Has Tottenham Lost Ability to Comeback, Early Leads Critical for Spurs

Where has the Tottenham come back gone?

Credit to Tottenham Hotspur, following the win at Old Trafford, Spurs went eight straight matches without conceding first. In those eight matches Spurs won five games and drew three with one being the 0-0 draw with Chelsea.

Even in that ninth match – a loss to Liverpool – Spurs managed to draw level in the first half before falling to Liverpool. However, that Liverpool match was the last time Tottenham have even got back to level at any point in the match after conceding first.

In four of the this six matches since that first Liverpool loss, Spurs have failed to score at all. In the other two, they were already down by two goals when they finally did score in losses. We also know that the timing of when some of those goals came had a major impact.

Despite leveling Liverpool Spurs lost at the death. Against both Leicester and in the second Liverpool match the opposition scored at 45+4 the again before the hour mark, leaving Spurs shell shocked. After those three defeats, Tottenham was definitely stunned and frankly was unable to respond to falling behind again until they faced West Ham last week.

Following that second Liverpool loss, Spurs conceded 7 and scored zero until the 64th minute against West Ham. Yes a 2-0 win over West Brom was in there, but in the other four matches, Tottenham conceded first and just had no response. In fact only the last 30 minutes of West Ham have Spurs really even shown the desire and fight to come back that fans deserve, which has led to questions about the team and the coach.

Tottenham really need to score early and often to win.

This idea of taking an early lead and holding a team just does not work right now for Spurs. In fact Tottenham have only played five 1-0 games this season and have lost three of the five. Having beaten only Burnley and West Brom by a 1-0 score we clearly come to the conclusion that Tottenham simply have to score more goals.

More specifically, for Tottenham to win they have to score, score early, and score often. The good news is Spurs are about to face a few teams that all struggle to score. This should give Tottenham the opportunity to get on the front foot and hopefully gain some momentum. At the same time teams like Burnley and Fulham are very strong defensively so the prospect of trying to come back does not look good, just remember Brighton.

Bottom line, Tottenham are just much better off scoring first. Although Spurs showed some life after falling two goals behind to West Ham, this team is clearly better at front running than it is coming back.