For 85 minutes this was a Jose Mourinho story. That’s more like it, we said, a sleeves-rolled-up, no-frills performance, the kind of display that made a winner of Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid. On nights like this, in a season like this, it might, we thought, just harvest the same reward at Tottenham Hotspur.
Yes, I know, Liverpool remain the team most likely to stick 20 points on the field despite West Bromwich Albion’s delicious late larceny at Anfield. But were Liverpool to succumb to some anomalous capitulation then this Mourinho-shaped Spurs appeared just the
kind of obdurate opportunists capable of nicking it with a run down the blind side.
And then the indefatigable old gold came again. A testing corner from Pedro Neto picked out the head of Romain Saïss as if it were meant to be. The ball came off his bonce at an oblique angle to crest the line and almost float into the unguarded net. You could not argue that the draw was undeserved. Equally Spurs will be kicking themselves at two points lost after defending stoutly for so long.
It seemed the night was leading Tottenham on like some wicked chanteuse. Was that a lighter step among the Spurs players as they trotted out for the warm-up minutes after the Liverpool result? Even Dele Alli was smiling and he was knocking-up with the benched.
What an extraordinary pageant this season is becoming, an engrossing spectacle of novel dimension that has somehow raised the temperature despite matches playing out in spectral spaces. Twelve days ago Spurs went to Anfield top of the Premier League and Big Sam was stretching his tonsils as a TalkSport jock.
Two matches later Allardyce is football’s favourite maverick after hoodwinking Liverpool late on and Spurs set about Wolves from eighth place. The season’s elasticity is its defining characteristic, teams marching up and down the table like the Duke of York’s men.
In keeping with the “anything-might-happen” texture of the period, Spurs were ahead in 60 seconds – a corner scooped up by Harry Winks, fed to Tanguy Ndombele and whack, the ball was in the back of the net. This placed Wolves in exactly the same position they were in against Chelsea in their last home game –which they turned around to win – so no biggy yet, more a call to abandon inhibition and treat Molineux as if it were the school playground.
Thus erupted a contest in which everybody wanted the ball, to drop a shoulder and beat his man, to charge forward at pace unencumbered by fear or doubt. Wolves attacked as if they were settling a vendetta. Spurs defended as if Rome might fall should the line be breached. It was just the kind of dynamic that Mourinho claims to own, in the sense that the tempo is set by his team, with or without the ball.
This argument stands up as long as the opponent is scoreless. And even when they are not, as was the case at Liverpool two weeks ago, where Mourinho maintained the best team lost, the old absolutist holds his ground no matter the degree to which the metrics are at variance with his claims.
Here his team were resolute in keeping Wolves away from goal. Hugo Lloris had a couple of balls to smother in the first half but none from close range. Beyond that, Spurs’ defence was a shield of tireless, courageous endeavour, bodies flying about all over the place. Cleary the prospect of three successive league defeats for the first time in eight years was forbidding for Mourinho’s side.
Wolves had a claim for a penalty dismissed in the second half, Fabio Silva fooling neither the referee nor VAR. Silva might have done better in reacting to Neto’s cross on the hour. Neto cut the ball back after a typical surge. Silva survived the tackle but did not react quickly enough when the ball bounced onwards towards Lloris.
Sitting in the stands you fancy Raul Jimenez, making a first public appearance since fracturing his skull against Arsenal last month, would have relished just that kind of opportunity – near post, get there first, 1-1. Another day soon, hopefully. Wolves continued to press with impressive energy. Spurs continued to absorb with a force equal to it until a moment’s loss of concentration hurt them. Did Mourinho not like that.
Jose accuses Spurs of lacking ambition
Mourinho lashed his team for failing to build on Ndombele’s early strike and accused his players of lacking ambition after Wolves pegged Spurs back with an equaliser four minutes from the end of normal time with a header from Romain Saïss.
“One point against Wolves normally wouldn’t be a bad result because they are a strong opponent. But scoring in the first minute and having 89 minutes to score more, there’s a sense of feeling frustrated,” the Spurs manager said. “I know the way I prepare the team, I know all that and don’t want to say much more than that. We didn’t have that ambition or desire to go for more.
“I don’t know if we deserved more than a point. We had the best thing that can happen to a team which is to score in the first minute.
“We had control of the game and conceded from a corner. We had 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn’t.
“Defending deep, that’s not the intention. The fact that we score early and don’t win matches is a concern. If we defend that last corner and we win 1-0 you would be asking me different questions but the feeling would be we just the same. We have 89 minutes to score more goals and didn’t.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3rvuYlv
Post a Comment