‘There’s a lack of discipline’- Ex-Spurs Scout: Three things I learned from Tottenham defeat against Wolves
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent six years as a senior scout at Spurs and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent eight years on Everton’s recruitment team and 11 years scouting at Aston Villa across two different spells.
Tottenham conceded two stoppage-time goals as they lost 2-1 to Wolves at Molineux in the Premier League on Saturday 11 November.
Ange Postecoglou now has a mountain of problems to overcome after Spurs lost their second consecutive league game within a week.
Despite Brennan Johnson getting the visitors off to the best possible start when he struck inside three minutes, Postecoglou’s men struggled to create many clear-cut chances and despite holding on for most of the match, conceded twice late on as Wolves produced a remarkable turnaround right at the death.
Ex-Spurs scout Bryan King was watching on for Tottenham News and detailed three things he learned from the defeat.
Tottenham didn’t play their usual game
I think Tottenham were their own worst enemy. They gave the ball away too much and they defended too deep. Postecoglou’s high line certainly seemed to go out of the window. I thought they had ridden out the storm but there was just so much space for Wolves players to run into late on and Spurs were defending deep. Postecoglou said after the Chelsea game that if he had five players he would play a high line, well he had 11 against Wolves and he didn’t seem to do that.
Spurs started brilliantly but as the game went on they didn’t even look dangerous on the break anymore. Playing away from home you should be looking to have at least a few big chances and I cannot remember any apart from the goal they scored early on. After that goal, I thought they were going to step up to the plate but in the end, they didn’t, they created so little. Instead, they seemed to be intent on surviving and giving two goals away in seven minutes right at the end doesn’t make for pleasant reading.
There is suddenly a lack of discipline
There certainly appears to be a lack of discipline in the team at the moment, and I wonder where that has come from. Has it come from the training ground? As I have said before, the manager has very good standards and he conducts himself properly, so he won’t be pleased.
It was the same thing against Chelsea, that defeat came down to poor discipline.
The players are picking up yellow cards and they are picking them up too easily. Emerson Royal’s yellow card was ridiculous and now Yves Bissouma is also set to be suspended after picking up a needless booking. That is now another starting player who will miss a game.
Tough period ahead
This will be a big test now for the squad and their mentality. They have lost two on the bounce, scored twice and conceded six times, that never sounds good. The next game is so important, this is where we will find out if Postecoglou is a good manager or a very good one. December is going to be a tough month, Tottenham have seven games, and they won’t have either James Maddison or Micky van de Ven for any of those games. What would happen if another couple of players now pick up injuries, especially with the international break coming up?
Aston Villa, Manchester City, West Ham and Newcastle are all to come. Going into those games with the team that played against Wolves, I think they would be lucky to get four points. All of a sudden, once you start that decline you have got to be careful that the teams behind you don’t start to catch you up. Newcastle and Aston Villa could very soon be in range of Spurs and they could suddenly find themselves sixth within the next few weeks. The recruitment team will certainly need to be busy in January.
In other Tottenham news, King has provided his player ratings for the Spurs stars from the defeat.