Shaky foundations in defence
This was a game when Spurs needed leaders. They started brightly against Newcastle, with energy, pressing and belief, creating a string of chances for the likes of Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Ryan Sessegnon.
That period alone brought 11 shots at goal but when Spurs suddenly fell behind to a messy goal from Callum Wilson, their leaders at the back were more intent on complaining to the referee at every opportunity about the validity of the goal than putting it right.
Eric Dier carried over his shaky display at Old Trafford with another stuttering show at home. He set down his marker for the day with an early back pass that flew pass Hugo Lloris and inches wide of Spurs' goal.
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings vs Newcastle: Hugo Lloris poor, Dier shaky, Bentancur and Kane battle
Lloris was on top form against Manchester United just days earlier but this was a chalk and cheese performance from the Frenchman. He did not actually have that much to do on the day but, one good save from Fabian Schar aside, what the Spurs captain did undertake was jittery and hampered by poor decisions.
Lloris' involvement in Newcastle's first goal showed both sides to his game. First he sprinted out well to anticipate a ball over the top from the visitors but the height of the ball was awkward for him to deal with and he ended up improvising by chesting it out.
The only problem with that was the presence of Callum Wilson. Lloris ran straight into the Newcastle striker, who did his best to ensure the Frenchman wasn't going to get around him with an arm thrust out.
Lloris fell to the floor, appealing for the foul and Eric Dier waved his arms around in the air at the referee rather than getting back to the empty goal. He only did that when it was too late as Wilson sent the loose ball floating over both players and into the unguarded net.
VAR checked the incident but for some reason appeared to be looking for a handball rather than Wilson fouling Lloris with his obstructing arm.
While Antonio Conte kept to his standard line of not criticising referees and officials, football.london understands the coaching staff were left bemused and raging after the game that the foul was not given following the VAR analysis, as the replays appeared to show Wilson looking at Lloris before putting his arm across him.
The main problem for Spurs though was the reaction to the incident as their experienced players crumbled. Lloris and Dier are meant to be the two leaders at the back but their shakiness instead spread through the team after that positive start to the encounter.
Before the goal Dier had sent that one powerful back pass beyond and his passing after was little better at times. The 28-year-old had a 74% pass success rate, the lowest of the defenders, with both his fellow centre-backs managing a key pass apiece when he did not.
Lloris sent a number of loose kicks around the pitch. One of them was meant for Ryan Sessegnon but was aimed far too high, allowing Newcastle to head it back and the ball fell to Miguel Almiron and he swept up the pitch and slotted the ball under Lloris for what would prove to be the killer second goal.
Their nerves were contagious. Davinson Sanchez showed some sloppy touches after some good defending and the normally composed Clement Lenglet started to run into trouble and found himself bypassed too easily at times.
On the flanks, Sessegnon struggled to make an impact after a bright start, with just a 61.9% pass success rate, and was replaced by the equally ineffective Ivan Perisic. On the right, Emerson Royal did what he often does, kept it mostly simple, although he did provide two key passes to Sessegnon's one, while Matt Doherty came on and added little.
"In the first half we started really well and we played really well. Before they scored I think I have seen only team. It was Tottenham and [Nick] Pope made two, three amazing saves, if we go to watch the game again," Conte said afterwards.
"Then we conceded this goal which for sure we can do much better. I don't want to comment on the referee's decision because you know I don't like to do it, but for sure, we can do much better in this situation.
"Then just a couple of minutes later, we conceded a second goal, and this second goal could kill everybody. Instead, if there is one side I am happy [with], it's seeing a good reaction from my players.
"I have seen in the second half in this situation, you have a big risk to lose your mind, to lose your head and then risk to concede a lot of goals. We tried to score, we scored one goal and tried to create chances to level the game, but in the end, we didn't do it. In my personal opinion, I think the draw was the most fair result tonight."
A bright start and a much-changed midfield
Spurs did start the game well and much of that was because of the drive in the midfield that came from Rodrigo Bentancur and the returning Oliver Skipp in the more advanced roles in front of Yves Bissouma.
Both played like men possessed with Bentancur setting the tone from the start with sprints from one box to the other in order to press and harass the Newcastle players.
The Uruguayan was Spurs' best player on the day with two key passes, four dribbles - with nobody else on either side recording more than one - and he played two accurate long balls and one successful through ball. Defensively the 25-year-old made six tackles and four interceptions which were again far more than anyone else on the pitch.
