by Rachel Lara Cohen (3/1/24).
Above: Spurs fans celebrate their WSL North London derby win over Arsenal before Christmas. Photo: Mariella Prew for Impetus ’71.
This time last year Spurs were coming off the back of a hellish run of four consecutive defeats. In all of these, the team failed to score, culminating in mid-December in a 3-0 home defeat to Everton in the snow, during which Jess Naz picked up an injury and Ash Neville got a red card.
Bethany England’s January 2023 signing provided a vital lift and got Spurs scoring again, but did not immediately stem the run of defeats. Instead, the run eventually extended to nine, spanning four and a half months and resulted in Rehanne Skinner’s departure in March 2023.
As a consequence, the start of 2023 saw Spurs increasingly mired in a relegation battle, from which it escaped under Vicky Jepson’s interim leadership by closing out the season with two wins, three draws, and another three losses.
At the start of 2024, Spurs are in a much better position. They lie sixth in the league, the team has already accrued all but three of the total points managed last season (15 of 18) and barring an unbelievable nightmare in the second half of the season will be well clear of relegation. There have been a couple of bad losses (7-0 and 4-0) against the two Manchester teams. But Spurs now have an identifiable style.
They have also shown that they can learn from these losses and bounce back, as they did to close out the first half of the season by initially drawing with, and then four days later, beating Arsenal. To put the icing on that: across all 180+ minutes, facing a previously out-of-reach-rival, Spurs were never behind.
In the following I review Spurs Women’s 2023 in eight parts, covering the club’s relationship with its women’s team, the team’s style of play, signings, existing players, supporters, and things needing to be addressed in 2024. I end with a pick for goal of the year and a summary of 2023 in numbers.
1. The club gets serious
Spurs fans (and women’s football fans) have been justifiably critical of the under-resourcing and lack of joined up thinking shown by Spurs to its women’s team. And while, earlier in 2023 comments from Daniel Levy reinforced the impression that the club was not serious, there have been signs that this is changing.
A key part of that was the (intra-WSL) record-breaking signing of Bethany England to bolster up a struggling team. England had won both individual and club honours and is the first (current) Senior Lioness to play at Spurs. It made a splash but was also a signing that paid off in spades.
When England arrived there was concern that she would not get the service to enable her to make a difference, but England’s efficiency in front of goal in 2023 was astounding. Her 12 goals in 12 games (from an expected goal return xG of just 5.3) have meant she remains one of the WSL’s top scorers for 2023, despite being absent from September to mid-December.
A second indication of the club getting serious was the recruitment of manager, Robert Vilahamn in summer 2023. Vilahamn possesses a clear vision of how he wants his teams to play. And, as he has noted in comments to the media, he was recruited because of the fit between this management style and ‘the Tottenham way’. Vilahamn’s recruitment coincided with Ange Postecoglou’s and the club’s attempt to re-focus on its ‘to dare is to do’ philosophy. As such it is both a sign of the club’s new agenda but also of a serious attempt to incorporate the development of the women’s team within that club agenda.
Finally, and more practically this season we have seen numerous reports, including an excellent behind the scenes piece in the Athletic, which indicate both that there is a plan for Spurs Women (on and beyond the field) and that this is starting to bear fruit.
2. Playing pretty football
Of course all supporters want their team to win but playing football that makes you ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ is a special feeling. Ange Postecoglou has brought dramatic changes to Spurs’ men’s team, but the changes that Robert Vilahamn has wrought in the women’s team, a team that finished in the bottom third in 2022/23 and seriously lacked confidence, are arguably even more impressive.
This is most obviously seen in changes to the team’s passing patterns and statistics. Across the first ten games of the 2023/24 season Spurs have completed an average 418 passes per game with a pass completion rate of 79.2 percent. Compare that to last season when Spurs’ completed an average of 317 passes per game (101 fewer) with a pass completion of 74.5 percent (five points poorer). There has also been a jump in the number of progressive passes per game (from 27.6 to 38.3), meaning that the passing is more attacking, not simply that there is more passing around the back (although Spurs are also doing more of that).
If the statistics seem dry the football itself has, at least for periods, been scintillating. The ball whipping around, finding tight spaces through the middle of the pitch, using the wide areas. We have also seen a high press that has produced goals – most obviously two scored by Martha Thomas forcing defenders into making mistakes (against Bristol City and Aston Villa). Even in the games that Spurs have lost heavily we can see a risk-taking, creative footballing philosophy at work. Robert Vilahamn has said, his focus is on outscoring the opponents, not defending, prefering Spurs win 3-2 than 1-0.
There is more to do, but 2023 has already given us a glimpse of what Vilahamn wants from this team, and that it will be fun watching it develop.
3. Signings to sing about
With new signings incoming, we can look back at those that arrived in the summer. None were marquee, and they attracted little fanfare. A couple arrived because they had not got much game-time in their previous clubs (Martha Thomas, Barbora Votíková), others were out of contract (Luana Bühler) or were relatively untested at this level and came on on-loan (Grace Clinton and Zhang Linyan). Yet, almost all have contributed significantly in 2023.
