Tottenham sluggishness cost points against Swansea

Tottenham were as much victims of their own lack of energy as they were Swansea’s resolute defending in Saturday’s 0-0 Premier League draw.

Credit must go to Paul Clements’ approach. While a win was never likely with such defensive tactics, he got the draw he needed against a Tottenham side strongly favored to win.

Spurs might tell themselves that Swansea’s approach wasn’t so perfect that it avoided crucial mistakes — notably two clear penalties in the second half — that simply went unpunished by Mike Dean.

The old adage that truly good teams shouldn’t have to rely on the match official getting every call correct applies here though. Tottenham are– by a vast gulf — the superior team to Swansea, and that fact should have bore itself out in the scoreline without the aide of penalties.

So why didn’t it?

Lukasz Fabianski is probably the biggest individual factor. He made a whopping eight saves, half of which came from a stellar Heung-min Son.

It’s not enough to shrug off dropped points to a particularly exceptional goalkeeping performance though. Over the course of the 90 minutes, Tottenham had many more opportunities to test Fabianski than just those shots, but they frequently failed to make the most of them.

Tottenham’s temperament was best encapsulated by a single pass late in the second half. After possession of the ball was retrieved following a rare Swansea attack, Spurs had a chance to catch their visitors out with too many men committed forward. As luck would have it the ball fell to Christian Eriksen — perhaps the single most effective member of Spurs’ midfield in these types of situations.

The Dane, defying virtually everyone’s expectations, held the ball for half a moment, considered his options, then delivered a slow square pass that robbed Spurs of their momentum and permitted Swansea’s defensive wall to reset.

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It was that devastating combination of sluggishness, indecision and dullness that cost Spurs a victory that would have vanquished the absurd narrative surrounding Wembley Stadium.

Perhaps its to be expected that Spurs would be half a step slower, both physically and mentally, following the massive effort it took to beat Borussia Dortmund midweek. Many of the players that started that match started here and last weekend’s win over Everton, including Eriksen. It could just be that it’s too early in the season to expect three matches in eight days out of this Spurs squad.

Mauricio Pochettino made some changes in recognition of this possibility, including sitting Mousa Dembélé and Ben Davies. When it became evident that his team might not be able to deliver their usual zest though, he failed to make the choices that could have changed Spurs’ predicament.

After it became clear that Son was being wasted at left wing-back, Pochettino could have had Trippier switch flanks and brought on Serge Aurier. That would mean dropping Moussa Sissoko, who was having another decent game, or perhaps Dele Alli, who wasn’t.

Aurier eventually did come on, but not until the 63rd minute. His pace and crossing threat were needed much earlier than that however.

Spurs might also have benefited from another clever passer on the pitch. It could be that Pochettino’s soured a bit on Harry Winks, but the young Englishman could have brought just that much more incision against a tightly packed Swansea defense. Instead, he never made it off the bench despite Pochettino only going through two of his allotted substitutions.

Fernando Llorente’s appearance admittedly made sense, especially as Tottenham turned more and more to desperate chipped balls and crosses to get over and around Swansea’s solid midfield and defensive lines. The Spaniard couldn’t make the desired impact against his former club though.

Next: Tottenham Player Ratings: 0-0 home draw against Swansea

These changes would likely have improved Spurs’ chances, but again this was a failure of mentality more than a failure of tactics. Eriksen, et al need a rest, and then perhaps they can resume mustering the same quality they did against Everton and Dortmund.