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It was a bad night for Tottenham in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie with Ajax, as they were defeated at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium by a single goal scored by Donny van de Beek in the 15th minute.
The tie isn’t over for Spurs as they still have the second leg to play in Amsterdam next Wednesday, but if Mauricio Pochettino’s side want to make the final in Madrid they will certainly need to play far better than they did tonight, particularly as the Dutch team now have a crucial away goal in the bank.
Here are 3 reasons why Tottenham lost to Ajax.
#1 Pochettino’s ranks are horribly depleted
It’s almost becoming cliche to mention Tottenham’s lack of activity in both the summer and winter transfer windows this season, but while the lack of new signings didn’t seem to matter when Spurs were firing on all cylinders at full strength, suddenly the decision not to strengthen the squad is coming back to bite them hard.
Spurs simply look depleted right now; Harry Kane, Harry Winks and Serge Aurier were all ruled out of this game with injuries; Dele Alli is playing with a broken hand; Heung-Min Son was suspended for this game; Eric Dier remains unfit and stayed on the bench.
Moussa Sissoko did play but was considered only half-fit and so started the game as a substitute, but worse for Spurs he was brought on to replace Jan Vertonghen, who appeared to sustain a concussion after a nasty clash of heads with teammate Toby Alderweireld.
Ajax played excellently in the first half tonight but didn’t look half as dangerous in the second half, and yet Tottenham didn’t really come close to breaking them down at any stage.
They didn’t look like the side who tore the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund apart earlier this season and for me that’s all down to a lack of key personnel. And it’s hard to see how they can turn this around before next week’s return leg.
#2 Christian Eriksen had a stinker
So much is made of the influence of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son on Tottenham’s fortunes that often, the brilliant work of Christian Eriksen flies under the radar somewhat.
In reality though, Eriksen is arguably the key man for Spurs, and his stats – 9 goals and 16 assists in all competitions – back that up. Unfortunately though, tonight was one of his poorest games in recent memory.
Everything the Danish playmaker tried just seemed to go wrong tonight; he misplaced passes, seemed to be rushing his build-up play too often, and his set-pieces went mostly awry too. A passing success rate of 66.7% - way down from his Champions League average of 80.1% - should tell the whole story really.
It’s hard to put your finger on what went wrong for Eriksen against his old club, too. It could be argued that he’s simply exhausted after a long season that’s seen him appear in 46 games for Spurs, but my hunch is that without Harry Winks, Eric Dier and Moussa Sissoko (for the first half of this game at least) to provide control in the centre of the field, Eriksen just doesn’t have enough time or space to really pick the lock of the opposition’s defence.
Judging by his lofty standards it’s unlikely that Eriksen will have another game as poor as this any time soon, but it was still a very disappointing performance that definitely contributed to Tottenham’s loss.
#3 Dele Alli was ineffective in midfield
I was tempted to write about Ajax’s performance here but in all honesty I wasn’t hugely impressed; the Dutch side outclassed Spurs for the first half an hour of the game, but slowed down dramatically in the second half and if Spurs had been able to carve out some better chances, the result may well have been different.
But Pochettino’s side couldn’t do that and part of the reason for their lack of opportunities came from the use of Dele Alli.
Pochettino decided on a 3-5-2 formation for this game, with Alli used as part of a central midfield that also included Christian Eriksen and Victor Wanyama, who played in a deeper-lying role.
But playing in this role simply isn’t the best use of Alli, who performs best when he’s playing slightly off a central striker – usually Harry Kane, who he clearly has a great on-field relationship with – and that shone through tonight as Alli was totally ineffective throughout the game.
Fernando Llorente is no Kane, but Pochettino should definitely consider playing Alli slightly behind him going forward, even if that means marginalising widemen Lucas Moura and Heung-Min Son somewhat.
Playing in a more central midfield role stymies Alli’s game – as Gareth Southgate seems to have found out when Alli appears for England – as he doesn’t seem to be able to make his late dashes into the box or link with the forward line anywhere near as well.
With Tottenham’s squad already badly depleted, it’s important that they make the most of the players they do still have – and Alli could be a key man in the final stretch of the season.
