1st October 2024

By Rachel Cohen

Tottenham Hotspur manager, Robert Vilahamn spoke to the press about the upcoming League Cup game at Charlton, reflected on Bethany England’s leadership and on-pitch role; Molly Bartrip and Clare Hunt’s thriving centre-back pairing; why Spurs’ press did not work against Villa; set-piece coaching and more.

1.    On Charlton

Spurs play Charlton in the League Cup on Wednesday. Last season when the teams met it resulted in a tense 1-0 win for Spurs. This season, four games in, Charlton sit atop the Championship and the Spurs boss said that “I’m impressed on how they look and how they play and how they win games. And they probably is going to be better and better.” He also noted how well organized the team was “sometimes when you look at the opponent and how the player looked at them last season and this season and you see a structure, you see an organization that’s really high quality. You see how they maximize players. Obviously [ex-Spurs manager, Karen Hills] is doing some really good stuff in that club right now.”

Vilahamn described the signing of ex-Spurs player Ellie Brazil (Charlton’s current top scorer) as “a brilliant signing. Actually, she’s so quick. She’s a goal scorer. She give them the threat they need as well.” He added that he was “very happy for her that she gets the game time and the goals that she deserves. She’s a brilliant professional footballer, so it makes me very happy to see that she’s performing that well and it’s going to be a threat for us because she’s quick.”

2.    League Cup Oddness

Vilahamn commented on the League Cup and the fact that British teams who qualify for the UWCL (this year all three of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City) skip the group stage and join as one of the final eight: “I still think it’s a little bit odd that a few teams come directly into the quarterfinal. I get why, but it makes this cup not the same level as the FA Cup, to be fair.” He noted that “the FA Cup is more prioritized because that’s the real cup in this country.” But nonetheless “we’re gonna absolutely play with a good team and compete for a good cup run.” 

3.    Rotating the squad

Vilahamn said that the cup games were a good opportunity to rotate the squad and give players a chance to show that they “are ready to show what they can do for this club and to compete for minutes.” He was confident that he would “put a really strong starting 11 tomorrow on the pitch” because all the players were “good enough to play, but you cannot give them play them all the time.”

And he said that “that’s why I like the cup, because you can actually use your strength and your squad and you always want to compete.”

In terms of player availability those of us looking forward to seeing Ella Morris will have to wait a little longer as Vilahamn said that she has had a small setback. Luana Bühler is, however, back fully fit. Amy James-Turner and Shuang Wang remain out. Becky Spencer’s in-game injury on Sunday is not serious and she will be available.

4.    Working with Bethany England

Vilahamn was asked about Bethany England, who came off the bench to score the equalizer against Villa. “For me to work with that professional [an] athlete, how she handles every situation, even if she’s not starting a game, if she starts a game on the bench, how she has the speech for the group, how she stands up for the team, how she’s a super captain. For me, I just love to work with her.”

He emphasized that Spurs “have so many good players” and spoke to the ongoing competition for minutes between England and Martha Thomas, saying thatThomas’s “preseason was amazing, so she started the first two games and Beth came on and that’s what you need to have if you want to be a top team in this league. And the way she acted like a role model for the other players, showing how you handle some minutes on the bench and so on. And like I said, the goal she scored last game was really important to us.”

He also confirmed that we are likely to see England “definitely going to get a lot of minutes” and “it’s very likely that she will start the game against Charlton.”

5.    Learning from bad performances

Vilahamn described Sunday’s game against Aston Villa as ‘quite transitional’. And said that Spurs need to try to keep the ball better. On the upside he asserted that “we are learning from bad performances as well.”

Reflecting on why Spurs’ press had not worked Vilahamn said that the team had a structure and tactic but were unable to find the trigger and when “we don’t really find the momentum” the team can “end up in a non-pressing situation. And then when you have equal quality players they can hurt us quite badly with playing through us or in over us, and I think that was happening in the first half. And we tried to get ourselves back in the game, and find the right press triggers, but to be honest, we didn’t succeed this game.”

“And one part was that we didn’t really perform well, and one thing was that as well made it difficult for us. So it’s a mixture, but that’s something we looked at and that’s something we need to improve. Because he was not good enough this game.”

6.    A thriving centreback partnership

Reflecting on how the current centre-back partnership had evolved, Vilahamn noted that two of Spurs centre-backs had been unavailable – with Amy James-Turner suffering a concussion in preseason and Luana Bühler sustaining a small injury – and that this had given Molly Bartrip and Clare Hunt the chance to regularly play together and build a good relationship. The two have started both game so far in the WSL and Vilahamn emphasised the two players’ individual qualities. “Clare and what she gave us in the in the box defending in the set pieces and everything, it’s something that we didn’t have last season, and so she gave us something else. She’s good. And I just feel Molly is so, you know, consistently good on the ball and off the ball. And she is basically dominant every game. So right now, those two are playing really good football.” He did add that Bühler and James-Turner are now both training well “so I feel we have four really strong center backs.”

7.    Set piece coaching

Robert Vilahamn confirmed that he trusted other members of staff to work on Spurs’ set pieces and that it was Vicki Jepson responsible for the decision that Eveliina Summanen would take the penalty in the game against Aston Villa – which she scored. Summanen had not previously taken a penalty for Spurs, except in a friendly game this summer but has taken them for her national team, Finland.

Vicki is “fully responsible for [attacking set pieces] and Chris the goalkeeper coach is fully responsible for the defensive ones. So for me it’s very good to give the trust to them, to explore and develop that and I’m very happy right now because we defend very well in set pieces and we create a lot of good chances in the offensive ones. So we look good.”