Tottenham’s contrasting nights in the San Siro

Tottenham’s 2-1 loss early Tuesday evening was, in many ways, the inverse of their last match against Inter Milan in the San Siro — and might provoke a distinctly different reaction.

The autumn of 2010 witnessed Tottenham’s first ever Champions League campaign kick off, but the auspices were poor.

After seeing off Switzerland’s Young Boys in the qualification round, Harry Redknapp’s Spurs faced a group stage featuring promising underdogs FC Twente and Werder Bremen — along with reigning Champions League victors Inter Milan.

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Their campaign began with a respectable 2-2 draw with Bremen before it really kicked off with a 4-1 trouncing of Twente late in September. Inter loomed large in their late October calendar, and the match would happen in the historic San Siro.

It could not have started worse for the visitors. After Javier Zanetti scored on the opening exchanges, Spurs’ keeper Heurelho Gomes got sent off in the 8th minute. Inter managed three more goals before half-time, and it seemed like it would only get worse for Redknapp’s boys before the 90 minutes were up.

Only it didn’t. In a close-to-miraculous turn, a promising left-back-turned-winger named Gareth Bale bewildered Inter and scored a wholly improbable second half hat-trick to leave the result 4-3.

On paper, this was still three points dropped. But Bale’s efforts that autumn night left Spurs invigorated. They would go on to beat Inter 3-1 at White Hart Lane — again thanks to some Bale theatrics — and finish top of their Champions League group. A subsequent victory against AC Milan in the knockout round saw them advance to the quarter-finals on their first attempt, though they would ultimately lose to Real Madrid.

The narrative arc that began with that 4-3 loss, though it didn’t result in any trophies, defined Tottenham for several seasons afterward. Bale would, of course, go on to become one of the best players in the world as Tottenham continued to overperform in the Premier League — even if they continually came just short of returning to the Champions League.

The Welshman’s second half performance in the San Siro was no anomaly; he would similarly command matches for Spurs all on his own, right up until he was sold for a world record fee in the summer of 2013.

That influx of money permitted Daniel Levy to invest heavily in the Spurs squad, and the results were often less than favorable. But for the acquisition of Christian Eriksen, Tottenham suffered through a number of flops and their form stalled. 

And then came Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentine’s arrival, in hindsight, marked a beginning of a new phase, where Tottenham finally began to get over their Bale hangover and find a new way to compete in an increasingly crowded field.

Champions League qualifications followed, as did brief flirtations with the title race. It seemed as if Pochettino’s much more sustainable model of soccer — one that didn’t rely on blockbuster player sales and reinvesting for lesser talents — not only spelled the future of Tottenham, but could clear a trail forward for the rest of the sport as well.

What didn’t change — and what was evident on Tuesday night — was the reliance on big performances from key players. In October of 2010, that key player ended up being Bale. Now, some eight years later, that key player was due to be Harry Kane.

In the inverse of what happened in 2010, the big man did not step up. Whether due to a lingering injury, tactics revised to accommodate a depleted squad or simply exhaustion after three years of nonstop action with Tottenham and England only briefly interrupted by relatively brief — and perhaps too-hurried — injury stints, Kane was a dud on the biggest night so far in the young season.

The closest Kane got to his previous form came in the 37th minute after he latched onto a pass from Eriksen that should have allowed him to round Inter keeper Samir Handanovic and finish into an empty net. Instead Kane struggled to control the ball, and watched feebly as it went out for an Inter goal kick.

Kane would go on to touch the ball a total of just 26 times — the second fewest touches of any on the player on the pitch — and record zero shots. Not zero shots on goal — zero shots of any kind. No poachers efforts in front of goal, no arcing right-footers after cutting in from out wide, no gravity-defying headers from set pieces. Nothing.

After the match, Lamela correctly pointed out that the burden of goals should not fall squarely on Kane’s shoulders. Eriksen, Lucas Moura, Heung-min Son and Lamela himself need to step up as well.

To their credit, they have certainly tried. The Danish playmaker gave Spurs the lead they carried into the 85th minute on Tuesday, while Lamela scored an injury time goal in the loss to Liverpool at the weekend. Meanwhile, Moura’s enjoyed a hot start to the new season as he subbed in for Son — the man usually tasked with picking up Kane’s slack. There are certainly signs of life elsewhere in Spurs’ roster, but thus far it hasn’t been enough to fully cover for Kane’s slump.

Tuesday must rank as one of the lowest moments of Pochettino’s stint at Spurs. No star-making turn made up for that defeat, and it is a struggle to find any glory in losing to an Inter side that is far from their best years.

An optimist might suggest that this loss is the better result compared to the 1-0 win Tottenham seemed destined to limp to before Mauro Icardi’s leveler and Matias Vecino’s winner.  Whereas that 4-3 loss in 2010 made a star of Bale and convinced Spurs to put all their eggs in that basket, the takeaway now must be that Pochettino and his team need to find ways to win outside of Harry Kane.