At the final whistle Bentancur, who had been the subject of a verbal battering from Conte at Old Trafford, looked exhausted and his head coach will have to manage him carefully for fear of him joining the injury list.
Skipp made a good impression with his first start since January, making himself available down the right constantly, playing as a winger at times and he completed three key passes in the game - matched only by Harry Kane - including one ball across the pitch to set up Sessegnon for a chance.
Skipp came off after 66 minutes and his fitness levels looked good. football.london understands the young midfielder has been leading all of the fitness testing for the past four weeks within the club.
Conte called Skipp's performance "good" after the game and pointed to those nine months since his last start. The England U21 midfielder was happy to be back but felt he could have done better.
"It's not been the most ideal time, the nine months since that [last] game. It's nice to be out there again but it's always hard to reflect on that result was what is was. It was nice to be back on the grass but I would have liked to have performed a bit better and helped the team to get that victory," Skipp told SpursPlay.
"I feel 100%, training hard. Obviously that rhythm will start to come more and more with the more training time and game I get. I need to keep pushing and making sure that when I get those opportunities I take them and keep performing better and better each time."
Skipp believes Spurs did not capitalise on that opening half an hour when they dominated the chances.
"I thought we started the game well. We created chances and then perhaps there were a couple of moments with the two goals, it's always difficult when that happens. There were times when we were sloppy I thought as well," he said.
"Then in the second half it was always going to be more difficult. They were always going to waste more time, be defensive and it was hard to break them down and create those chances. There's lots to improve on and reflect on definitely."
He added: "It's hard straight after the game to reflect on it but it felt that [we started well] on the pitch. I felt we started our patterns of play well, perhaps a couple of final passes were missing from everyone really, but the goals changed the game.
"We felt like at half-time we were disappointed but there were opportunities to get back into the game. We scored from a corner but just after that we didn't seem to create too many clear cut chances and it was disappointing.
"The way out of this is to work hard, to reflect on those last couple of games and there are plenty of things to improve on and we'll be doing everything we can to make sure that come Wednesday that happens. That's a massive game and everybody is going to be up for it and they'll make sure that we've got that extra 5%. It doesn't feel like we're miles off."
Skipp will be hoping for more game time, particularly if Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg needs any more time out with a thigh injury. Skipp could also target Bissouma's spot because the Mali international is yet to find his rhythm in a Spurs shirt.
In a match where positives will be buried by the result, the performances of Bentancur and Skipp were little beacons of light.
Kane's goal tally and a Kulusevski-shaped hole
Two things are growing more and more certain with every Tottenham match. The first is that there is a huge Dejan Kulusevski-shaped hole in this Spurs team and the second is that Harry Kane is quietly having a terrific season in front of goal.
Conte's frustration with Kulusevski's absence is palpable, from the fact it happened initially on international duty and outside of his control to the setback the Swede had in training after returning to the pitches of Hotspur Way.
It's understandable because the 22-year-old is a young player but one who has become a key man for Spurs. The numbers very clearly bear out the importance of the creative Sweden international, who has 17 goal involvements from his 25 Premier League matches since joining Tottenham - 11 assists and six goals.
This season alone Kulusevski has started six of Spurs' 12 Premier League games. They are unbeaten when he has started in those matches, averaging 2.6 goals and 2.3 points a game. Without Kulusevski they won three and lost three, averaging just 1.1 goals a game and 1.5 points.
football.london asked Conte on Friday whether the biggest hole in his squad was not having a direct replacement for the playmaking ability of Kulusevski, with the injured Richarlison and returning Lucas Moura more direct forwards and Bryan Gil merely a figment of most people's imaginations.
Kulusevski is crucial at both ends of the pitch because he has the strength, guile and ability to stride with the ball away from Spurs' box and in the final third he has the quality to cleverly deliver the type of passes and crosses that Kane and Son Heung-min thrive on. In short, he is a vital cog in making the Conte machine work.
The Spurs boss swerved the question on Friday, only hinting that the January transfer window might provide an answer. It needs to deliver a solution if Spurs are to find extra creativity in their game and not be so reliant on a 22-year-old.
As for Kane, he keeps marching on with 10 goals in 12 Premier League matches. It is the quickest he has reached that tally in the competition so far in his career. For context, last season it took him 25 games to reach that total.
His goal was a classic poacher's effort, diving in at the back post to head home a flicked on Son corner and it took him to within seven goals of Jimmy Greaves' record 266 goals for the north London club.
