Given where they’re at, Spurs have to get credit for fighting back from 2-0 down for a point against a good Manchester United team. But that defending…
1. We probably do need to start here by giving credit where credit’s due. This was shaping up to be a very different 16 Conclusions at half-time and, while Spurs’ second-half performance doesn’t eradicate the catastrophic flaws and faultlines exposed once again in a grim first half, it would be remiss not to praise Ryan Mason and his side for the response.
On the back of Sunday’s grisly unpleasantness and finding themselves 2-0 down to a very good side chiefly through their own witless carelessness and led by a rookie coach it would have been no surprise to see this turn into another ugly Spurs clusterf*ck. That they were so conspicuously the better side in the second half is noteworthy and creditable.
2. Of course, that means the flipside is also true. That was a sloppy second half from a United side who spent the first 45 gratefully and nonchalantly accepting the gifts Spurs offered but appeared wholly unprepared for anything different in the second half. It’s scant defence to note that this was an opinion shared by the entire world at half-time. Spurs’ collapse over recent weeks means United’s top-four spot remains relatively secure, but the casual tossing away of two precious points here will rightly rile Erik Ten Hag.
3. Mitigation for United’s second-half stumble is easy enough to find, though. Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Brighton was a punishing and exhausting 120 minutes followed by the emotional stress of a penalty shoot-out and the subsequent outpouring of joy and relief upon winning it. Clever Spurs had no such problems having used up precisely zero energy at St James’ Park earlier that same day.
4. That FA Cup semi-final also goes some way to explaining the second-half substitutions Ten Hag felt duty bound to make, but there can be no doubt he lost that particular battle to Mason. That’s a significant feather in the cap of the young Spurs coach.
While Mason’s decision to replace Richarlison – by far the liveliest of Spurs’ attackers in the first half and the sort of chaos merchant that appeared their likeliest route back into the game – rather than Son Heung-min when introducing Dejan Kulusevski from the bench raised eyebrows but was thoroughly vindicated. Kulusevski changed the feel of the game and Son, while still levels below his best,…
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