Hey remember how Tottenham had 10 injured players ahead of yesterday’s Carabao Cup loss to Newcastle? That was pretty rad, right? Turns out — it was even worse.
Speaking to the press after the match, Tottenham
Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank said there were two other players that were both kept out of the match due to minor injuries — starting keeper Guglielmo Vicario and winger Wilson Odobert. The good news is that both of them are probable for Spurs’ home match against Chelsea this Saturday.
“[Vicario] had a smaller thing that had to be done but he’ll be ready for Chelsea. Odobert had a side strain unfortunately, that kept him out for this game. Also we need to assess him but it could look positive for Chelsea.
“Of course I would like to have everyone fit and available. We know injuries is part of it. It’s up to me to find solutions. I think some of the ones we had are relatively, how can I say, unlucky. It’s how quick you get them back. But a contact injury to Maddison, Bissouma. A knee thing with Destiny, we can’t do too much about that. Dom mishit the ball.
“[Archie Gray, now out for a month] would have started. He got a contact to the calf in Monaco. And probably in there or whatever also picked up a calf sprain.”
Despite the injury crisis (and yeah, I think we can probably call it a crisis again, this sucks Beavis) Frank was happy with the way the team performed at St. James’ Park yesterday, even though the match ended in a 2-0 loss and Spurs crashing out of the League Cup.
“I think it was a very even game. I think it was small margins that decided it. I think our performance was good. I think the way we played the game, especially how we built it from behind, phase one, especially phase two, I think we controlled the game much more. I think we had some short connections in the middle of the pitch. I think we found Lucas and Xavi in good positions.
“So I think it was one of our better offensive performances for the season. You could say it was not like we created five hundred percent chances, but we created some really big chances.
“I think Ramsdale had some really good saves. And then I think we had six, seven very good moments where with Richarlison arriving half a second too late, the final pass could have had even more cutting edge quality to have created even more.
“So overall, I’m happy with the performance. Of course, I’m super disappointed that we lost. And I’m super disappointed that we’re out. We would love to progress and be in the draw tonight.”
In the aftermath of yesterday’s loss, one of the takeaways was the erratic performance by match official Chris Kavanagh, who had a series of questionable calls (and non-calls). This was not limited to the WILD flying scissor tackle by Joelinton on Mohammed Kudus that only earned a yellow card and prompted a scuffle on pitch. Kavanagh also indirectly aided Newcastle on their 23rd minute opening goal by Fabian Schar after Kavanagh allowed play to restart without letting Djed Spence, who had to tie his shoes, get back into position for the corner.
Frank, usually not one to criticize match officials, pretty much let him have it in the nicest way possible.
“Yeah, I think that was clear. I think for me, we conceded two goals because of two mistakes, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the ref was part of the mistake in the first one. I’m not saying there’s things we can’t do better, but his boot is off, we need to tie his shoelace and tie his boot. And you can clearly see on the footage afterwards that the whole boot is off, so we need to do it. And it’s minute 23, it’s not like we delayed the game for 10 minutes and we have one goal up. It’s common sense to allow him time to get in.
“So as soon as he had the boot on, the ref let it go. And then, to make it perfect, Djed’s man, he had to mark, was [Fabian] Schar, who scored. So that’s why we were very animated. I think that was the biggest one. I think the rest was fine. There’s always small bits you can be irritated about, but it’s very difficult to ref a game. But this, for me, was unfortunately a big mistake. And then we made a mistake ourselves on the second one. So small margins decided the game today.”
There’s no rest for the weary as Spurs now have two days to prepare for a massive Premier League match against Chelsea on Saturday. Spurs host the Blues in the late match slot on Saturday, kicking off at 1:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. GMT.
