Opportunity Missed as Tottenham Disappoint in Draw at Wolves

Tottenham Hotspur had a chance to really gain some ground in the Premier League, but instead continued their winless run, with a 1-1 draw at Wolves.

After a win midweek against Stoke seemed to right the ship, an early goal from Tanguy Ndombele was the perfect start for Tottenham Hotspur. However, Spurs could not capitalize on that early momentum as the team struggled more and more as the game went on to string together enough passes to create quality possession. Ultimately, the inability to get on top of the ball and control possession cost Tottenham the three points after again conceding a goal in the last 10 minutes.

Early Success for Spurs a Mirage

Things really could not have started better for Tottenham Hotspur on the day as less than 1 minute into the match they were ahead 0-1. Tottenham had a near immediate goal scoring opportunity as Ben Davies hit a long ball over the top that a diagonally flashing Heung-Min Son ran onto perfectly.

Son got a shot on target off forcing a save out of Rui Patricio and earning Spurs a corner. On the ensuring corner kick the ball ended up going over everyone to Ben Davies at the back post. Davies collected the ball and played back to an onrushing Tanguy Ndombele.

The Frenchman stepped right into the ball and struck through to score past a somewhat blinded Patricio. It was 57 seconds into the match. Spurs had two shots on goal, a corner, and had scored a goal. It was the dream start. Unfortunately, despite a few fine individual displays at times in the match, Spurs could not put much else together as a team.

Tottenham finished the game with just 1 more corner kick and just 1 more shot on target in the final 89 minutes and injury time. Ironically, that corner came in the last minute of the match in the fifth minute of injury time after the 90. While some of the issue was certainly the Wolves and their pressure, a lot of the issue was on Spurs themselves.

Only Play Hard When Level

Some might look at the coach for this, but it was the players out there not connecting on passes, not moving to get the ball, and simply being outplayed by Wolves in almost every facet of the game. Considering the best minutes of the match for Tottenham in the second half were the minutes after Wolves equalized, it really draws questions about what the players are trying to do during the rest of the match.

This is the same thing we saw against Stoke, where after taking the lead the team got comfortable and lacked the drive to increase the lead. The difference midweek was that there was enough time after being drawn level to come back and retake the lead and win the game. However, against Wolves, Spurs did not have enough time to come back and win the match.

If Tottenham were unable to flip the possession and momentum after conceding as they have shown the ability to do, I would think this is a coaching thing. However, given the ability to change and do more when the players feel like they NEED to do so, the issue is more on the players than the coach.

Wolverhampton of course played their part in the result and in Spurs not playing well but the team should be able to do more than we saw Sunday. When a football team completes less than three out of every four passes, it is difficult to maintain possession and create chances and that is what happened with Spurs today.

Tottenham simply were not good enough as a football team today, regardless of formation, system, or approach, if you cannot complete four straight passes on a consistent basis you are going to struggle against Premier League sides. That is exactly what happened to Spurs Sunday and they paid for it with two points and an opportunity lost.