By Rachel Cohen.
In his press conference on Friday (1st March 2024) Tottenham Manager, Robert Vilahamn looked ahead to the third North London Derby of the season. He also reflected on Spurs disappointing performance against Aston Villa, talked about managing players across the International Break and suggested that Grace Clinton is a case study for how young players can develop at Tottenham.
North London Derby Preview
It’s the third North London Derby of the season tomorrow (Sunday 3rd March).
The first two happened within a single week in December and produced a 3-3 away draw at Boreham Wood in the Conti Cup and a momentous one-nil win for Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. They showed that the gap between the teams is narrowing. And that while Arsenal continue to dominate possession in these games (as the graphic below from Whoscored.com shows), Spurs are able to threaten – and score – goals.
This game matters to both teams. Arsenal cannot afford to lose another game if they want to remain in the title race. With Manchester City purring (and already winning this weekend) and Chelsea the experts and getting it done, both lying above them, Arsenal will already have to take points from their rivals to have a shot. Meanwhile for Spurs it’s been a difficult period. Repeated losses against Manchester City have been followed by a frustrating draw against Liverpool and a loss to Aston Villa (Spurs’ first loss against a team outside the Top Four).
The new year brought replenishment for Spurs, with Charli Grant, Matilda Vinberg, Wang Shuang, and Amanda Nilden all joining the team, and important players back from injury and available, including the talismanic Beth England and key midfield presence Olga Ahtinen. Yet things have not quite gelled. And while Spurs are improving at the back, the team is also producing fewer chances than they were at the start of the season. This has perhaps had the biggest impact on Martha Thomas’s output – an expert in converting loose balls, since a style of play that produces fewer shots, fewer rebounds and fewer opposition defensive mistakes on which she can pounce has meant that she has had fewer opportunities in recent weeks.
That said, this last International Break has seen a host of Spurs players getting goals for their countries. So perhaps they are finding their scoring boots. If so, and they can translate it into this weekend’s game that would be a great way to kick start the final eight games of the seasaon.
And, of course, having beaten Arsenal once aleady this season fans are dreaming of doing the double over our longtime rivals. Manager Robert Vilahamn, speaking on Friday, recognised how much the North London Derby means to fans “I think we feel it. I mean we know the rivalry between these clubs, we know that the big game we had at home, we won and we saw the fans, how they enjoyed that game. So we know now how much it means.”
But he reiterated something he’s said over and again which is that he does not want to park the bus, but rather wants the team to find ways to play. “We don’t just go there and defend and hope for the best. We want to make sure we show our fans that we are brave enough to go there as well and play our football and make sure we go for it.” Vilahamn also recognized that it would be a tough one. “We want to win this game, but of course we need to be sharp because we play against a very good team as well.”
Tweaking things after Villa Loss
Looking back at the game against Aston Villa, Vilahamn highlighted problems with passing accuracy and movement as key issues in a disappointing performance. He also spoke about the ways in which the players were trying to ‘force attacking football’ rather than “take our time to make sure we find the right attacking football. So I think we rushed it a little bit and then we didn’t really nail the press in some phases of the game, so we got frustrated about that.”
On how the team has been working to respond to this Vilahamn talked about focusing on positioning in the build up and how the team wants to look to make the ‘right decisions’ and about moving from individuals trying to solve problems by themselves to solving these together.
Managing the International Break
The international break has come since the last game and Vilahamn talked about how that impacts the team’s preparations. “The tough thing is I don’t think we have the best game against Aston Villa and then people is leaving directly after the game, so you cannot speak to the whole group about what’s good, what’s bad, how can we take steps there.”
“And then you just need to accept that you work with the players you have here, and you nail that, and then you kind of start working against the game against Arsenal. But you know that you only work with half of the group, so you need to recap with the rest of them.”
But the manager also pointed to advantages of working with a small group “because you can actually work with them in individual level and also in the tactical level.” He also outlined some of the differences in how training is organized with some players away. “Because the smaller group affects the group, right? So, we make sure we have shorter days, but more intense and we make sure we have really good content for them who are staying so they feel like they are doing something purposely good in the trainings.” Vilahamn also talked about the importance of being “very sharp with the technical analysis” when the players come back together and he needs to recap match analysis with players who have been more focused on international games.
Grace Clinton as the ‘case study’ that Tottenham can develop Lionesses
Robert Vilahamn pointed to the fact that in previous seasons players had to be at one of the top three or four clubs to get a call-up to the Lionesses, but that this was changing. And he pointed to the importance of Grace Clinton as evidence (or a ‘Case Study’) that coming to Spurs can be good for an international career.
“It’s important for me and for this club to make sure that we show the world and England that we can take these young players and develop them and make sure that they become lionesses. Because if we’re going to compete with the best teams in this league, we need to have an identity for how we do that. And the case study would be Grace Clinton, how we can come here, get play time, be educated and feel the freedom to play, and actually reach the national team [at] Tottenham and not [at one of] the big clubs.”
“When I look back, it was a lot of players in the top three clubs sitting on the bench, because that was the professional environment before. But now you can actually go to top six clubs, top 7 clubs and actually play in the national team. And I think that’s the big step for us right now. So even if we are in the sixth place in the league, we show England that we want to compete and now we actually have a possibility to bring those players here because they want to come now. And that’s good.”
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