SAN FRANCISCO, December 28, (THEWILL) – The annihilative form of the brilliant duo of Tottenham Hotspur strikers England’s Harry Kane and Korea’s Son Heung-min became the subject of Spurs impressive displays this season that the discussed notion of manager Jose Mourinho’s inclination to be defensive-minded seemed a thing of the past.
Impressive results based of the contributions of goals and assists by the pair meant that the North London side hammered Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford in October, beat Manchester City 2-nil at the Tottenham Stadium in November and humbled Arsenal in their Derby at Emirates by a similar result this month.
Added to a home goalless draw against another big side, Frank Lampard’s Chelsea, they took seven points in the process across a tough selection of top flight football. After a hard-fighting Crystal Palace seized a dramatic draw against Spurs, the latter went into their tie against League champions Liverpool needing to win to keep their position at the top.
But they lost as Liverpool’s Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino’s firm header settled matters in favour of the Reds from Anfield. It did not get better as Mourinho’s side followed that by losing against Leicester City on Sunday, leaving them sixth in the table and six points off the top.
Then, the drew against Wolverhampton Wanderers to make sure that Mourinho lost twice, drew twice, scored only three goals and fell from first to fifth in the table in matter of two weeks.
For the tie against Wolves, with almost all of their rivals dropping points over this festive weekend, it was imperative Tottenham bounced back to winning ways after three league games without victory.
However, the old Mourinho reared its ugly head again as once Spurs got their noses in front through Tanguy Ndombele’s opening minute goal, Mourinho simply wanted to shut up shop. The mastermind of defensive play was looking at “parking the bus” to secure the win. But, that was always going to be difficult. It is never easy to hold onto a lead for 89 minutes by playing defense.
A more adventurous tactician ought to have gone in search of a second goal against a side that had lost three of their last four matches, which would have almost certainly killed the tie as a competition. Unfortunately, this was Mourinho reverting to his old antics and as a result Spurs didn’t register a shot on target after the half-hour mark, which is simply unacceptable considering the attacking prowess at Mourinho’s disposal.
Certainly, an away draw against Wolves is not a bad result in and of itself, but considering the circumstances it is certainly two points dropped that were up for grabs. And nothing shows how bad trying to hold a game by playing defense is than the fact that Tottenham have now dropped nine points from winning positions in the last 10 minutes of the game, more than any other team in the league.
It’s a problem that Mourinho needs to rectify. Since masterminding a 2-0 victory in the north London derby, Mourinho has seen his team take just two points from 12 on offer. Against Wolves on Sunday, Spurs managed only three attempts on target, the last of which came in the 21st minute, and had 45.4 per cent of the possession.
The slump has seen Spurs go from looking the likeliest title challengers against Liverpool to dropping right out of the top four, while Manchester City and Aston Villa in the places directly below then have played fewer games.
If Mourinho does not let go of this defensive mindset and go all out for results given his brilliant striking pair, there might be nothing to show for it this season to the detriment of the potential his team boasts of in their frontline. And that will be unfortunate for Spurs.
