Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest

Tottenham Hotspur followed up on their impressive Europa League quarter-final victory over Eintracht Frankfurt with a flat 2-1 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest on Monday night.

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned from Tottenham 1-2 Nottingham Forest:

Tottenham are going through the motions

Tottenham Hotspur look like a side who are dead and buried in the Premier League with a European semi-final on the horizon. It’s not uncommon to see this kind of thing from players towards the end of the season. A lot of them will have one eye on the semi against Bodo/Glimt and won’t want to put their bodies on the line for mere Premier League points over the next few weeks.

That would be all well and good if it weren’t for two key details. One – Tottenham have been like this for six months. Two – If Spurs have ambitions to become a big club, future seasons will involve fighting in all competitions until the very end of the campaign. This year, fans won’t complain as long as the Lilywhites make the Europa League final, but it’s not a great habit to get into.

Boos from the Tottenham Hotspur fans

Spurs supporters were flying high after their Europa League quarter-final win over Eintracht Frankfurt. However, it doesn’t take much to lose momentum and bring things crashing back down to Earth. After all, even for dead-rubber games like tonight, fans are still paying big money to be there. They want to be entertained at the very least!

With Spurs going into the half-time break, boos were ringing around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It should serve as a reminder to Ange Postecoglou, the Spurs squad, and Daniel Levy that supporters set very high standards in N17. There is one consistent theme in football at all levels and in all scenarios – the fans at least want to feel like everyone at the club is giving 100 per cent. That simply didn’t feel like the case this evening. Remember – there is another Tottenham Hotspur protest planned soon, Mr Levy.

Spurs need to defend better against Bodo/Glimt

You would think that Tottenham’s back four would want to get into a good rhythm going into the semi-final – maybe a couple of clean sheets under their belt to keep confidence high. After all, four of that back five (including the goalkeeper) will definitely start against Bodo/Glimt in May. Not to mention the fact that Cristian Romero was wearing the captain’s armband this evening. Have a little pride!

The first goal was excusable. Yes, Pedro Porro’s headed clearance could have been better, but it was a cruel deflection that directly led to the goal. A few minutes later, Forest had a third with some poor marking in the box, with the offside flag coming to Tottenham’s rescue. A wake-up call, right? Nope. Nuno Espirito Santo’s men had the ball in the back of the net a third time shortly after, with Guglielmo Vicario doing his best Superman impression into no-man’s land while Romero and Micky Van de Ven played Guess Who in the box. The standard simply have to be so, so much higher.

Ange Postecoglou is trying to find the fitness sweet spot

Of course, Postecoglou will want his players to keep grinding out wins in the Premier League over the coming weeks, but you also get the sense he is using it as Europa League pre-season. You know what, it’s hard to blame him either. If it results in a European trophy, within the context of this Premier League season, it is definitely worth a few more losses. Postecoglou made five changes to his starting XI against Nottingham Forest, and also made sure all four centre-backs got 45 minutes each.

The Spurs boss clearly wants to get more minutes into the legs of Kulusevski and Richarlison to build their form, while looking after important players like Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison. If everything goes as planned, Tottenham will arrive in the semi-final not only with a strong starting XI, but also a bench full of fit and firing stars too. Let’s see how that plan shakes out.

Wingers were the bright spark for Tottenham

Fortunately, there was a positive to take away from the events at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Both Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert were real livewires for the Lilywhites. For large parts of this season, the likes of Heung-min Son and Brennan Johnson have been blunt instruments when it comes to carrying the ball and taking on their full-back opponents. Most of Johnson’s devastating work has come from arriving late at the back post, while Sonny has lived off the odd spark when drifting infield.

This evening, both Tel and Odobert took on their men for fun, showing consistent direct and dangerous wingplay. The simple fact is that you need that from at least one of your wingers on the pitch at all times – and Spurs haven’t been able to say that much this season. Had Richarlison and some of the Spurs midfielders been a little sharper, we could have been talking about a fair few assists out there for the two France U21 internationals.

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