Welcome to King or Kaboul. After matches this will be filled with fresh and raw takes from the latest Tottenham game. This will be followed, as usual by my in-depth full match report later in the week as well as Spurs FPL Prospects Pre deadline. Enjoy.

King – Super Jan

Last minute winners are great, even better from a player that has been through so much at Tottenham. Jan has been such a good player for Spurs individually and as part of our Belgian duo at the heart of our defence. Playing centre back and left back whenever he has needed to. He has seen the low times and the more recent high times in Lilywhite and is a player I desperately want us to win something for. Last minute of the game and who is heading in to make it 2-1 and get the vital 3 points. Yes, you guessed it Super Jan. Our Rolls Royce of a centre back.

Vertonghen played really well in the 5-0 win over Burnley last weekend, never mind the fire assist for Son’s wonder goal. He played his left back role with great discipline and getting forward. As well as filling in at left centre back and in defensive midfield when the team needed him to do. As much as I am still unsure of the unbalanced right side, the left sided hybrid role is perfect for Jan’s skillset and attributes.

King – Fast start, again

Another fast start from Tottenham, something that we had been lacking for at least a year. I was so used to seeing us feel the game out and then push on in the second half, frustrating for everyone involved. We have scored first half goals and all of our last 7 games with us scoring earlier than the 25th minute in 4 of them. This time Lucas wriggled through the Wolves defence and smashed the ball past Patricio. Woof!

Kaboul – Unbalanced Right

Here again, yes that right side. For all the attacking prowess of Aurier he is just positionally awful. While in this role this will not get better. As he has had 90% of his defensive work taken away from him, he doesn’t need to worry about it as his main duty. Sanchez comes across to cover deeper and Sissoko has been moving over to help out. But in my opinion, this causes some confusion with who is picking who up and so on. In this match, as I highlighted in my article last week, I feared us getting overrun. The doubling up with Doherty and Traore, then Jonny and Jota on the left caused us many problems on Sunday. As much as I like the attacking intent, but I still think this tactic can only go so far and the limitations will be found out soon.

Kaboul – Substitutions

If we had not won this in the way we did, this would have been my number 1 cause for concern. On paper Wolves and our midfield were light years apart. Moutinho and Neves are a lovely duo with a blend of everything you would want. Our midfield was Dier and Sissoko, nuff said. Sissoko actually stayed more central in this game, Dier was allowed to move further up trying to break up play. Some of our attacking threat was stunted due to our lack of control in this area, with Dele dropping deeper to help out. I would have turned to Winks to help get back some control as we continued to struggle for dominance.

Lacking in passing ability and mobility are some of Dier’s weaknesses, these combined with Sissoko’s general shortcomings to play a more tactical game really did not help. That along with their doubling up on the wings compounded our need to at least get one area of control on the pitch. Eriksen was only brought on a minute before he scored, with Winks and Foyth joining as soon as we had got the winner.

King – Lucas

Never mind the great goal he scored 8 minutes in, or the fact he now has 2 goals in his last 4 Premier League games. But his overall game on Sunday was brilliant. He helped out the team, with tracking back and covering Aurier’s flank when needed to. He dropped deep to try and close of the passing lanes for Wolves, whilst also keeping the defenders occupied in their half. Solid performance that Mou should have loved. He used to use all kinds of players in defensive type roles. Imagine having a world class and prolific striker such as Eto’o and playing him on the wing so he can help defensively. Well that kind of thinking won him and his Inter team an unprecedented treble in 09-10.

King Wins

King wins just for this game. I did not think we would get out of this match with the 3 points, but we dug in and kept going until the end.

Thanks for reading and hope you stick around for my other articles this week.

COYS

Mr WP

@Writehartlane