It took a long time for VAR to decide he was onside and when it was finally awarded it meant the England captain also became the fourth player to score 10 or more goals in nine consecutive Premier League seasons, following in the footsteps of Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard.
Kane tried everything in the driving rain to get Spurs back into the game, teeing up the ineffective Perisic for a low comfortable shot for Pope and in all the striker played three key passes. He had also gone on one mazy dribble in the first half himself which resulted in a low shot Pope got a toe to.
Earlier in the match Kane had played a perfect ball through for Son to run clear.
The South Korean star had had a string of chances before that point, sending one at Pope, one curled on to the roof of the net and another sailing over the crossbar.
On this occasion, running on to Kane's through ball, power probably would have been the order of the day but Son tried to be delicate with his shot and Pope got a hand to his dinked effort and Kieran Trippier completed the clearance.
This is still not the Son of last season under Conte. The personnel has constantly changed around him but it has not seemed to matter. He is yet to find his groove and last season's Golden Boot winner has not scored in any of the 11 Premier League matches he has started this season.
He had his chances on Sunday and he was getting into plenty of good positions but it's just not clicking yet for a player voted this week as the 11th best in the world in the Ballon D'Or ceremony.
Injuries galore but Conte seems invested
Spurs might still be third in the Premier League and top of their Champions League group but back to back defeats has only increased the frustration with the lack of goals and creativity around the team right now.
There were loud boos at half-time inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and murmurs of discontent at the full time whistle as Spurs dropped their first points in a Premier League home game since April. The stadium's speaker system pumped out loud music as the defeat ended a run of eight consecutive league wins at the stadium in front of the supporters.
The only person who does not seem to be unduly concerned by the current stuttering of the team is the one man you really don't want to be getting worried by it all and that's Antonio Conte.
For one of the most emotionally charged men working in the game appears right now to be the calmest.
When football.london asked him whether he was worried by the shaky performances of his leaders at the back, he said the only thing that concerned him was the injuries piling up and that everybody needed to have patience with what was being built under him at Spurs.
"I think my only worry at this moment is we have to try to keep our fingers crossed and don't have injuries because we are not a team with such a depth of squad to face competitions like the Premier League and Champions League, but this is not something against the club," he explained.
"Absolutely we knew this situation. I spoke with the club, and if you remember very well, at the start of this season, I said to you that we need to go step by step and have time and patience and have two or three transfer markets to bring this squad to be competitive to play in two competitions like Premier League and Champions League.
"In this moment, we are playing massive games, and for example, there are players like Hojbjerg who has played every game, and at the end, there was an injury because he was tired. He was a risk, and it's the same for Cuti [Romero] and for Richy, he played with the national team and then he came back.
"For Deki, honestly, for Deki, our expectation was to have him recovered much earlier. Instead, the situation was worse, and we needed to wait. Lucas Moura started the season with this problem in his tendon, and now he's trying to recover a good physical condition.
"For Skippy, it's the first game since January. (Laughs) When you put all this together, we have to have experience. Okay, you have to have experience. In this moment, it's very important for me to cope with this difficult moment and to have experience and try to go until November in the best possible way. For this reason, we need to be focused on recovering in two days.
"For sure, there are players that need to rest for two days to recover because we have players who, for them, this was seven games in a row, and we don't have the possibility to make rotation in this moment. Our target now has to be to try on Wednesday to win the game because to go to the next round is a good opportunity for us.
"I know it will be difficult, but we have the possibility to do it and then to try to manage the situation until the last game in November, then there is the World Cup, and we will see what happens."
Conte was laughing at times during his answer and it seemed to be because he accepts that injuries can happen, they are affecting Spurs' performances and they are out of his control.
What is most striking that compared to last season when the Italian was speaking constantly about his future being unclear and even suggesting he might go if he was the problem, this time around he's talking about a future that seems to involve him.
There is a narrative of uncertainty being offered up by some pundits who do not know that Spurs have that option to extend Conte's contract by another season, which the head coach agreed to when he signed on at the club last November.
Those pundits therefore see a man talking about future transfer windows and needing time while thinking that he is out of contract next summer. Yet the only way Conte is out of contract next summer is if Spurs chose not to take up the option contained within his contract, which would seem unlikely given the overall progress the club has made under him.
football.london asked him whether despite his frustrations with the injuries, he still has the time and patience himself for a Spurs project which is a slower one to those he has been used to.
