Rodrigo Bentancur’s fifth-minute goal against Aston Villa, while only a handful of days ago, couldn’t feel more like a distant memory after watching 90-plus minutes of whatever the Tottenham Hotspur collectively called an offense during their latest UEFA Champions League match versus Monaco. A scoreless draw was the most that supporters could hope for, and this realization probably came somewhere around the 60-minute mark. Escaping Stade Louis II with a point, while not savory, is a result that continues to nourish our UCL aspirations.
This result shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise. Tottenham, while playing some of the best defense in Europe at the moment, currently has the ball control and creativity of a squad that just met on a late Saturday afternoon in the park for a pick-up game.
Monaco established a relentless high press from the get-go and rarely gave the Hotspur defenders any time to play the ball through the lines without risking a turnover. When they finally did grab hold of the ball for an extended spell, they never seemed to do more than make underwhelming crosses into the box that rarely found anything fruitful. Only 44% of the possession and an open play xG of 0.5 explains it all.
Pedro Porro’s offensive play was more of a liability than any shades of productivity. At one point, Porro took a free kick that missed the box entirely and may have landed out of bounds on the other side of the field. Cross after cross by Porro was either over the net, over the forwards’ heads, or just so poorly played that it would have been better if he had recycled it back to anyone.
Enough can’t be said about the tandem work done by Mickey Van de Ven and Kevin Danso. They both locked down the middle of the box, despite the constant bludgeoning by Monoco’s attackers. Archie Gray, while attempting a couple of poor passes when on the ball, did an excellent job defending his zone when off it. All three defenders, as well as Joao Palhinha, racked up 8+ defensive contributions and include the Italian Wall known as Vicario into that mix, and this Tottenham defense was in Monaco’s craw all night. The fact that Monaco failed to score with a 2.45 xG speaks loudly to the fantastic effort that this squad accomplished without its best defender in the starting XI.
The last two matches for Tottenham certainly raise concerns that the squad’s inability to score could spell doom for the slate of games ahead. Relying heavily on the defense is effective for now, but failing to score and lacking a spark that suggests scoring is even possible will inevitably sink any promising ship. But for now, enjoy the one point and move on to the next.
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