Paul Robinson

Sat 25 November 2023 13:05, UK

We’re delighted to welcome former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson as our exclusive columnist as each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium…

The fact that Tottenham displayed a “united dressing room” under Ange Postecoglou is “one big positive to take away” from back-to-back defeats, according to Paul Robinson.

Spurs followed up their first loss of the season, 4-1 at home to Chelsea on 6 November, with a second in their next game at Wolves, as they surrendered a 1-0 lead going into stoppage time to lose 2-1 on 11 November.

The former England keeper admits the first defeat was “damaging in so many ways” because of the result and the players it knocked out of contention through injury and suspension, and the late reverse in the second “hurt”, but was reassured to see the squad players who came in all clearly committed to the manager’s plan.

Robinson exclusively told Tottenham News: “I’ve talked at length many a time about the great start they’ve had to the season, and the good feeling around the place, but the test was always going to come. Whether that test was a defeat or losing players was to be seen.

“The Chelsea game was damaging in so many ways because so many tests have arisen after that. I say it every week about [Cristian] Romero about when he’s going to be suspended, not if he’s going to be suspended, and his lack of discipline has cost them again, his personal lack of discipline. He could have been sent off before that.

“But in a nutshell a defeat hurts, a heavy defeat hurts, you lose your four best players of the season in that defeat in Romero, [Destiny] Idogie, [Micky] Van de Ven and [James] Maddison. So not only do you have the test of maybe losing a player and a defeat but you’ve been heavily beaten and lost four of your best players.

“I was at the Wolves game and I thought they started really well, they were in full control of the game and imploded in the last 10 or 15 minutes. I think the thing they were guilty of in the Wolves game was not pushing on and getting a second and not making the game a lot more easy than it should have been because they had opportunities to. 

“It was a poor game in all honesty. Spurs went 1-0 up early on and they were comfortable, and I think the fact that they were too comfortable is what let Wolves get back in the game.

“Wolves possibly had the better of the chances, Spurs had the better of the possession, and until 80-85 minutes or so it was definitely the last game on Match of the Day. It was a really poor watch. But Spurs, they got done.

“It was one of those situations where, ‘Ok, we’ve got beat by Chelsea, we’ve lost these players, how are we going to respond?’ It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t a nice watch, but it was looking like they’d got the job done.

“The scoreline has hurt at the end because of the way the game’s ended up. One thing I was pleased with was the man-management skills of Ange, because a lot’s been made of the way the team are playing but it’s been the consistency of the 11-13 players that he’s picked from.

“But he’s had to dig into his reserves, the likes of Ben Davies, Eric Dier, Emerson Royal, players who he might not necessarily have picked, and he hasn’t picked. Eric Dier has a lack of first-team minutes.

“But there was nobody there who wasn’t playing for him. They looked like a united dressing room playing for the manager, that’s one big positive you can take away.”

There’s no way to dress up back-to-back defeats as a good thing after Postecoglou had made such a storming start to the season, especially in the way they both came about.

But there were always bound to be challenges somewhere along the road and it speaks to the positive impact the former Celtic boss has had on the players that the next men up were not disengaged.

That won’t get the Australian far if the team he sends out against Aston Villa don’t get a better result on the return from the international break, but it was some silver lining on a poor day at Molineux.

In other Tottenham news, one struggling Spurs star is a victim of his own versatility says Robinson.