View: Tottenham Women struggle for goals once again despite Robert Vilahamn admission
After a free-flowing start to the season, Tottenham Women have now scored just twice in their past two matches as they drew 1-1 at home with Liverpool Women on Sunday 11 November.
Overall, it has been a positive start to life as Tottenham Women boss for Robert Vilahamn. His side sit fourth in the WSL, just two points behind Arsenal Women in second place, and have only been beaten once in all competitions.
However, Vilahamn might perhaps have some cause for concern after watching his side throw away another 1-0 lead at home for a second time in as many games.
Having gone a goal ahead against Everton Women last time out, Spurs failed to convert their chances and were made to pay in the end, and faced the same fate once again on Sunday, this time against the other team from Merseyside.
It was Celin Bizet who opened the scoring for the hosts during the first half with a stunning solo strike to mark her first goal of the season. Bizet dribbled from the halfway line and fired past Rachel Laws from the edge of the area to put her side ahead in spectacular fashion.
She was unlucky not to have a second before half-time as she saw her strike deflected off of the crossbar by Liverpool’s Jenna Clark.
In the 66th minute, Spurs’ lack of cutting edge came back to haunt them as Roman Haug equalised for the visitors, heading in Yana Daniels’ cross from the right-hand side.
There was a welcome return to action for Ellie Brazil who has spent more than a year out of action as she replaced goalscorer Bizet late on, although Tottenham were handed a fresh injury concern as Olga Athinen was taken off on a stretcher late on to end what was a frustrating afternoon overall for the hosts.
October’s WSL Player of the Month and current WSL top scorer Martha Thomas once again failed to find the net for a second consecutive game – having previously scored in every match she had played for Tottenham.
Nonetheless, despite giving up another lead, Vilahamn remained positive and was pleased with his side’s display.
He told SPURSPLAY (via the official Tottenham website, 12 November), “I think Liverpool is a very good team so it was a tough game, a high-tempo game, we had led 1-0 so of course, you want to win the game but if you look at it and how we performed and created chances, I still think it was a good performance by the girls.
“There were a few new players coming in as well so it was a good game and we’re taking steps. Of course, we wanted to win, but the performance was good.”
Vilahamn is right, after the struggles of last season Spurs are certainly making the right steps this year, but he will certainly hope these steps turn into goals once again over the next few games.
In other Tottenham news, the stats reveal that one men’s first-team star endured a particularly difficult afternoon during the defeat against Wolves.