Olympiakos 2-2 Tottenham: No signs of Spurs taking next step – Matthew Upson

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From Matthew Upson
BBC Radio 5 live at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium
I looked for some signals against Olympiakos because reaching last season’s Champions League final that Tottenham have improved as a group, but I didn’t actually see any.
Spurs will be delighted to acquire a point from an eventful 2-2 draw however, though they avoided defeat, it was not the type of composed performance their supervisor Mauricio Pochettino would have wanted to observe.
Their run in this competition last year relied on objectives and drama, when they pulled themselves from despair after it looked like they’d be heading out from the group phase.
It turned out to be a brilliant accomplishment, but it’s far better to avoid being on the verge in the first place by earning your pathway a bit easier, and they did not handle this here.
Yes, this is a way to allow them with also a home crowd, the warmth in Piraeus, and an Olympiakos side that was dangerous and full.
But the League teams can deal with this kind of scenario by playing to take the sting and keeping ownership and silence the crowd.
For various reasons, Spurs never did any of that well enough on Wednesday night.
I think that the lack of control they’d right is since having that’s the step that he understands they must take if they’re going to have sustained success in Europe what Pochettino would be disappointed about.
Even though me impressed , Tottenham definitely made life difficult for themselves.
It was disappointing to understand how careless they had been at the opening minutes, if there were two or three occasions where they handed the ball away cheaply.
But even though they were missing urgency and appeared lethargic, Spurs still reminded us that they’ve lots of quality on their own side.
One reason they ended up getting far in the Champions League last season was when they got an opportunity, they were able to accept it.
This was the same against Olympiakos, also at the early stages the outstanding finishing of Tottenham was the difference between both teams.
Their starting goal came from a penalty after a defensive error however Harry Kane’s spot-kick was delightful, and Lucas Moura’s hit was world class.
At 2-0 up after 30 minutes, Spurs had completed the difficult part but they still could not discover a way to stop Olympiakos from applying pressure.
They could have done that just but it just felt like too many Tottenham players have been below their customary levels and, even when that happens, you are not likely to have the team performance.
Pochettino made five changes from last weekend’s win and there were. It showed.
Tanguy Ndombele ben Davies and Dele Alli all struggled to impose themselves in the match, Davinson Sanchez did not click at right-back, and it’s rare to watch Christian Eriksen give the ball away as frequently as he did.
I am not certain that was down to individual fatigue, possibly. It had been more of a mental sharpness that Spurs lacked, which resulted in errors being made.
It might have been worse – typically, if you perform like they did in this way from the Champions League, you end up being beaten.
Once they shot Mathieu Valbuena off 20 minutes to go, since he had been their danger man olympiakos sort of let them off the hook. Without him, they did not take the identical threat.
The most crucial thing to get Spurs was they did not shed.
As notable as Olympiakos were, following this result I would back Spurs to finish above them and Red Star Belgrade and then make it through to the last 16 along with Bayern Munich.
Red Star defeat Liverpool in Serbia last year, and the trip of Tottenham there in November will offer a test that is tricky, much like several strategies to this one that they faced in Greece.
But I am anticipating Spurs’ residence form to view through them, and I also think they could improve as the year goes on.
They are still building momentum and finding as Pochettino stated ahead of the Olympiakos game – we all know they can play better than this.
Matthew Upson spoke to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
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