Bayern Munich beat Tottenham
One by one, the players in the Tottenham squad left their shiny new stadium extremely late on Tuesday evening after a horrible 7-2 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich in the prestigious Champions League tournament. Shocked and tired by what occurred on the pitch a few hours earlier, the entire team stayed in the locker room for an extremely long time once the final whistle went off, sitting quietly and contemplating what happened on the field.
Never in the long history of Tottenham has the club conceded a total of 7 goals while playing at home in any football competition or tournament. Bayern Munich decided to teach them a valuable lesson this time around. Not only were the Germans more clinical, but they were also far more organised than Tottenham. On the other hand, the Spurs were a complete mess, and their flaws seemed to surface even more in this game that has been haunting them since the start of the season. So what exactly went wrong?
Tensions Brewing at Tottenham Hotspur
Several sources have confirmed that tensions have been brewing in the Tottenham squad between senior players who have played together for half a decade. For a handful of them, there was only one way to go after advancing to the final of the Champions League last season, and that’s downwards. Other players wanted to leave the squad.
For instance, Christian Eriksen failed to move away from the team, while others expressed their frustration with the summer transfer window and the fact that the club didn’t obtain enough players. The club only signed Giovanni Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegnon, and Tanguy Ndombele to the squad. Sessegnon has been suffering from injuries since he arrived, while Lo Celso only played a total of 44 minutes in all matches this season.
The summer transfer market has managed to create tons of problems between Daniel Levy as the chairman and Mauricio Pochettino as the manager of the team. The Tottenham manager has once again informed the world that he is not in charge of any transfers for the club and is more of a head coach for the squad as opposed to a manager with full control over the players. The players have also recently started questioning the tactics of the manager, which also contributed to the tensions.
Team Tactics
Most of the players, especially the seniors on the team, are not satisfied with the tactical system that is currently used by Pochettino, starting with the 4-3-1-2 diamond midfield layout. It allows Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min to play together at the front but unfortunately leaves the midfield exposed as well as the flanks.
If you look back at their season, you will notice that Tottenham has only managed to keep two clean sheets this year against Colchester and Crystal Palace out of 10 games in all competitions. That tells you everything you need to know regarding their poor performance and what needs to change before it improves.