Lloris w
Royal, Winks, Sanchez and Hojberg were all notably awful. It was the first Conte era game as well where the whole team was just vastly out-efforted, which I hated to see.
Eh, I didn't see any effort issues. Southampton is an organized squad that's had pretty good results the past 2 months (starting in December and most recent matches at the bottom):
LCFC - 2-2 draw
Brighton - 1-1 draw
@Arse - 3-0 loss
@Palace - 2-2 draw (noticing a pattern yet?)
@WHU - 2-3 win
Spurs - 1-1 draw
Brentford - 4-1 win
@wolves - 3-1 loss
MANC - 1-1 draw
@Spurs - 2-3 win
Based on GD, they're in that solidly midtable area along with Brighton, Villa, LCFC, and Palace. Against all of the clubs ahead of them in the table (in bold), they only lost @Arse and
@wolves. They also drew against friggin MANC. They're a good team that helps give the EPL the respect it currently garners.
I've been a stan for Emerson and Hoj this season, but I agree they were both very very poor yesterday. I'd also add Lucas to that--he was dreadful. Winks was good offensively, but very poor defensively. I'm not passing any kind of broad judgment on Kulu yet, but he was horribad yesterday. I thought Sanchez did fine.
On the first goal, Dav makes the interception that Davies slips and muffs, and then he makes a header on the first cross before the goal. If you freeze the frame at the assist strike (0:17 below), you can just tell that Spurs have completely lost their shape and marks. Emerson is on the ball and Davies is marking the first man, but both Romero and Sanchez have run to the goal mouth. I give Hoj a pass because he could conceivably be marking the man at the top of the box, but Winks should have a bit more depth and awareness there (he has time to look around)--he's not doing anything useful on the play. Romero and Sanchez need to communicate more and have more awareness to step to a man.
https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/sommoc/tottenham_1_1_southampton_armando_broja_23/
I originally thought Winks was the primary culprit on the second goal, but after looking at it again, it's 50-50 if not a bit more on Kulu. Check out the 0:14 frame of the video below. The scorer (Elyou) is running slowly towards goal in front of Kulu. The ball goes wide right so Kulu and Winks drift middle. Elyou is already unmarked a few seconds later, well before the cross is hit. Kulu either needs to go with him (Elyou is the LMF in a Soton 4-4-2) or at least let Winks know that he's there. Double shame on Kulu as there's another player even wider, so him and Winks should probably double Elyou there.
https://streamgg.com/v/620430218afd3
On the third goal, it's just about equal parts Emerson and Sanchez at fault. They're defending 2v2 in the situation. And the 2 Soton players do a cool looping move to lose their marks. Adams is Dav's man but Armstrong (nominally the RMF, but all the way out left so far that he's Emerson's man) loops in front of Dav, so Dav moves forward to pick him up and Emerson can't do anything to throw off Adams.
https://streamgg.com/v/62043068136a4
Looking at these goals together, I think there's just some organizational and responsibility issues that need to be tightened up throughout the squad. The first goal was a scramble drill, but better communication could've gotten the players in better defensive position. Winks in particular is not doing anything useful on the play. On the second goal, I'd say awareness and communication are again the key problems, with Winks and Kulu most glaring. On the third goal, I think it's fair to blame Emerson and Dav 50-50.
While I think there are some strategic/organizations issues generally, there's some personnel limitations that are clear too. Winks needs to improve his defensive awareness quickly if he wants to keep getting minutes. He's probably the best passer among Hoj/Winks/Skipp, but Hoj and Skipp are better at pressing, making runs forward, defensive positioning, ball-winning, and awareness--likely more important for a Conte CMF. In that light, it makes sense why Betancur was brought in, and most think he's a likely starter out of that group. Like I said above, I'm also not passing any kind of permanent judgement on Kulu, but he got absolutely fooled and abused on the second goal with a player who just casually drifted behind him. I thought his attacking was poor as well, and he's very slow for someone his age and someone Conte thinks may be able to play RWB.
The last thing I'll say is that I think Eric Dier turns this loss into a win. His organization and leadership at the back likely fixes the 2nd and 3rd goals, and gives us a better chance to defend the first. Dier struggles with awareness when someone gets behind him personally, but I think he's quite good and improving on keeping track of the whole field generally. We really need him back. You might be able to say the same for Skipp on the second goal. I can't wait to see what a Skipp-Betancur MF pairing looks like.
Put this one behind and keep fighting for points COYS!!