Tottenham slumped to another Premier League reverse, going down 2-0 at Fulham on Sunday to leave Ange Postecoglou with another international break to stew on a bad result.
Ryan Sessegnon was the story of the game, scoring within two minutes of his introduction against his former club – his first goal at Craven Cottage since Boxing Day, 2018.
Earlier Rodrigo Muniz broke the deadlock in the 78th-minute, while Dominic Solanke missed three good chances for Spurs, who made seven changes from the mid-week win over AZ Alkmaar.
Here are three Spurs talking points from the match…
Spurs struggling to build momentum in Europa League
For the 15th time this season, Spurs were beaten in the Premier League.
The question at this stage of their campaign, though, is how much another loss actually matters?
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Spurs’ league season was effectively ended by the home defeat to Manchester City this month, which halted a mini-revival of three straight wins and rendered their final 11 league games as little more than preparation for the Europa League.
Now only success in Europe can save the campaign for Postecoglou’s side – a fact which was reflected in the head coach’s XI at Craven Cottage.
Micky van de Ven, Pedro Porro, Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison and Heung-min Son were all rested, leaving a side desperately short of creativity and with a stodgy feel.
The league games may be largely used to play players into form for the Europa League, but problem for Spurs is that they will have little chance of winning the competition if they do not build some momentum and positivity; losing has become a bad habit for Postecoglou’s side and few teams can simply turn it on for one-off games.
Postecoglou is justified in rotating because he cannot afford to lose the likes of Van de Ven, Maddison and Son to injury in such a low-stakes match but he must also ensure his players remain motivated and competitive in the Premier League.
Spurs looked on the beach for most of this game and it will be hard to reverse the bad vibes and return to business against Eintracht Frankfurt next month if they continue in this vein.
Spurs must find solutions without key players
The drop off between some of the eye-catching football Spurs played against AZ on Thursday to this insipid display was stark.
After a flat first half of few chances for either team, Spurs picked up with the introductions of Son and Bergvall at half-time and looked the more likely winners for the first 20 minutes of the second half.
But it did not take much for Fulham to turn their game in their favour, with the visitors failing to cope after Cristian Romero was taken off and the Cottagers went up gear with fresh energy from the bench, notably through Sessegnon.
It is all very well Spurs playing well with most of their best players available but Postecoglou must find solutions for games when he rotates.
It was Fulham, not Spurs, who looked like the side with an ingrained and coherent philosophy for most of the match, while Postecoglou’s players struggled to progress the ball into good areas and play through the Cottagers’ well-organised defence.
Spurs have a deep squad and their injury problems have mostly cleared but they still look dysfunctional when key players are missing – a problem the head coach must address.
Bissouma running out of chances
For the majority of Postecoglou’s tenure, Yves Bissouma has been the head coach’s go-to pick at No6 when available.
In common with the team, Bissouma made an outstanding start under Postecoglou before flatlining into an inconsistent pattern but the Australian continued to value his press-resistance and ability to progress the ball from the base of the midfield.
But this year, Bissouma has fallen behind both Rodrigo Bentancur and Bergvall in the pecking order for the biggest games and when he has played, he has been poor.
At Craven Cottage, Bissouma was replaced at half-time for the second consecutive league game, and third time in five matches, after another enormously underwhelming 45 minutes, in which he was sloppy in possession and offered nothing in the way of creativity.
With Bergvall, who was outstanding against AZ Alkmaar midfield, Spurs marginally improved, and the Swede added energy and created Spurs’ first big chance of the game for Solanke.
With Postecoglou blessed with midfield options – and Archie Gray starting for the club in his preferred position for the first time here – you wonder how many more chances Bissouma is going to get.