Brennan Johnson turned away with a guilty look on his face, Pedro Porro and Guglielmo Vicario glaring, Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie throwing their hands up in frustration. The camera panned to Ange Postecoglou wearing a familiar sombre expression. Tottenham Hotspur had conceded first again.
As Sammie Szmodics and his Ipswich Town team-mates wheeled off in celebration, Spurs’ players were likely overcome by a sense of deja vu. For the seventh time in 11 Premier League matches, they had conceded first. This time, it was a 31st-minute overhead kick following a cross from the right, with Johnson failing to close down Szmodics before his acrobatic attempt.
Liam Delap’s goal 12 minutes later ultimately brought their fourth defeat in those seven matches and fifth of the league season overall, despite Rodrigo Bentancur’s second-half header.
Under Postecoglou, Spurs have had a habit of conceding the first goal. They did so in 17 of their 38 games last season, winning eight of those and losing seven. Those problems have continued — perhaps even worsened — this season.
Although there is a positive overall trend from last season, suggesting growth as a unit, Spurs’ problems out of possession seem exacerbated now. A curious start to the league season has left Spurs just three points off third place despite a sometimes torrid start, but if their present struggles continue, they may not be able to take advantage of their rivals’ issues.
The Athletic analysed each of the situations in which they have conceded the first goal or goals from open play to understand where they are going wrong.
All these goals show similar problems coming to the fore…
- Spurs’ in-possession approach breeds difficulties when they lose the ball
- These are worsened by communication breakdowns
- They have also been punished for rash decision-making and individual errors
Before we dive in, there are a few points worth noting about the overarching reasons contributing to Spurs’ problems.
In possession, the way the team builds up sees them push their full-backs forward to open passing lanes and create overloads once they get past the first line of the press. This leaves just the centre-backs behind and requires the holding midfielder to drop if either of them push forward to win the ball.
Consequently, if Spurs lose the ball in midfield, they are highly susceptible to conceding high-quality chances. While many of their underlying numbers have improved in Postecoglou’s second season, their ball retention has suffered. Spurs have lost 136.4 possessions per 90 in the middle third and 67.6 per 90 in their attacking third, up from 133.9 and 58.1 in 2023-24.
These are marginal increases over a smaller sample size and the chances Spurs concede are often limited in number due to their stronghold on possession. The graph below also suggests that they are creating enough opportunities to make up for the ones they concede.
However, they find themselves facing the same conundrum as Manchester City — if the opposition converts one or two of their limited opportunities, Spurs are in a spot of bother. Damningly, between them, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Ipswich scored with five of their nine combined shots on target across 270 minutes to inflict three defeats on Tottenham.
Spurs’ expansive in-possession approach is a direct cause of their out-of-possession problems. Quite often, players seem unaware of who they should be marking or which space they should be covering, resulting in them ending up in similar positions or ones in which they are uncomfortable. This extends to when they lose the ball in the attacking third too.
When they give the ball away, the pace of Micky van de Ven has been Spurs’ get-out-of-jail-free card. However, when he is out injured — as is currently the case — Postecoglou’s side struggle and as we will see below, even Van de Ven has looked passive on occasion…
Newcastle United
Harvey Barnes, 37 mins
Moments before this goal, Spurs work the ball back to Vicario, but do not give him many options against Newcastle’s press. Eventually, he tries to find Udogie, but the full-back misreads the direction of the pass and allows Tino Livramento to intercept before hauling him to the ground to give a free kick away.
Spurs initially clear the free kick, which goes back to Livramento. Romero pushes up all the way to the centre circle in pursuit, but Livramento turns past him and wins a throw-in.
Newcastle take it quickly to get Lloyd Kelly in behind James Maddison, who finds himself defending the flank, with Porro and Udogie becoming Spurs’ centre-backs, while Radu Dragusin is in no man’s land. Kelly is allowed to cut the ball back to Harvey Barnes, who is unmarked near the penalty spot and scores as Romero, jogging back, is some distance behind him.
Brentford
Bryan Mbeumo, 1 min
Brentford’s knack for scoring from kick-offs has been the latest tactical quirk to get fans excited and opponents worried. Revisiting Bryan Mbeumo’s first-minute strike at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium suggests it was avoidable from a Spurs perspective.
Brentford’s strategy from these kick-offs is to get goalkeeper Mark Flekken to go long while several of his team-mates stream forward into the attacking third to establish numerical superiority. As Van de Ven finds Dejan Kulusevski by winning the first ball (with Bentancur dropping into defence), the Sweden international is immediately surrounded by three Brentford players and gives the ball away.
As the Bees work the ball near the edge of the penalty area, Spurs exercise a concerning lack of communication. Romero pushes forward to close down Yehor Yarmolyuk, but so does Kulusevski, which leaves Porro scrambling to close down Keane Lewis-Potter on the left wing.
Porro overcommits to the tackle, which allows Lewis-Potter to cross, but Spurs could perhaps have dealt with it if they remained organised. Bentancur, who is initially covering Mbeumo, strangely opts to move closer to Romero and leaves Van de Ven, whose position is also questionable, to defend too much space. Mbeumo waltzes into that space before volleying the ball home to make it 1-0.
West Ham United
Mohammed Kudus, 18 mins
This goal notably begins from a Spurs corner, with Maddison’s effort flying straight into the palms of goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. As Tottenham retreat, West Ham launch the ball to Kudus on the right wing. The Ghanaian cleverly turns Porro and passes backwards, but while the Spurs right-back presses forward, Johnson fails to track Emerson Palmieri’s overlapping run, which is found by Guido Rodriguez.
