Tottenham have beaten big clubs this season, but have slipped up in other games
Join Mail+ for more exclusive scoops, in-depth reporting and analysis from inside the Tottenham camp
Trying to make sense of Tottenham is, and always has been, an impossible task. For starters, consider this: ahead of this weekend, only Liverpool and Chelsea had scored more goals than Ange Postecoglou’s side. Only Liverpool and Arsenal had conceded fewer. Only those three teams boasted a better goal difference. They sat first, second and third in the Premier League table.
Tottenham, meanwhile, are in 11th place.
A 4-0 win at Manchester City. Another convincing victory at Old Trafford. Thumping 4-1 wins over Aston Villa and West Ham.
And yet they’ve also had a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace. Another, this week, at Bournemouth. A draw at home to Fulham. A 2-1 defeat at home to Ipswich, the Tractor Boys’ first top-flight win in 22 years.
No wonder Postecoglou looks like a broken man. No wonder the fans are angry.
But how? Why can Tottenham beat the big clubs but get turned over by those they should beat other than just shrugging your shoulders and saying, ‘Well, it’s just Tottenham, innit…’
TOTTENHAM REALLY ARE NOT A POSSESSION TEAM
Postecoglou wants his teams to play out from the back. In this column recently, Mail Sport revealed how Tottenham play the shortest goal-kicks of all teams in the division.
Only Manchester City have had more possession this season. The problem is... Tottenham still aren’t a possession team. They are still at their best when they don’t have the ball. Their nine goals from counter-attacks is the most of any side this season.
Of the seven games this term in which they enjoyed most of the ball, Tottenham have won once, against Everton. They lost five of the others and drew against Leicester, and they nearly lost that. Four points.
Of the seven games where they have had the least of it, it’s five wins, a draw and only one defeat. Sixteen points.
His side are packed with pacy wingers who love to spring forward on the break. They don’t have that many midfielders who can pick a lock from deep with the ball at their feet.
On the list of midfielders with the most passes into the final third before this weekend, the first Tottenham name to appear is James Maddison in 16th, with players from 14 different clubs above him.
AWAY DAY BLUES
Those big wins at the Etihad and Old Trafford are the exceptions to the rule under Postecoglou.
Ange’s side have lost eight of their last 12 league games on the road but their struggles stretch far beyond that.
Throughout his entire reign at Spurs, he’s won 65 per cent of his home Premier League games and only 35 per cent of his away games.
Across the 26 home league games in Ange’s tenure, Spurs have taken 151 more shots than their opponents with a goal difference of +21. On the road, over the same number of games, they have only had two more shots than their opponents and scored just five more goals.
For a team who thrive on the counter, despite how much their manager wants them to keep the ball, struggling on the road goes against the usual theory that home sides will come at you more and allow you to hit them on the break.
In fact, home teams allow Tottenham more of the ball than when they’re on their own turf.
Spurs have more passes on the road but fewer in the final third. They have more of the ball but create fewer chances and have fewer shots and have fewer touches in the box.
They allow their opponents far more chances than at home, too, especially down their right flank.
Only three teams lose possession more often in their own third away from home than Spurs, and, under Postecoglou, Tottenham’s opponents have had more than double the number of shots after winning the ball high up the pitch — and more than three times as many of their shots end up in the Spurs net.
You can’t press if you have the ball. But you can be pressed.
‘We’ve again allowed a game of football to get away from us, and a lot of it is self-inflicted,’ said Postecoglou after the Bournemouth defeat. ‘We don’t do ourselves any favours by allowing the opposition to play the game they want to.’
That leads to mistakes. This season, Tottenham have made almost twice as many errors leading to shots in away games than at home but, crucially, all seven of those mistakes on the road have been inside their own box.
You cannot make mistakes like that and not, eventually, pay the price.
NO FIGHT WHEN IT GETS TIGHT
To accuse Tottenham of not having the stomach for the fight when things get tough is a bit of a lazy cliche these days but the facts this season are as follows: when Spurs win, they win big. When they don’t win big, they often lose.
Take their six league victories this season. Two by four goals, three by three goals and one by two. All six of their defeats have come by a single goal.
Postecoglou admits his squad lack ‘leadership and maturity’. Only two of Tottenham’s outfielders are over 30. Only six of them have played more than 100 Premier League games. Arsenal’s squad has 13 outfielders in the 100 club. Manchester City have 12.
Meanwhile, three of the four players signed by Daniel Levy in the summer were teenagers.
SHEETS ARE TOO DIRTY
Spurs don’t concede many but they don’t win the tight games because they don’t keep enough clean sheets. Just one in their last 22 home league games, a streak running back to November last year. Since then, no side in England’s top four tiers have fewer home clean sheets than Tottenham.
Tottenham have now fallen behind 13 times at home in 2024, one shy of a Premier League record for a calendar year.
At least when they concede at home, it’s not the end of things. It actually sparks something. Spurs have gained nine points from losing positions at home this season. Away from home, zero. When they go behind on the road, as they did at Bournemouth, it’s curtains.
For once, it’s not all to do with set-pieces. For all the talk of Tottenham’s Achilles’ heel, they’ve only conceded three goals from corners this season. That’s the same as set-piece kings Arsenal.
ARE THEY KNACKERED?
Tottenham looked spent at Bournemouth on Thursday night.
Eight of Postecoglou’s squad have played more than 900 league minutes this season; ahead of the weekend only Newcastle had more. There’s plenty of other teams on eight but none play as intensely as Postecoglou wants his Spurs side to compete.
No team sprinted more than Tottenham over the first 14 games. Only the Cherries covered more distance. No side have won more possession in the final third than Spurs.
Of those players with more than 900 league minutes, Tottenham were the only team with two players in the top five for distance covered per 90 minutes: Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke.
No one has applied more pressure on their opponents this season than Solanke. No wonder he dropped to his knees after Spurs knocked City out of the Carabao Cup.
No wonder, too, that Tottenham are struggling with injuries. Postecoglou is without first-choice centre backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero and is now without Ben Davies as well.
For a team who play at full tilt, it’s putting the squad, performances and, crucially, results under strain.