"Yeah, for sure, this type of situation makes me frustrated because I would like to play this type of game, also in the Champions League, with the best team and then to have on the bench three, four or five good substitutions and not to try to invent situations you understand?
"But we knew this, and when I spoke before, I always said look we have just started the process to bring Tottenham into the best position to be more competitive to fight for something important, we have just started.
"For this reason, we need to cope with this situation. For me, it is not easy, it is not simple, but we have to cope and to manage the situation with experience and stay together. Today I don't have complaints about the attitude, will and desire of the players because every single player performed. The attitude and effort was really strong and really big, but sometimes it is not enough. Tonight it was not enough to avoid a loss."
Conte can't really make it any clearer - "We have just started". Not 'the club', not 'they' but 'we'.
Whatever the unhappiness at the lack of creativity and attractive football right now among some of the fanbase, the fact that Conte is looking to the future with Spurs shows he believes the squad will continue to be shaped to his needs and when it is it will be a force to be reckoned with.
The problem right now is injuries being accumulated by the sheer volume of matches coming every three to four days and many of the players are playing through knocks and fatigue. Conte admitted that Romero and Hojbjerg had been among those constant cases.
"Romero was the last two or three games. He arrived every day half and half to decide if he play or doesn't play. I think in the past we have taken a risk," admitted the Spurs head coach.
"The players gave their availability to play otherwise, honestly, if the player doesn't want to play, I don't force the player. Now, after the game against United, he felt a lot of fatigue and then yesterday, he felt fatigued in his calf. Before in his thigh, the right. Now left in the calf.
"Pierre, it was the same because Pierre played every game, he played every minute, and he was really tired. About Richy and Deki? No chance [for Wednesday against Sporting].
"I don't know about Pierre and Cuti for Wednesday. If you ask me in this moment, I don't have an answer because I don't know the way they recover from this fatigue and this situation if they have something, Romero in his calf or Pierre in his thigh."
Conte spoke to football.london about not trying "to invent situations" to deal with missing players and a lack of strength in depth on the bench.
Those situations include playing with a 3-5-2 to cover up the lack of fit forwards needed for a 3-4-3 and also providing substitutions that don't seem the most obvious from the bench.
That includes changes like bringing on Ben Davies and Matt Doherty late in the game, which saw Emerson Royal switching to the right of a back three. The idea was for Davies to provide more going forward than Lenglet on the left of the back three, alongside Perisic, and the ability to cross a ball and for Doherty to provide more attacking threat down the right.
It stirred echoes of Davies and Japhet Tanganga coming on against Marseille last month in the Champions League, a match in which moments later Spurs scored twice through Richarlison thanks to their more solid base for attacks.
But it's not a change that inspires the crowd, particularly when it has no impact and they see young talents like Bryan Gil and Djed Spence just sitting there gathering dust on the bench when both can contribute in the final third.
Conte will recover injured players but he will also lose further ones as they hit the red zone in matches, risking injuries because of the collation of minutes in their legs.
The problem is that Conte does not trust some of the rotations he could make in his squad and seeing his team lose at home after he made five changes will not help imbue him with any confidence.
The knock-on effect is that for a coach who is at his best when he can prepare teams on the training pitches, Conte is having to rest players from pre-match sessions because of their accumulated fatigue and few of those involved against Newcastle will put in any serious minutes at Hotspur Way in the two free days ahead as they instead recover their aching muscles.
The media will get to watch the first 15 minutes of training on Tuesday morning ahead of the game against Sporting but either few key players will actually be on display or they will be wheeled out to simply go through the motions in some simple, low energy warm-ups and rondos before being walked through a tactical session once the cameras and prying eyes are gone.
The Sporting game is a big one for Conte and Spurs because if they can win the game then they qualify from their Champions League group.
That in turn means the Italian can rest plenty of players against Marseille in the final game of Group D and he is likely to rotate for the Carabao Cup game at Nottingham Forest, who could well do the same with their focus on staying in the Premier League.
That means Conte can play his strongest line-up against Bournemouth, Liverpool and Leeds with a week off for most of them between each for those final three Premier League games before the World Cup brings the season to an abrupt pause.
After that comes a January transfer window that will deliver further arrivals with the expected exits of Bryan Gil and Japhet Tanganga, meaning Conte is likely to ask for ready-made players he can add to his rotation pool. He needs more creative options to bring off the bench and most importantly that Kulusevski alternative.
Conte is invested in Tottenham and the feeling seems to be mutual, but both need to give the fans something to get them excited again.
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