Mousa Dembélé, Michel Vorm and Eric Dier all expressed disappointment as Tottenham failed to pick up three points against Sunderland.
The feelings inside Tottenham’s changing room was palpable following a goalless draw with Sunderland on Tuesday evening.
To hear Mousa Dembélé, Michel Vorm and Eric Dier put it into words, this draw might have been the worst result that Spurs have suffered this entire season.
That could be a tad bit of an exaggeration, though seeing Arsenal lose, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United all draw, plus Manchester City win, there was nothing positive to say.
“It was one of those nights.” Dembélé began.
“We started okay in the first half and in the second half we had some small chances, nothing big. Results were good for us so that makes it worse really.”
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“It’s an opportunity missed, that’s what we all think. It was a frustrating night and there’s not too much more to say about it.”
Michel Vorm, playing in goal due to Hugo Lloris missing out because of an illness agreed with Mousa Dembélé, in that Spurs just endured a very frustrating game at the Stadium of Light.
“Yes, we tried until the end but we didn’t create big, big chances and that’s something we need to improve.” Vorm explained. “Normally in the last few weeks we score a lot of goals, tonight we didn’t concede again but didn’t score.”
“We need to take some positives, we’re happy with the clean sheet but especially when you see other teams dropping points, you have to win, simple.”
“There are so many games left to play, every game is tough, especially when it’s so tight at the top of the league and you want to compete with the best teams.”
“You then see they have dropped points. We tried but it wasn’t enough. We’ll go for it again against Middlesbrough.”
One explanation for a lack of chances created despite 14 shot attempts could be traced back to Mauricio Pochettino’s tactics prior to kick-off.
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The Argentine manager has been a boon for Spurs since he took over back in May 2014, but even he isn’t immune to making some questionable decisions.
Whether that’s deciding which subs come into games, not signing certain players during transfer windows or choosing the wrong tactics.
Had Spurs played in a 3-4-2-1 formation, who knows how the game would have unfolded.
Though in recent weeks there’s some credence to seeing a Tottenham win as teams haven’t been able to figure out a solution to Spurs’ three-back system.
Except for Manchester City. When Pep Guardiola smartly front-loaded his attack with a plethora of goalscoring threats in Sergio Agüero, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sané.
A collection of players that most teams in the Premier League don’t have, so the Citizens are really the only outlier in this situation.
Whether Eric Dier, or Dembélé and Vorm before him, will question Pochettino’s decision to revert back to a 4-2-3-1, they all agree that a lack of scoring chances hurt them.
And with Sunderland playing defensively without attempting many opportunities to trouble Spurs’ defense, they only had three shots with one on target, this makes the switch to a four-back system even more puzzling.
“We controlled the game but we didn’t create enough opportunities.” Dier said.
“We had a lot of possession and controlled the game but didn’t have that punch at the end of it. Sunderland were very resolute and we found it hard to create enough chances to deserve to win.”
“It’s very frustrating. It’s a great chance especially looking at the results elsewhere and these are the kind of games where we need to capitalise, we haven’t and we’re all disappointed.”
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There is nothing positive with Tottenham’s draw. Although, if you like to look at these results from the top six with plenty of optimism, then seeing every team drop points — besides Man City winning — then maybe it’s not so bad to pick up a point on the road.
At the same time, now is not the time to pick up two consecutive draws with 15 games remaining after winning six straight league games and looking quite unstoppable.