
OCTOBER 2019
Welcome back FM Scouters.
Another month has passed in my Tottenham Hotspur save, meaning another story post.
This month, our fixtures are:

We start with Juventus at home.
MATCH 10: TOTTENHAM V JUVENTUS
A challenging match, as Ronaldo, Dybala and Higuain come to Tottenham.
Intimidated by the Juve attack, I opt for my counter attacking 4-5-1 and a starting line-up of:
GK: Lloris
DF: Wague, Dias, Vertonghan, Rose
MD: Ndombele, Alberto, Lo Celso, Moura, Alli
ST: Kane
The game is nip and tuck in the early stages, but Juve pull ahead on 23 minutes as Ronaldo puts it on a plate for Higuain. A few minutes later, Lo Celso loses his head and lunges in two-footed on De Sciglio and gets given his marching orders. A nightmare – 1-0 down and down to 10 men within half an hour against one of europe’s best teams.
Winks comes on for Moura to try and plug the gap, but it makes little difference as Bentancur and Alex Sandro (2) put Juve into a 4-0 lead by the hour mark.
I’m not sure there’s much analysis I can do here, it’s best to just put this one behind us. However, one small highlight is that even in as poor a performance as this, Ndombele made 5 keys passes – the most of any player on either side. He’s fast becoming one of our best players.
Result: Tottenham 0 – 4 Juventus.
MATCH 11: TOTTENHAM V BRIGHTON
Back to the Premier League after our humbling at the hands of Juve. This time we host Brighton, and I return to my 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress. We line up with:
GK: Lloris
DF: Wague, Dias, Vertonghen, Rose
MD: Ndombele, Lo Celso, Moura, Alberto, Alli
ST: Kane
After dominating the first 10 minutes of the game, Brighton break down the right hand side, and the ball eventually finds its way to Alzate in the box, and the ball is in the back of the net, Lloris’ hand only good enough to parry into the side of the net. A very frustrating start, as now Brighton can sit behind the ball.
We carry on with the same strategy, and it pays off as Dele puts it in the back of the net on the second attempt after some good work down the flank by Wague.
We go in at half-time 1-1 feeling hard done by having been the better side, but make no changes for the second half.
Our reward comes quickly in the second half, with Dele Alli poking in a wayward Ndombele shot for his second of the day to give us the lead. We keep the ball really nicely, and tie up a useful win when Kane thumps home from a totally unmarked position from an Alberto corner.
A solid 3-1 win, with Dele in the goals again. We take that and move on.
Result: Tottenham 3 – 1 Brighton.
MATCH 12: BURNLEY V TOTTENHAM
We next head up to Turf Moor for a Saturday evening match. Turf Moor is always a challenge, but we’ve been in decent form in the league and I feel quietly confident. I go for my usual 4-2-3-1, with a starting lineup of:
GK: Lloris
DF: Wague, Dias, Vertonghen, Rose
MD: Ndombele, Sissoko, Son, Alberto, Alli
ST: Kane
It’s another match where we dominate possession – a nice trend developing there. We have the best of the chances, too, with 23 shots. However, only 5 are on target, and Burnley put their bodies on the line and defend resolutely.
In truth it was a poor match, highlighted by Gudmundsson getting MOTM with only a 7.1 rating (equalled by Alberto, but for some reason the Burnley man was favoured). The match ends in a dour 0 – 0. If we had put away our chances in these close games this season, we would be comfortably top of the league. As it is, more silly points dropped – though I start to wonder if I need a better shooting coach…
Result: Burnley 0 – 0 Tottenham.
MATCH 13: TOTTENHAM V CLUB BRUGGE.
After a battering at the hands of Juve, we return to the Champions League more full of hope than you might expect. I hadn’t realised before, but in a real shock Juve lost to Club Brugge in the opening match of the group. It’s hard to tell if that helps or hinders our chances of qualification – quite possibly hinders – but it makes it more interesting nevertheless.
To welcome Brugge, I stick to my trusty 4-2-3-1 and give a bit of rotation to the squad with this lineup, including a debut for Ryan Sessegnon who has just returned from injury:
GK: Lloris
DF: Walker-Peters, Dias, Vertonghen, Sessegnon
MD: Ndombele, Sissoko, Lamela, Alli, Moura
ST: Kane
We start the match well, and take a 1-0 lead within 10 minutes, Dele Alli scoring from a Sessegnon cross. A decent way to start your first match!
We completely control the game but never put it to bed, racking up 68% possession, 20 shots, 9 of which were on target. But while the lack of a second goal made it nervy until the end, we see it home and take another valuable 3 points in the Champions League. Job done.
Result: Tottenham 1 – 0 Club Brugge
Now that I’m in the habit of check the other fixtures in the group, I notice that Juve have fallen on another banana skin away at Lille, drawing 2 – 2. That leaves us top of the group on 6 points, level with Brugge, with Juve in 3rd spot on 4 points, and Lille bottom with 1. It looks slightly strange being top of a group with -2 goal difference, but I’m not complaining:

MATCH 14: TOTTENHAM V NEWCASTLE.
These are the matches that should be our bread and butter. However, too often this season we’ve dropped points in matches like this (West Ham loss, Bournemouth draw, Burnley draw). If we’re going to challenge for the title, either this year or in future, we need to be putting these teams away.
When thinking about why this has been happening, I realised we’ve been poor at turning possession into good shots. We often get shots, but they are from distance, and we don’t unpick the lock of the defence too often when they’ve setup to keep us out. That’s the role our summer replacement of Eriksen, Luis Alberto, should be playing.
I adapt my tactics to try and get more from Alberto, who has an average rating of just 6.7 so far, with no goals and only two assists. I change his role from Advanced Playmaker, supposedly his best role, to Attacking Midfield (s), while changing Ndombele’s role in central midfield from Ball Winning Midfielder to Deep Lying Playmaker (d). My hope is that this will let Alberto provide more of a goal and assist threat while letting Ndombele dictate the tempo of our play from deep.
I go ahead and line up with:
GK: Lloris
DF: Wague, Dias, Vertonghen, Rose
MD: Ndombele (DLP), Winks (BBM), Alberto (AM), Son (IF), Alli (IF)
ST: Kane
It literally immediately pays off. A nice passing move involving Wague, Son and Kane leads to Kane picking out Alberto in space on the edge of the box, and in the 1st minute of the game he crashes it past Dubravka to make it 1-0. Maybe I’ve finally unlocked Alberto!?
15 minutes later, Alberto’s day gets even better. After he takes a corner, the ball his headed back out to him, and he clips it to the back post where Ndombele nods it back across goal and into the bottom corner. 15 minutes in his new role, and Alberto has a goal and an assist.
We continue cutting Newcastle open, with Dele scoring a sensational goal, dancing past two defenders before driving it into the bottom corner – goal of the month contender that.
At the start of the second half, Jonjo Shelvey makes matters worse for Newcastle with a rush of blood to the head, leaving them down to 10 men after a rash tackle.
The game was over long before Alberto got taken down in the box, allowing Kane to put away the resulting penalty and tie up an easy 4-0 win. Alberto gets MOTM, and deservedly so – this new role might just be the making of him.
Result: Tottenham 4 – 0 Newcastle.
So here's how our results in October look:

At the end of October, the Premier League table is fascinating. Despite an inconsistent start to my tenure, we lie are only 4 points off the top of the league. Moreover, the team that’s second are West Ham whose form is surely not sustainable in the long run, and top of the table Liverpool having played a game more (though it does make me feel better about losing to them). We sit 8th in the table, but are only 3 points behind second.

Alongside a solid position in our Champions League group, I feel good about our start to the season.