It would appear that Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs side are suffering from travel sickness. Sunday’s defeat by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park took the tally to three defeats from five games on the road in the Premier League this season.
It’s still early in this campaign, but our away performances in the league last season saw just seven wins overall, which doesn’t bode well.
As the players struggle to steady themselves from our stadium, even the most ardent Ange supporters must feel a little upset by that most recent performance and result against a team that, until they faced us, had not won a game at all .
Apart from the usual off-field, manager-focused frustrations about substitutions and tactical changes being made late or not at all, Sunday’s performance left me wondering: who is our leader on the pitch?
The all-too-familiar platitudes, mournful excuses and promises to work harder and do better next time spilled out of the players’ mouths in their post-match interviews. Guglielmo Vicario reflected that sometimes this team may not have the desire to fight.
So who is the player to lead that battle? Cristian Romero was the man with the captain’s armband against Palace, but he was also partly responsible for the goal with a poorly judged looping pass to Micky van de Ven.
Of course, leadership exists outside of a bracelet and it doesn’t always have to be the individual who shouts the loudest. Any number of players can choose to lead this team through games by demonstrating at every moment what it is that we need. Fight. Tranquility. Resilience Energy. Creativity. Discipline.
We will not always need the same type of character in every game, but we will always need effective leadership. It’s time to see who’s up to the challenge.
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