Tottenham Notspur

Rooting Spurs is right back where it used to be: lonely, soul-crushing, grim.

This week I, a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, suffered the odd hell of watching Red Bull Leipzig run circles around my football club. There was irony all over the place. Tottenham are only three months into the Jose Mourinho era, but look several years removed from the adventurous play they’ve built a business on. When Chairman Daniel Levy sacked Mauricio Pochettino, the reason you’ve heard of Tottenham in the first place, he hired Mourinho (Poch’s polar opposite, tactically) within 24 hours. 

The rumour mill, nonetheless, summoned the name of one Julian Nagelsmann: Leipzig’s adventurous and also only 33-year-old manager. 

I smelt it coming. Leipzig running us round in circles within minutes of our Champions League showdown. Mourinho’s side only setting forward after an hour of play, negative as hell. Nagelsmann essentially showing us what Tottenham used to be.

Borussia Dortmund looked equally symphonic against Paris St. Germain, the night before. That club, like Leipzig, is running on a whole new wave of Gergenpressing. I didn’t even eat til halftime, to read an article in The Guardian about Nagelsmann’s approach. Leipzing purposely pursue the ball in swarms - when they win it back, their aim is to score within ten seconds of regaining possession. 

Tottenham on the other hand now operate on the basis that superior attacking teams can only be absorbed for long passages of play before your side actually lets rip. Spurs waited an hour to play any football, and Leipzig knew they would - peppering that clumsy defense with one assault after the other and eventually netting a penalty in the second half. Mourinho assumed a position of consolation that has become typical of our fanbase - we “played well” for a team that is missing star players, and is also officially unable to attempt anything remotely audacious.

It was a difficult evening. My team never deserved a result and I felt it in my bare bones.