There he stood again – Mauricio Pochettino, near the touchline, inside his technical area, dwarfed by the steep stands and the colossal arch of Wembley. He paced up and down. His German counterpart Roger Schmidt almost mimicked him, but Pochettino had a confused and frustrated look about him. In the stands, Dimitar Berbatov plucked his chin.
Inside the first five minutes, Leverkusen pinged the ball dangerously in and around the Tottenham box. The hosts were shaky, allowing a mid-table Bundesliga team to dictate the play, without too much difficulty. When they did get on the ball, Tottenham were imprecise, and more often sloppy. The passing of Hugo Lloris and Moussa Dembele was abysmal. They impeded Tottenham from playing out of the back, a basic of Pochettino’s teachings. Up front, Heung-Min Son, Asia’s most expensive export at £22 million and a former Bayer Leverkusen player, was isolated, drifting on an island of solitude.
Déjà vu
It was too much of a déjà vu for the English club and an elongation of their poor domestic run – by their high standards – this season under Pochettino. That animosity is in part explained by the new existential backdrop Tottenham face: Can they join the top of club football, both at home and in Europe? Call it football’s Bullingdon club. Tottenham have had a glimpse at the marvels inside the club – not just at the glorious gilded halls and exquisite architecture, but also at the idea of belonging to an exclusive community.
However, the North London club have found the desired transition to the next level difficult. They are no longer pushovers. The days of an easy 90 minutes against "Spursy", or Tottenham rolling over away from home are long gone. Last season, they had the best defensive record in the Premier League. Not since 1951 had Spurs finished a season with that record in the division they have been in.
That metamorphosis was in general achieved by pressing, the buzz concept in the modern game. Pochettino is a pupil of Marcelo Bielsa. Pressing, and attacking, are the key to his game plan, but the younger Argentine does compromise. He does not want to be limited by an ideological straitjacket. Tottenham’s pressing is controlled, more measured. The glorious pressing folly of Southampton is a distant memory for Pochettino.Steep learning curve
The Tottenham coach has matured, but his team are still facing a steep learning curve. This season, they still have the best defence in the Premier League, having conceded just five goals so far, in spite of the absence of mercurial central defender Toby Alderweireld. It took 10 matches for Tottenham to concede from open play in the league this season.
Pochettino’s concerns are higher up the field. That was in evidence against Leverkusen again. Victor Wanyama’s power and dynamism provided good cover in front of the central defence, but Dembele was an example of how too many of Tottenham’s players have been peripheral, and sometimes, poor. Christian Eriksen, Mousa Sissoko and Dele Alli suffered from the same affliction. Tottenham’s midfielders contributed little in the final third of the field.Eriksen conjured up Tottenham’s first danger after the half-hour mark from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, Alli had a penalty appeal, but it was a classic case of a semi-schwalbe, with the No. 20 dragging his leg along, inviting contact from the opposing captain Omer Toprak. Dier rattled the crossbar with a loud clang five minutes from the end, but by then, Kevin Kampl had scored what was to be the match’s lone goal, pouncing on a deflected ball from Charles Aranguiz.
Slow-motion football
Leverkussen’s goal was prosaic, Tottenham’s overall performance anything but poetic. Pochettino had reverted to plan B after Dembele’s injury with a 4-1-4-1, but the tactical switch had an academic impact. Tottenham lapsed into a giant black hole of slow-motion football. At best, Spurs were an ensemble of gloriously abject players, reveling in collective mediocrity, with the notable exception of Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen.
On the night, they were the anti-thesis of their own wonderful 2-0 victory against Manchester City at the start of October. There won’t be a let up for Spurs this month – November is daunting with Arsenal, West Ham United, Monaco and Chelsea as fixtures. Harry Kane’s imminent return from injury may stop Tottenham from misfiring.