It is probably too early to mention the dreaded “C word” just yet, but if Tottenham follow up defeats against Manchester United and Newcastle with a third consecutive loss in the space of seven days against Sporting on Wednesday night, murmurings of a crisis will begin to grow louder.
While losses to clubs currently positioned fourth and sixth in the Premier League table are not necessarily cause for concern in isolation, both matches laid bare obvious weaknesses in this Spurs side. Worryingly for Antonio Conte, that list of defects appears to be growing by the week.
At Old Trafford, Spurs were outrun, outmanouevered and emphatically outplayed. United aimed 29 shots at Hugo Lloris’ goal in total. No team in the division has faced such an onslaught in a single match this season; Bournemouth kept Liverpool down to 19 when they lost 9-0 at Anfield. A 2-0 scoreline flattered Spurs and Conte accepted as much, saying that Spurs have “struggled” in each of their three away games against “big six” opponents in 2022-23, having drawn with Chelsea and lost to Arsenal.
The overall performance against Newcastle was an improvement, but the end result was the same and the problems were different. Spurs actually started quite well, but they encountered issues in their own defensive third throughout with individual errors and sloppy passing out from the back contributing to both of Newcastle’s goals and ultimately proving to be their undoing.
Despite those setbacks, Spurs are still third in the Premier League table and top of their Champions League group, but the losses have raised suspicions that their points totals and tallies in the “W” column are perhaps not a true reflection of their displays. There was very little to differentiate the performances from Wednesday’s loss to United and August’s draw against Chelsea, for instance, other than the outcome. There’s only so long a team can continue winning matches while not playing well and Conte’s tactics are being scrutinised as a result.
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Squint hard enough and you might conclude that Conte’s Spurs side isn’t all that dissimilar to that of Jose Mourinho or Nuno Espirito Santo. They rank 14th in the Premier League for pressures in the final third – a metric that measures how often a team applies pressure to an opposing player carrying, receiving or releasing the ball – and have the lowest success rate in the entire division for pressures across the whole pitch.
Clearly there are more nuances to pressing than simply running a lot, but given the emphasis that Conte places on graft, fitness and general “suffering” and those vomit-inducing shuttles in South Korea during pre-season, you’d expect Spurs to be one of the best pressing teams in the division, not one of the worst.
Tottenham’s pressing issues pose problems at both ends of the pitch. While only Manchester United have scored more goals from counter-attacks this season, the fact Spurs are struggling to win the ball higher up the pitch means they have further to travel to get into goalscoring positions. That makes it more difficult to capitalise on turnovers.
Conte’s side are third in the top flight for pressures won in their own third. At the back, meanwhile, Spurs have faced 187 shots on their goal in their opening 12 matches, a total that is level with 20th-placed Nottingham Forest and fewer only than Everton (192). While Spurs have generally restricted their opponents to low percentage shots – they have the sixth-best expected goals against (xGa) total in the league – surviving that much pressure on a consistent basis is unsustainable. Opposition teams are bypassing them too easily.
Lloris was justifiably criticised for his performance against Newcastle, but given the amount of work he is being forced into, mistakes are inevitable. The same goes for the rest of the side.
Injuries haven’t helped. Spurs were without their best defender, Cristian Romero, most consistent midfielder, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and most creative player Dejan Kulusevski, against Newcastle, as well as Richarlison who has generally impressed since signing from Everton. With neither Kulusevski nor Richarlison available, Spurs’ goal threat from open play is virtually reduced to Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, and the latter has scored in just one of his 12 league appearances this season.
With Romero missing on Sunday, Conte ended up replacing his most assured ball-playing defender with two less technical defenders in Davinson Sanchez and Emerson Royal. Inevitably, that drop-off in composure is going to have an impact in build-up play. Equally, Hojbjerg’s influence should not be understated. Since signing from Southampton in 2020, the Dane has started in 83 of Spurs’ 86 league games. Spurs have lost two and drawn one of those three matches.
The ongoing absence of Kulusevski due to a hamstring injury is also a big cause for concern given his role in linking the component parts together. When Kulusevski has started for Spurs in the Premier League this season they have won four and drawn two of their matches, averaging 2.6 goals and 2.3 points per game. Without him, they have lost and won three apiece, averaging 1.1 goals and 1.5 points per game.
With a tricky away tie to Marseille’s infamously raucous Stade Velodrome to come next week, Spurs can ill-afford to slip up against Sporting in midweek. In fact, it could be terminal to their Champions League hopes.
Based on recent form, the World Cup break cannot come soon enough for Conte and his squad. The task facing them between now and the start of the tournament is ensuring there is still plenty to play for after the final in Doha on 18 December.
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