Spurs under Ange Postecoglou have weaknesses that are apparent.
This was meant to be the spurious moment when Tottenham Hotspur found their groove again.
Key players like Micky van de Ven and James Maddison returned from injuries at the end of the Africa Cup of Nations and Asia Cup, restoring the North Londoners to full strength.
Rivals with European obligations have a more demanding schedule, thus the team vying for the championship may find the door open.
Spurs would be right back in the mix if it could put together a run of victories and defeat its opponents in one-on-one matches.
However, the outcomes have been inconsistent rather than signaling the beginning of a commanding run.
Although the squad managed victories over Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion, their performances were far from compelling, and they lost a 2-2 tie at Everton after conceding a stoppage-time equalizer. This definitely put an end to any sense of momentum.
Ange Postecoglou, the manager, placed the blame for the lost points on Merseyside on wasted opportunities.
“We try to win football games, so I’d never say it was a good point,” he remarked.
“Yeah, I regret giving up on that today and giving in so late. We simply have to accept it as it is in the end.
“Trying to play fluidly here is not a simple task. I thought we handled it quite well, for the most part. The first half saw us lose a little of our composure. In the second half, I felt we played quite well, had a few good opportunities, and most likely needed a third goal to shut them out.
“You know everything is going to go their way in the next ten minutes, and it did. You have to deal with it, and regrettably, we didn’t deal with the last one.” There were some instances when we could have performed better, but we are only responsible for what we do.
The Australian coach would have been even more furious about what was to happen at home a few weeks later against Wolverhampton Wanderers if he had been dissatisfied with that collapse.
The West Midlanders won all three points even though they welcomed back captain Son Heung-min into their starting lineup for the first game since he returned from the Asia Cup.
Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves have shown they are no pushovers, as seen by their 2-4 thrashing of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a few weeks ago. However, Postecoglou will be concerned with the manner Gary O’Neill’s club appears to have found a way to exploit Spurs weaknesses.
“We believed we could play around the press and that we could get Hwang [Hee-chan] and Pedro [Neto] in behind.” After the game, the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers said, “We pretty much envisaged it how we got it.”
“But we weren’t simply counter-attacking; when we had the ball, we gave them a lot of trouble and consistently missed opportunities. I felt a small bit of frustration that we didn’t act more clinically, but we persisted and continued to pose a danger.
It’s not like Spurs haven’t faced challenges this year; a thrilling 1-2 triumph over Sheffield United in stoppage time early in the year thrilled the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and the team’s most recent 3-2 victory against Brentford was also the result of a comeback.
However, the situation did not improve versus Wolves.
“You can’t keep falling behind and carrying out that action each week. Postecoglou, looking regretful, added, “We needed to be better in the first half. We also blamed defensive lapses for the loss.
“Both goals conceded are disappointing from our point of view,” he stated.
“We suffered the consequences of not playing football with as much focus and concentration.
It wasn’t from a lack of trying. They broke free and scored the goal while we had them encamped in their half.
The fact that Spurs would have finished in the top four with three points—three more than Manchester City in third place and five more than Arsenal in second—made the loss all the more depressing.
Drago Dragusin and Timo Werner’s additions to the team have made it stronger, so there would have been more motivation for a thrilling run-in.
I predicted about a month ago that the true Ange Postecoglou of Tottenham Hotspur would finally make an appearance.
But it seems like this team has been somewhat inconsistent thus far.
Although the circumstances are obviously different from Spurs, Postecoglou’s Celtic team was playing its most brilliant soccer at this point in his career. This begs the issue of how long it will take for his brand of soccer, known as “Ange-ball,” to catch on.
Perhaps, supporters of Tottenham Hotspur will hope, the fantastic attacking soccer that captured hearts in Scotland and beyond will return next season.
The team is already headed toward a big improvement above last season’s eighth-place result.
It has a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League, which would mark Postecoglou’s successful debut season in North London.
However, the strategies Gary O’Neil employed to undermine him will need to be changed if he is to succeed even more.
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