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 from Olympiakos since reaching last year’s Champions League final who Tottenham have progressed as a team, but I didn’t actually find any.
Spurs will be delighted to receive a point but, it wasn’t the type of performance that is composed their supervisor Mauricio Pochettino will have desired to watch although they prevented defeat.
Their remarkable run in this competition last year depended on last-minute targets and play, right from the very start when they pulled themselves from despair after it looked like they’d be going out in the group stage.
It was a brilliant accomplishment, but by making your pathway a bit easier, it is far better to prevent being on the verge in the first place, and they did not handle that here.
Yes, this is a way for them to begin in Group B, with an Olympiakos side that has been full and dangerous of attacking intent, a hostile home crowd, and the warmth in Piraeus.
But the League teams can deal with that sort of scenario by playing at their own pace, to take the sting and maintaining ownership and silence the audience.
For various reasons, Spurs never did some of that well enough on Wednesday.
I think that the lack of control they’d right throughout the game is because having that is the step that he knows they must take if they are going to have sustained achievement in Europe, exactly what Pochettino would be disappointed about.
Tottenham surely made life hard for themselves Even though me impressed.
It was disappointing to see they had been at the opening moments, if there were three or just two occasions at which they handed the ball.
But even when they looked lethargic and were missing urgency, Spurs reminded us that they have lots of quality on their own aspect.
Because, when they got a chance, they could take it, one reason they ended up becoming so far in the Champions League last season was.
This was exactly the same against Olympiakos, also at the early stages the exceptional finishing of Tottenham was the difference between both teams.
Their starting goal came from a penalty but the spot-kick of Harry Kane was delightful, and the hit of Lucas Moura was world class.
In 2-0 up after 30 minutes, Spurs had done the tough part but they could not find a means to stop Olympiakos from using pressure.
They might have done that by simply keeping hold of the ball but it only felt like Tottenham players have been below their usual levels as well as when that occurs, you are not going to get the team performance .
Pochettino made five changes from last weekend’s win over Crystal Palace, also there were several players at the Spurs group who have not had a lot of minutes this season. It showed.
Tanguy Ndombele, ben Davies and Dele Alli all fought to impose themselves Davinson Sanchez didn’t click at right-back, and it is rare to view Christian Eriksen give the ball away as frequently as he did.
I am not certain that has been down to individual physical fatigue. It had been more of a mental sharpness which Spurs lacked, which led to mistakes being made.
It may have been worse – usually, like they did at a venue in this way from the Champions League, if you feel, you wind up being beaten.
Olympiakos sort of let them off the hook after they shot Mathieu Valbuena off with 20 minutes to go, because he was their danger man. Without him, they did not take the identical threat.
The absolute most crucial thing for Spurs was they didn’t lose.
As remarkable as Olympiakos were, following this result I would back Spurs to finish in Group B them above and Red Star Belgrade and make it through to the last 16 along with Bayern Munich.
Red Star beat last season to Liverpool at Serbia, also Tottenham’s trip there in November will offer a test that is difficult, similar in lots of approaches to this one they faced in Greece.
But I am anticipating Spurs’ dwelling form to see through them, and I think they will improve as the season continues.
They are still developing momentum and finding as Pochettino said ahead of the Olympiakos game – we all know that they could play better than that.
Matthew Upson spoke to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
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