side on several occasions and he is still only 21. He has played 49 games in all competitions – more than any other Spurs player – and there is indications in the last few matches that he is suffering from exhaustion. Kane is not the only one, though. Pochettino only has about 15 players that he can trust and these players play the majority of the games. Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb, Christian Eriksen are all played every week and are all in need of a rest. The end of the season cannot come soon enough for Spurs and these players.
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