Martha Thomas has clearly been the standout. She lies third in the WSL Golden Boot race, with nine goals, and two assists across all competitions (seven goals, one assist in the WSL). In the last two games, she has dropped deeper and shown she was equally at home as provider, sending through a lovely ball for Jess Naz in the Conti Cup North London Derby, before herself scoring the winner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the WSL North London Derby.
If Thomas has been the shining star, Olga Ahtinen was perhaps as important in the first few games because she enabled Vilahamn to bed in a new style of play. Ahtinen’s combination with fellow Finn, Eveliina Summanen, in the double pivot brought fluency to the team.
Her composure on the ball and in linking up defence and attack allowed Spurs to quickly adapt to Vilahamn’s dynamic and risk-taking approach. Indeed, she remains Spurs’ top chance creator, despite not having played for the last four games. From what she has shown in 2023 it is likely that upon return from her MCL injury (hopefully January 2024) Ahtinen will play a big role in this developing squad.
Another summer signing, Luana Bühler, has also been a regular starter – playing at right centre-back alongside Molly Bartrip. Bühler’s on-the-ball skills have facilitated playing out from the back and the development of a more possession-based style. She has had a few less good games recently, perhaps suffering from the loss of Ahtinen’s protective shield in front of her. But prior to this she has looked assured on the ball even in her own area.
The fourth signing to win a regular berth in the starting XI is Grace Clinton. Clinton leads the WSL in successful take-ons (32 in 10 games) and has given Spurs new ways to retain the ball. Her creativity was seen to good effect in the two North London Derbies, in which she repeatedly found ways through the Arsenal defence.
It is a sign of her early impact at Spurs that she has been called up to two England senior squads since joining. Whether there is a chance that Clinton remains at Spurs beyond her season-long loan from Manchester United is unclear. Perhaps related to this, however, Vilahamn has said that he is not interested in the club bringing in loanees in the future because he believes Spurs should be developing their own players.
Unlike the above four players, Barbora Votíková has had little game time. But she has become an instant fan favourite after her player-of-the-match performance against Arsenal (and iconic responses in the gameday programme interview).
Spurs’ final summer signing, another loanee, Zhang Linyan, has looked lively in a few Conti Cup games but struggled in her first start against Manchester City. That said, there is still time to see more from Zhang. If it does not work, the good news is that this is a loan and so easily reversed.
In 2023, along with signings Spurs said goodbye to some significant players, notably Tinni Korpela, who moved to Roma, and left-back Kerys Harrop, who retired as the WSL record holder for most appearances (she has since been overtaken).
4. Improving existing players
It is one thing to sign new players. It is quite another to get more out of existing players. This season we have seen stalwarts rewarded with consistent minutes and positions. For instance, Molly Bartrip, who has had more minutes than any other player under three managers now, was given a vice-captaincy. Playing in a style that affords her more of the ball has dramatically improved her passing statistics (currently, 89 percent, her pass completion is second best in the whole WSL).
Last year Ashleigh Neville was moved from position to position. This year she has played most games at left-back. This consistency has enabled the development of relationships, which has improved her pass completion and progressive passes per game, while still allowing scope to display her defensive strengths in tackling and clearances.
We have also seen newer players thriving under Vilahamn. For instance, 2022 Norwegian signing Celin Bizet has scored two goals in the league, including a wonderful solo effort against Liverpool. While Eveliina Summanen (first signed in January 2022) has grown in stature in defensive midfield and in November was rewarded with a contract renewal (until 2026).
Vilahamn has also identified new ways to use existing players. Most notably, Angharad James at right-back. Vilahamn explained this as a way of getting the players who were best at keeping the ball onto the pitch. Initially, it seemed an experiment doomed to fail, with James looking vulnerable in defence but she has grown into the role and had perhaps her best game since joining the club in December’s North London Derby.
If James at right-back was the early season surprise, attacker Kit Graham in defensive midfield has been a late-mid-season curveball. As noted previously, however, it has been an experiment that has thus far proved surprisingly effective, with Graham able to use her strength on the ball and distributional intelligence to play out from the back, while also revealing an impressive and previously under-utilised ability to win aerial balls.
5. The Support
Spurs’ support has become more visible online, but that has not yet translated into consistently large offline support. The low point came just prior to 2023, with barely 100 supporters witnessed the team’s depressing loss to Everton in December last year (the club reported an inflated 300). Across 2023 attendance at games has been above that floor but still relatively low. The exception has been games against the top four teams, in the main stadium (marked in green in the chart below). Low points have been mid-week games. For instance, the crucial relegation battle against Leicester had roughly 300 in attendance.