West Ham eventually cross to Jarrod Bowen on the other flank, but Udogie pokes the ball away after Bowen slips. Aaron Wan-Bissaka then collects and sends a cross that is cleared towards the by-line by Van de Ven, who leaves Udogie to deal with Bowen. Maddison and Yves Bissouma are notably Spurs’ other centre-backs in this scenario.
Bowen gets the better of Udogie and, rather than closing down the angle entirely, Van de Ven holds his position, allowing the West Ham winger to dig a cross out to the back post. Johnson is culpable here for not tracking Kudus, but Spurs’ overall organisation is questionable, too. Romero is the only defender protecting the six-yard box, while Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Maddison play no part in helping the team defend, with Lucas Paqueta also unmarked at the far post.
Kudus slots the ball into the top corner to give West Ham the lead.
Crystal Palace
Jean-Philippe Mateta, 31 mins
Palace’s opener at Selhurst Park was the clearest example of the dangers Spurs’ build-up patterns bring when they make errors.
A minute or so before the goal, Udogie used his pace to stop Ismaila Sarr from getting to the ball but then lost it while trying to dribble out of danger rather than making one of three available passes.
Palace then work the ball to Sarr, occupying the space Udogie left behind. Sarr’s shot was comfortably saved by Vicario, allowing Spurs to organise themselves into their preferred build-up shape.
However, Palace’s press narrowed their options. In this situation, Spurs may have benefited from one of their wingers or midfielders dropping back or by going long from the off. Neither happens, however, forcing Vicario, Romero and Van de Ven to exchange passes.
With no additional player dropping back, Romero, under pressure, chooses to loft a ball across goal to Van de Ven rather than go long or play a (risky) pass to Bissouma to get Spurs forward. Van de Ven stumbles and Udogie fails to spot Daniel Munoz running right across him to press the centre-back.
Udogie also does not close down Munoz in the aftermath and he crosses into the box with Van de Ven not using his pace to close him down despite the lack of imminent danger in the box. Romero and Porro fail to communicate and go after the same ball, which reaches Eberechi Eze — running unchallenged from midfield with Bissouma covering for Van de Ven — and is laid off for Jean-Philippe Mateta to take a touch and score unopposed.
Ipswich Town
Sammie Szmodics, 31 mins
In the build-up to Szmodics’ acrobatic strike, Spurs were once again affected by their positioning and a lack of communication.
Ipswich initially lofted the ball out to right-winger Omari Hutchinson, who laid it back for Sam Morsy. As Morsy looks for options, Spurs’ back-four is settled but their midfield looks muddled, with Pape Matar Sarr and Bentancur occupying the same area. Sarr urges Bentancur to shift towards the right, but the duo and Son combined are covering just one player, leaving Spurs susceptible to an overload on Udogie’s flank.
Bentancur’s positioning allows Jens Cajuste to wander into a pocket of space, where he is found by Morsy. Cajuste then easily slips past the half-hearted pressing of Kulusevski and Johnson, which drags Dragusin out of position, to find Liam Delap. Delap glides away from Son and feeds a pass to Cajuste in the gap between the recovering Dragusin and Udogie.
The ball reaches Ben Johnson out wide, and he is closed down by Dragusin instead of Udogie. Johnson passes back to Cajuste. Son is slow to close down the cross, which is attacked by Delap and Romero. Delap ends up heading it upward but when it comes down, Brennan Johnson and Porro fail to close down Szmodics who has the time to make up his mind and space to contort his body for a bicycle kick that beats Vicario, resulting in the reactions mentioned at the start.
Organisation is a part of this chaos, but poor in-game decisions and effort from multiple Spurs players results in this goal, indicating that there may not be a quick fix to this issue.
Ipswich Town
Liam Delap, 43 mins
Ipswich then got another open-play goal before Spurs got on the scoresheet. On this occasion, Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric gives the ball straight to Sarr, who feeds Son. The Spurs captain’s cutback rolls across goal before being cleared out by Leif Davis.
As the ball hangs in the air, Spurs seem either resigned to the fact that it is going out of play or disappointed at a wasted opportunity and are slow to retreat.
However, Axel Tuanzebe keeps it in on the other flank and finds Hutchinson infield. Udogie’s advanced position forces Bentancur to initially retreat, but when Hutchinson gets away from Kulusevski, the Uruguayan is forced to get involved. Hutchinson hurdles Bentancur’s slide tackle and draws Romero out of position to find Davis.
A frequent problem Spurs have experienced in the Postecoglou era rears its head again as Porro fails to see Szmodics’ underlapping run into the space Romero vacated, while the centre-back himself is slow to recover, making it a three-on-two in Ipswich’s favour.
Szmodics’ cutback is palmed away by Vicario, but ricochets off Dragusin towards the goal-line where Delap knocks it home ahead of Udogie stuck in a centre-back position once again.
All these goals bring similar problems to the fore. Spurs’ in-possession approach breeds difficulties when they lose the ball, and these are worsened by communication breakdowns, rash decision-making and individual errors.
Postecoglou also seems unsure of who to play in holding midfield, alternating between two different profiles in Bissouma and Bentancur. Spurs rarely progress the ball through their No 6, and neither player has looked particularly sound positionally, which contributes to their defensive troubles.
Spurs also require more defensive effort from their wingers in this system, as Johnson and Son often stay high up the pitch as part of a rest attack instead of helping their defenders. Alternately, instructing one of the full-backs to play a conservative role in build-up could also keep them better prepared when the opposition win the ball back.
How Postecoglou tackles this issue could be what makes or breaks his second season at Spurs.
(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
