Tottenham won London derby against Brentford in style with 2:0. I am glad players took this game seriously and started playing football from beginning of match. Front three Kane, Son and Lucas sprinted doing good pressure on Brentford last line, while players in defense looked confident and good. One player deserve a lot of price for this performance. It's Oliver Skipp. He was everywhere on pitch running forward and back, being protection shield for defenders. He got deserved Man of the match award.
Harry Kane was excellent and made 3 cracking passes. First for Lucas chance, second for Reggi on left whose cross was blocked and ended up in corner and third for Reggi again who founded alone Son for tap in goal for close range for 2:0. Harry had one good chance, but his shot has been saved by Brentford goalkeeper. We saw a lot of movement, big determination and passion from all players from the beginning. It wasn't really grinding except in 10-15 minutes in second half, but Spurs were in control during all game and moved good.
I noticed two problematic things which Spurs need to fix.
First thing I noticed and if I noticed Conte noticed it too for sure was communication problem between Pantherman Hugo Lloris and defenders like Davies and Dier which cleared ball in front of him despite no opposition players were around them. Hugo should just claim those balls saying "Mine" and they should let him to get ball. Davies clearance was header on 15-20 m. where Brentford player took the ball and made dangerous volley. It shouldn't happen if he just let ball to Hugo because there were no opponents around him. I don't know if Hugo didn't claim ball or Davies didn't hear but that could end like goal for absolutely no reason.
Second thing which need to improve are corners. I am not big fan of Son-Lucas short passing from corner. I am also not big fan of making cross with left leg from left and right from right side because that ball is moving away from goal and need strong header effort to put it inside net. Cross with right leg from left side and with left leg from right side would make ball attack box better and little effort by head can put it inside net. Only danger from corner was when Spurs did corner like that and Hojbjerg hit goalkeeper into face. We had 10 or more corners and were dangerous only two times...
"Important win for building some momentum before busy schedule" said Kane after the game. Win bring up confidence and imagination about top 4 finish started again because Tottenham is 2 points behind West Ham with game in hand. Someone asked Conte if Spurs can finish top 4, but passionate Italian answered "I believe we can, but we need to go match by match, I ask for patience". When I read Conte's statement I think he sees games just like fans do. I read his team is working with Kane explaining to him importance and beauty of winning league with boyhood club... I love that kind of work. We already saw results yesterday. Kane is back ladies and gentleman. He is no longer sending bad passes, he's sending cracking defense destroyers and it's not question of game but minute when he will start scoring goals again!
Conte knows exactly what which player need to improve or how he can help each player to become better. I don't doubt that. Strange but during answering on questions he usually answers what I would... He entered fully into brains of fans.
Next game against Norwich will give us answer on question "Can Spurs play two consecutive good games ?" This is prerequisite for going to 4th place. If you want to be in top 4 you need to grind opponents in rows. We'll soon see if Spurs can do that. I think they can! As I always stated It's question of motivation and Conte is great motivator whose words in dressing room hit you! He's giving each player precise task what he should do on pitch.
Norwich is in good form, not lost 4 games, changed coach too. It will not be easy to win and they require start of grinding from minute 1. Despite all of that I think they will fall in Tottenham stadium. I am also confident Kane will score goal in that game. Let's grind them on Sunday! COYS!!!
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