Nuno Espirito Santo was not the choice for most Tottenham fans after he was announced as the full time replacement for the sacked Jose Mourinho, however, three wins from three at the start of the Premier League season got the Portuguese off to a great start and the fans on board.
Santo was so impressive in his first three games as manager that he even picked up the Premier League manager award for the month of August, however, all the good work was undone yesterday. Not because Spurs lost but the manner in the way they lost.
Tottenham was woeful yesterday and when that happens you hope you have a manager that can change things up, implement a plan B, make impactful subs etc but Nuno did nothing of the sort.
Yesterday was not a good day for the boss and as fans, we have to hope that he learns from his bad judgement and does not make these same mistakes again because judging by some of the comments below, his honeymoon period is well and truly over with.
We played exactly as we were set up to
— Ayatollah Colmmeaney (@snoopsheep) September 11, 2021
We continued to play this way, no sub or tactical change attempted to change it
Woeful managerial performance today
You picked that appalling midfield 3 which was obviously wrong and then refused to change it. Worrying signs Nuno. If this is a taste of things to come you will be out of a job within months. Not good enough.
— James Thrussell (@ThrussellJames) September 11, 2021
Nice bloke but out of his depth at Spurs.
— Jasper (@Craftbeerchap) September 11, 2021
Spurs moved on from Jose and somehow replaced him with a worse version. Those tactics today and the Midfield setup was an abomination for a club like Tottenham who should bd playing attacking football. Nuno was the wrong choice in the end.
— RMacs (@PhillyHotspur) September 11, 2021
Nuno looked like a fish outta water, no idea on how to change things at any point, even after the 3 wins I really fear for us this season, I think our 4/5 month manager search could begin again before xmas. COYS 🇮🇱🤍
— Ian coulter (@Iancoulter9) September 12, 2021
Nuno likes to play things safe. He doesn’t take to take risks. Can’t believe he didn’t change it at HT. a top top manager would instantly change things up unfortunately Nuno is a good manager but nothing special
— ﷽ (@FuzzyWazzy_) September 11, 2021
I said that at HT Palace would win, if Spurs didnt buck things up. Nono thought differently and Spurs lost.
With our squad, we’re not a counter attacking side. We need to play on the front foot and keep pocession.
Yesterday we shouldn’t have played the midfield we did, game was crying out for Ndombele and Gil from the off.
It’s not rocket science, just playing to our strengths, one shot on target in the whole match and HK not once in the opposition’s box is a joke.
So much for Levy saying he wanted a coach to play Tottenham DNA
What was Lloris doing rolling it to Dier kick it down field you lightweight and then Japh. great potential but in a recent game he lost his head so who is advising him on how to manage his game (stupid push on Zaha).
Midfield – can we put the Winks experiment to bed finally now (plus Del Boy produces nothing of note).
I note even the Happy Clappers are quiet today.
To have two reasonably creative players on the bnch in Gil and N’Domebele and not use either one in the second half when things went from bad to worse,is a dereliction of duty.What was there to lose?
Some people like Nuno and think that he is a decent man. I like his smile and he may be a decent man but I really wouldn’t know. From his public performances so far I would judge him as a lightweight manager, a man who rarely directly answers questions put to him by commentators and seems out of his depth when it comes to responding to obvious on field issue like lack of creativity in midfield on Saturday. His stock answer seems to be “we will see” or “we will sort this out between ourselves”. In other words “I’m not really going to answer your questions”-so what’s the point in asking them in the first place I wonder? We all know that after the 70+ day search for a new manager Nuno was not first or second or even third preferred choice and it is becoming clear why. His reticence or absence of clearly articulated ideas does not inspire confidence. Any manager who choses to play Winks AND Skipp together is either desperate or naive or possibly both in this instance as the fall out from the unfortunate International break has surely limited who he could chose. His playing style seems to mirror that of Jose but his personal pre and post match interviews lack much of his predecessor’s charisma, intelligence, cunning or wit. To me he comes across as a bit limp, a shadow personality. Is he a “yes” man a puppet? Again I don’t know but I have a familiar feeling that he is already under pressure despite the MOTM award and I feel a bit sorry for him.
I’m prepared to but this down to an abysmal day at the office and expect better going forward. However, it would be disingenuous to slag off the transfer window and the state of the squad and pile all of this on Nuno.
We had a few players out and a non-functioning professional midfielder in Tangy as the main selection issues.
Nuno’s options were actually Winks in midfield and Japhet in central defence, other suggested shufflings of the pack in hindsight fail to hit the nail on the head.
The squad just isn’t right and hasn’t been for some time, the summer window and appointment of Paratici did nothing to address anything of significance…
My team talk – ‘you are top of the league – go out and play like it’. Instead we got an apology for a football team – just trying to keep the score down to reasonable numbers. I would have given the manager a mouthful after the game if I was a senior player. His tactics were an embarrassment to the players and to the supporters.
The snide version of Mancini or even Mourinho