It was a classic game of two halves on Sunday as Spurs took on Brighton.
Goals from Brennan Johnson and James Maddison saw Spurs lead 2-0 at half time, but goals from Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter, and Danny Welbeck saw Brighton successfully mount a comeback and take all three points.
After the game, Spurs were criticised for the manner in which they capitulated.
Alasdair Gold lambasts “horrible second-half performance” that let Brighton come back and beat Tottenham
After Tottenham’s defeat to Brighton, the club’s correspondent for Football London, Alasdair Gold, criticised the manner in which Spurs allowed the Seagulls to come back into the game and managed to offer no resistance as the game quickly went the other way.
“Tottenham played brilliantly in the first half… and then it was horrendous. Horrific. Horrible second-half performance. They flushed all that down the toilet in about 18 minutes worth of absolute garbage on the south coast.
“It’s like they crumbled under pressure when Brighton started coming back, no leadership to turn things around. That second half was a horror show. They let Brighton get back into the game with avoidable mistakes. The early goal in the second half was such a cliche—psychologically important—and it really hurt Spurs. Spurs started to shrink as Brighton fans came alive. The leadership wasn’t there when they needed it.
“Spurs were terrible in the second half—lacking intensity, not winning their duels, and just crumbling under pressure. The substitutions came too late, and by the time they happened, the game had already slipped out of their hands.”
Gold, via his own YouTube channel.
The defeat brought to a halt a five-game winning streak across all competitions for Spurs. They will face West Ham at home in the Premier League in the two weeks’ time.
Where’s the wind of change?
“Game state” is a concept that has arrived onto the football discourse scene not too long ago. It focuses on the idea that, at any given point in a game, one team will have more agency than the other, and on the back of it said team will have the ability to affect the game which will then affect the momentum—either a good thing pumps you with confidence and puts you in the ascendancy, or a bad thing puts your back against the wall.
No team, however good on paper and regardless of their pedigree, has control of every single moment of a game. Sure, any opposition against a side like Man City will have chances coming their way few and far between, but they will have chances. Ultimately, it’s crucial for every team to have in place a plan for how to perform when the momentum shifts against—or towards—you.
In the Brighton game, Spurs had no plan to fall back on once the momentum shifted away from them, no contingency to resort to in order to brace the Seagulls wave, and it cost them. It’s not the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last, and it’s not entirely the players’ fault.
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