Jiménez and Dendoncker feast on Tottenham’s gifts to earn win for Wolves
It always seemed likely to be a closerun thing whether Antonio Conte would break Tottenham or Tottenham would break Conte, but at the moment it is the Spursiness that is on top. Conte’s five league titles may have come in a perpetual frenzy of touchline fury, but he was reduced in the second half to wandering disconsolately around his technical area, giving the occasional bark of disappointment.
After a nine-game unbeaten run in the league after his appointment, three straight league defeats, the first time that has happened to Conte in 12 years, mean the honeymoon is definitively over. With familiarity, ingrained habits are beginning to grate. Why can they not put their trousers on the hanger? Why can’t they ever take the rubbish out? Why will they not do the absolute basics of defending? “There is a long path in front of us,” Conte said. “Supporters mustn’t be scared to face this but for sure there are many aspect to improve.”
Bruno Lage’s Wolves can have a pleasantly soporific quality, like tropical fish in a tank. You start watching the patterns and before you know it five or six minutes have gone by and nothing much has happened. But that still doesn’t quite explain the collective switch-off that led to Tottenham going behind in the sixth minute.
Raúl Jiménez’s goal was a case study of everything that’s been going wrong with Spurs this season. Unable to handle the Wolves press just as they had been unable to handle Southampton last Wednesday, Spurs conceded a cheap free-kick. Harry Kane’s headed clearance was probably a little more central than would have been ideal, but it would not have been a major problem had anybody followed it out.
As it was, Rúben Neves was given time to measure a shot – that’s Rúben Neves who has scored 14 times from outside the box in his four-and-half years at Wolves; why would you bother closing him down? Hugo Lloris shovelled the ball out to Leander Dendoncker and although the goalkeeper was able to recover to palm out the mis-hit shot, Jiménez rammed in the rebound.
And all the while Tottenham defenders, rabbits trapped in a pinball machine, looked on in uneasy bemusement. “A winning mentality means that when you play I am willing to kill you to live,” Conte said. “In every situation and second ball, with chances to score and set pieces you must show greater desire than your opponent.”
Spurs played a much more active role in Wolves’s second. Lloris, almost passing the ball out for a corner, put Ben Davies under pressure, squandering possession as Wolves closed him down. Daniel Podence’s shot hit Davinson Sánchez, ricocheted on to Rodrigo Bentancur, cannoned against the post and fell for Dendoncker to knock in. And to think there had been doubts as to whether the Uruguayan would be able to adapt to the new environment.
Conte had accused his side of being too emotional in last Wednesday’s defeat; here they looked apathetic, bordering on the comatose. His reaction was to take off Ryan Sessegnon for Dejan Kulusevski after 28 minutes and switch from the back three to a 4-2-3-1 with Kulusevski occupying Neves. But, frankly, if players stand and watch the ball bounce around them, the formation is a secondary concern.
And the issue is even deeper than that. Bentancur, perhaps, will bring the requisite quality on the ball at the back of midfield, but for a couple of seasons, certainly since the departures of Mousa Dembélé and Christian Eriksen, Spurs have had nobody who can hold the ball under pressure. Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso were sidelined quickly by Conte and loaned out in January. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, whose form has dipped since the Italian arrived, was left out – the first time that has happened at Spurs when he has been available.
Tottenham were better in the second half and perhaps a comeback might have been sparked had Harry Winks’s drive been deflected in rather than against the outside of the post, but Wolves defended well and had chances themselves. “We controlled the game,” said Lage. “What is most important is we played the way I wanted us to play.”
But for Spurs the point is no side with Champions League aspirations can just be giving two goals away, especially not against an immediate rival. Conte has been in charge for 19 games and kept five clean sheets. Whether that is a matter of structure or mentality, if Tottenham are to finish in the top four, that is nowhere near good enough.