Fulham 2-0 Tottenham: a theme-less rating for busy bloggers

Yesterday at 09:41 AM

Let's just move on.

I've managed to do almost 11 seasons worth of player ratings theme with precious few retreads, which is, if I do say so myself, a pretty remarkable achievement. But this is one of those themes I've repeated the most often — the phone-it-in themeless theme for when you just don't have time or the energy to come up with something clever.

Look, the match sucked. The 2-0 loss to Fulham wasn't one of our poorest performances this season — we've played much worse — but I'd argue it put a fine point on our player quality as opposed to Postecoglou's much-debated tactics.

But whatever, I'm stumped for a theme this week and it's a very busy day and y'all need your platform with which to argue with each other, so we'll just phone it in this week ahead of a two week international break. Whatever.

5 stars:

No Tottenham players in this category.

4 stars:

Cuti Romero (Community — 3.0): Starting to work his way back into fitness and showing just how important he is to the way this team plays. Spurs dropped off significantly when he was subbed out.

3.5 stars:

Lucas Bergvall (Community — 3.5): Quite clearly Spurs' best midfielder in this match. Showed some urgency with the ball, made a few teenage mistakes, but also should've earned a penalty after being taken down in the box.

3 stars:

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.0): Well beaten for both goals but not much he could do about either. Had some good stops otherwise and didn't make any major mistakes.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.0): Not as influential going forward but defended well.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 2.5): Squandered a couple of decent headed chances but generally got into good positions despite not a lot of service.

Son Heung-Min (Community — 3.0): Halftime sub and added some urgency as well as a couple of chance, but missed a couple of runs. Still only looks like a 60-90 min player every week at this point.

Ange Postecoglou (Community — 1.5): Gets yelled at when he doesn't rotate, and then gets yelled at when he does rotate. This match feels less like a tactical error and more reinforcement of the idea that Spurs are only really decent when they have their best players in; looked good for much of the second half and then farted away two goals after subbing out Cuti. Should be a wake-up call for Lange and their summer recruitment efforts.

2.5 stars:

Destiny Udogie (Community — 2.0): Has not looked the same since coming back from his injury. Not very impactful in this one and made a few stupid defensive mistakes.

Archie Gray (Community — 2.5): Surprisingly semi-cromulent in a rare midfield start, but fell off a cliff when pushed back to CB late in the match. It's not really his fault — he's a teenager and not a CB — but let's not pretend he's been good there. He hasn't been.

Mathys Tel (Community — 2.5): I actually feel a little bad about putting him this low as he was trying and showed some glimpses of ability, especially in the second half. Still not sure I'd pay his release clause to make his loan permanent at this stage.

James Maddison (Community — 2.5): Created a couple of chances but his influence waned as the match went on.

2 stars:

Ben Davies (Community — 2.5): Awful game. Manhandled for the second goal and looked second best in a lot of defensive situations.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 2.0): Really poor again in midfield, especially when paired with Bissouma. He is not showing enough quality to keep him this summer in my opinion.

Yves Bissouma (Community — 1.5): Gotta wonder at this point if Bissouma has more or less given up with this team or with his own performances. Awful passing, awful positioning, hooked at halftime... again. Can't see him as a starter anymore except out of necessity.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 1.5): Was he even on the pitch? Could've fooled me.

Wilson Odobert (Community — 2.0): Put into the match as a game changer, but instead directly contributed to Fulham's first goal. Not like that, Wilson!

1 star:

No Tottenham players were as bad as a theme-less one-star rating.

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating:

Dane Scarlett