Attendances at Spurs Home Games in 2023
In the first half of 2023 (Jan-May 2023; end of the 22/23 season) Spurs Women’s average home attendance was 5,907. This has dropped marginally to 5,462 in the 2023/24 season so far. These numbers are not terrible, but as the chart above shows, are massively boosted by occasional games in the main stadium. The averages would also be lower if all of the missing attendance data (largely from games at Brisbane Road) were included.
We can see that Spurs lag behind some big and some smaller clubs in terms of support (see chart below). Arsenal have jumped ahead, in part because they have held lots of games in their main stadium but also because they built on their links with the Lionesses, especially after Euro 2022.
But Bristol City, a much smaller club than Spurs, albeit one with a longer history in top-tier women’s football and very good local marketing, has shown what is possible – averaging an impressive 8,825 supporters per game. Notably other clubs, like Aston Villa, Manchester United, and Manchester City, regularly attract over 3,000 supporters to their women’s home grounds, whereas Spurs’ Brisbane Road attendance (the bars in blue above) typically hovers around 2,000.
Obviously, some of this is about the quality of what is happening on the pitch. It is hard to get supporters out to see a team lose, and that happened a lot in 2023. This is exacerbated when most televised games are against top teams and so disproportionately feature Spurs losing. It will be interesting, however, to see whether the win against Arsenal in the main stadium (also televised widely) changes things. Perhaps the optimism of that historic victory, alongside the club’s improved social media output, will mean that more supporters return for games in 2024.
As a side note, the fact that the club is starting to provide transport for supporters to go to away games may also help build an energised (and louder) fanbase.
6. Things to address in 2024
Spurs are not the finished article. With a growing pre-Christmas injury list there are positions in which there are very limited options. Most obviously, with both Summanen and Ahtinen out, defensive midfield. But also full-back where Angharad James has surprised many but, like Ashleigh Neville on the other side, has played nearly every minute so far. Should either be unable to play in the future through injury or suspension, or just fatigue, Spurs minimally need a high-quality backup.
More generally Spurs need a deeper bench. On the upside, and an indication of the clarity of Vilahamn’s training sessions, when substitutes come on, they have slotted into the system seamlessly. And in a few cases, substitutes have created chances or shored up defence.
Most obviously, Jess Naz has been a bright spark in her numerous substitute appearances, scoring, providing assists, and making dangerous runs. We have also seen Ria Percival’s remarkable versatility, with her being used to fill various gaps (defensive midfielder, right-back, and #10). And there have been key cameos from defenders Amy Turner and Shelina Zadorsky at centre-back and left-back respectively.
But too often bench players have seemed like place-fillers because Spurs are short of the game-changing substitutes that top clubs can call upon; who pose new problems for opposing teams. This is why new signings are needed. The good news is that Spurs have been getting their business done early this window. Experienced Chinese midfielder, Wang Shuang, has already signed as has highly rated young Swedish winger, Matilda Vinberg, and there are heavy rumours that Australian fullback Charli Grant’s signing is imminent. All three bring international experience and growing repuations.
Back on the pitch, there are both defensive and attacking issues to address in early 2024. In defence (at least up until the North London Derby) Spurs have been weak at defending crosses into the box, especially aerial balls. This was most painfully exploited in the loss to City. For more on Spurs’ defensive frailties this season see Harsh Mishra’s review.
In attack much is going well but in the absence of Ahtinen and Drew Spence the team has not always found a decisive final ball and too often chances have been low-quality with many from outside of the box. Improving the quality of chances has to therefore be high on the to-do list. That said, with the return of Beth England and with Martha Thomas in form Spurs have been lucky enough to have two players who can make something from very little.
7. Goal of 2023
On the subject of goals, this year has seen some great ones. A few that come to mind are Clinton’s long-distance scorcher against Brighton; Bizet’s solo run against Liverpool or her finish to the team goal of last season, against Reading; and Summanen’s rocket of a free kick against Bristol City. But 2023 has seen two players assume responsibility for the majority of goal-scoring for Spurs, and my pick for the goals of 2023 were scored by them.
Runner up: Beth England scored a lot of great goals in the Spring. But perhaps her most important, as well as one of the most aesthetically pleasing, was her driving run followed by a curler into the far corner against Leicester at Brisbane Road – a goal that secured our first win in ten outings and went a long way to ensuring Spurs’ survival in the top flight. That England had to beat a keeper in supreme form, in Leitzig, made it all the sweeter.
Winner: Perhaps this was not Martha Thomas’s best finish of the season, but her slide into the area to put the ball past Zinsburger in the North London Derby was by far the sweetest moment so far this season – and in 2023. That it topped off a ‘Barcelona-esq’ move that involved Thomas twice alongside almost every other member of the Spurs team (as shown below) is a sign of what is possible from this team. By now most Spurs fans will have the final pass sequence seared into their brains: Votíková to Graham to Neville to Clinton to Thomas to Bizet to Thomas (with Naz making the run to pull defenders away). Sheer class. And what a way to finish the year.
8. 2023 in numbers
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