Tottenham's two up, two down: Kinsky recovers, Son struggles continue

National World - LocalTV

Two ups and two downs from Spurs defeat to Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

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00:00If we look at the Aston Villa defeat, obviously moving forward we may do a bit of a new segment,

00:07a bit of a two-up, two-down in terms of trying to find positives and then maybe some negatives

00:11to improve on. If we start with the positives, is there two positives you can find from Spurs

00:17at the moment? I know you might have to dig a little bit deeper, but in terms of that

00:21Villa game, there were some positives. Could you sort of pick out two?

00:26Yes, I mean, it is hard, isn't it, at the moment to find the positives, but I do think

00:31Antonin Kinski is a small positive. A lot of Spurs fans might disagree with me on that

00:35one. It is a bit of a controversial selection. He was obviously hugely at fault for the first

00:40goal. Whether he took his eye off it, I'm not sure. He seemed to be playing on emotion

00:44rather than actually playing the occasion and obviously threw one into the net and cost

00:48us a goal there. But actually, for a 21-year-old, I think that was his seventh starting goal.

00:54He's just come into the league. He's played in some huge games already. A lot of mitigating

00:58factors around for Kinski. He's playing with a different back four every single game and

01:02half of the team that are playing in the defence are not defenders. And he made three or four

01:08really, really big saves after that to keep the score down, particularly in the first

01:12half. In the second half, he made a big save from Ramsey and that will do his confidence

01:17the world of good, actually. The last thing you want to see is a young goalkeeper void

01:21of confidence and making errors. It's not a very good start to his first career. So

01:25I actually think in terms of a positive, he stood up. He showed real character and a lot

01:31of desire and, as I say, made a couple of really, really big saves there to keep us

01:35in the game. So he is a marginal positive. And then for my second positive, I think you've

01:41got to give that to Mateus Tell. He didn't see a lot of the ball, to be fair, but he

01:45was always available. He was working hard. He led the press and he scored a terrific

01:50goal at the end. So if we're looking for a crumb of comfort there, he's up and running,

01:54you know, just one and a half games into his Tottenham career. He's already got a goal.

01:58It was a really, really good clinical finish as well. So hopefully that gives him some

02:03momentum to come into the coming games, which we're obviously growing bigger and bigger

02:07by the week.

02:09Yes, and then just two negatives. I know there's obviously a lot of surrounding negatives at

02:15the moment, but are there any two that stand out that might be, you know, underneath the

02:19surface of the current problems at Spurs at the moment?

02:23Yes, I think that my first down from the game at Villa has got to be the two in midfield.

02:28I mean, I know Bissouma didn't start the game, but he came on at half-time and

02:32Benson Kerr as well. You know, players who haven't played a lot of football recently

02:36either, it must be said, you know, they're not really part of the core group who've been

02:39playing week after week after week. You know, Benson Kerr's had suspension and injury

02:42problems. Bissouma's been in and out with injury as well. But, you know, two real senior

02:47talismans that we need to step up in that midfield. And, you know, Benson Kerr again

02:51was anonymous at Villa. He was extremely poor at Liverpool. And then Bissouma comes on and

02:57he's caught ball watching for the second goal. You know, he let Rodgers get the wrong side.

03:01Really, really disappointing. And I think in terms of a negative, you know, despite

03:05everything in terms of the injuries and the fatigue and the lack of ability to press at

03:09the moment, what the real, real problem, you know, probably rests away from that. You know,

03:13we're quite well stopped in midfield and we're seeing one ball just can't be opened

03:17constantly. You know, on the transition, we are getting turned over. And whether that's

03:21players out of position, whether that's players who are fatigued, you know, who knows?

03:25But we have to do better there. So Bissouma and Benson Kerr, two massive negatives for me

03:30yesterday, as was Hung-Min Son again. You know, we really, really need a captain to

03:37stand up and be counted. And he just looks a shadow of his former self at the moment.

03:43Again, you know, he's having to play too much football. We know that. But, you know, he missed

03:48that huge opportunity at 1-0. I think, you know, if you wanted anybody on the end of a one-on-one

03:53chance, you know, you'd put Hung-Min Son in your top five or six players. You know, he's normally

03:57clinical. He's absolutely deadly one-on-one. He's been, you know, a terrific talisman and a world

04:02class servant for Spurs over the years. But he's lost his edge this season. And again, as I say,

04:08whether that's fatigue, you're really needing that leader to stand up and be counted. And he

04:14just looks short in terms of his confidence, in terms of his ability. He's not taking players

04:19on. He had a huge chance second half against Villa and he chose to pass, square the ball off eight

04:23yards to Bissouma instead of having to go himself. And he's quite worrying that, you know, the best

04:28player now seems to be on the decline. So again, you know, I think he'd be a negative certainly

04:32from yesterday.

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