In my season preview post I wrote something about the team needing time to gel. It's not a great excuse, but it's one that we have to use.
And it's easy for me to write now that I wrote that then, but hands up, I even said I thought it was a long shot, considering the time they had together. But if the manager had his way and I'm basing this on just a few games this season, we'd have a side playing with three or four new players.
As it turns out, last night we had four new players starting and I think it showed. They need more time as a group and as a team. And this isn't just me looking for excuses. If you're not bringing in the a high enough quality of player, adjustment time is going to be longer.
And it would be easy for me to question the merits of bringing in so many new players when we finally started to play the right way and get the right results towards the end of last season, but it's part of a plan. I've bought into it because there is nothing else.
And they will get better. And this season isn't going to be as bad. And next season will be better and we might even go out on January and buy that central midfielder that we need. We might you know.
The match
Last night, we basically sat back and hoped to counter and the truth is that is only going to win us so many games but it does appear, right now, to be the only way we can play effectively.
But Spurs are too good for that and it does also require from us, some actual counter attacking football. I didn't see that much last night although Albrighton was industrious and the midfield did work hard.
And Jed Steer played well too, despite letting in four. He made some good saves and will be gutted with the final result. But now I'm just trying to mask the pain with blind optimism. We were simply not good enough over the ninety minutes.
Some news
I'm not sure if you've heard but it has been confirmed that Benteke is going to be out for a few weeks, possibly up to six and unless we are careful it could even be more.
But I'm actually not that concerned. Sure, I like Benteke and we know he can score goals, but we've got Kozak and I've got a good feeling about him and when he has the support from Gabby and Weimann, two players that are quite crucial to the way we want to play football, I think opportunities will be created for him and I think he'll take them.
And on that note, that is where I leave it today. We lost to a very good Spurs side who will do very well this season. And we lost with a team still getting to know each other in the competition that was probably our best chance of silverware, but we have to bite the bullet and move on.
What else can we do?