|
From Monday's action:
LEICESTER CITEH 1, Tottenham 1
The Hottentots were forcing corner after corner during the first half as we gave them far too much room down the left side. Fortunately, James Maddison remained nearly as ineffective on corner kicks as he was with us (despite Mumbling Martin Tyler actually praising his efforts) and apart from one chance where Wilfred Ndidi (who thankfully did not go to Scotland to rejoin Brendan Rodgers) had to do a semi-bicycle to clear the ball off of the line after it got past Hermansen, nothing came of all that effort.
29' in, Spurs did manage to have an extra man on the left, and so an unmarked Maddison was able to send a nice ball towards the penalty spot which Pedro Porro headed in, and we were down 0-1.
At which point, thankfully, the Tater Totts decided to switch off, perhaps thinking we had no chance on offense. After all, Jamie Vardy had only just returned from a month-long foot injury and, at 37, seemed unlikely to have his famous pace. (A long ball down the middle early on, which would have been a sure goal for Vardy a few years back, didn't even turn into a shot chance.)
Yes, but…after a halftime talk reorganized and re-energized the defense, we started to take advantage of Tottenham's high line, and in the 57', defender Viktor Kristiansen found himself unguarded down the left, slid the ball through an unoccupied box, and Abdel Fatawu (now permanently on the squad after his loan spell last season) chipped a nice little cross in that found Vardy, who still knows how to use his head, and it was even.
At which point, Spurs pretty much lost their heads, and we had the best chances from then on. Bobby DeCordova-Reid found Vardy in the box for a nice chance, but Vicario got a hand to it, then Kasey McAteer (supposedly The Future, but only a late sub here) hit a pop-up header that soared high and alas came down on the net (Vicario couldn't have got there if it had been more accurate) and, in extra time, Bergvall got his pocket completely picked and Ndidi had a great chance that Vicario barely dove to parry (and then he screamed at Bergvall as Bergvall has [I hope] never been screamed at before). Tottenham did force one last free kick from the side and Richarlisson had a chance to head it in, but couldn't glance it correctly.
So, what to think? Surely a point against a side that finished 5th last season counts as a good result, especially as we only had 31% possession and they had 10 corners in the first half alone. But I wish we could have grabbed all three, given the chances we had in the final half-hour.
I think the problem is a lack of star power; Steve Cooper believes in proven Prem players, so with DeCordova-Reid and Harry Winks and Conor Coady (out injured) and Oliver Skipp (just acquired from Spurs) we should be able to post decent results often enough to likely survive relegation. But we won't be moving forward until McAteer (or Michael Golding or maybe even the elusive Nathan Opoku) shows the promise we've been told they have.
Still, better one than none. Certainly the Spurs fans were in a lather…but when are they not? That team would drive anyone around the bend.
|