Ange Postecoglou blasted his players for “lacking conviction” as a wasteful Tottenham was made to pay for not taking their chances against a clinical West Ham United side in a 2-1 defeat.
Tottenham fired off a staggering 23 shots with seven on target against the Hammers, but only a header from Cristian Romero off a corner was able to beat West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
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As for West Ham, they seized upon the few openings they had and it was a major brainfade from Tottenham left back Destiny Udogie that sparked James Ward-Prowse’s winning goal.
Remarkably, the result means Tottenham became the first team in Premier League history to lose three consecutive games despite taking a 1-0 lead.
And it has been their inability to kill off teams when they are creating chance after chance that has come back to bite.
When asked in his post-match press conference why Tottenham cannot hold on to a lead, Postecoglou believed the answer was “simple”.
“Like I said, it’s just not having that conviction in front of goal to finish teams off,” Postecoglou said.
“As simple as that.
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“If we weren’t creating chances, if we were out on our feet, those kinds of things, you could factor into it. But I don’t see that.
“Because all our chances, especially in the first half, have nothing to do with fatigue. It’s to do with lacking conviction, at the moment we’re just going through this spell where we’re playing so-called good football but I don’t see that.
“All I see is us not really showing any real conviction in what we’re doing. It’s almost like we’re thinking the ball will go into the net by itself but it won’t.
“You need to have that determination to do that and you need to have that determination to keep the ball out of your net at the other end.”
Tottenham’s lack of killer instinct in front of goal sharpens focus on the departure of club record goal scorer Harry Kane in the summer.
Postecoglou had Kane in his squad throughout pre-season, but the England international completed a move to Bayern Munich on the eve of the 2023/24 campaign.
And The Telegraph’s Matt Law believed had Kane somehow stuck around in north London, Tottenham wouldn’t have needed to worry about the second half fadeouts.
The proof is perhaps in the pudding too as Tottenham have slipped from third to seventh in the Premier League table when it comes to shot conversion since Kane left.
“The fact many people predicted Tottenham to fall apart without Kane caused an overraction in the opposite direction following their encouraging start to the season under Postecoglou,” Law wrote.
“But that is not to say Spurs are not missing Kane because they quite obviously are.
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“Aston Villa would surely have been dispatched during a dominant first-half had Kane still been around and it is hard not to think the England captain would have got on the scoresheet against West Ham.
“David Moyes’ side were there for the taking but Tottenham are not clinical without Kane and it is something Postecoglou and his team need to quickly address.”
Aside from the unwanted piece of Premier League history, the result means Tottenham have lost four of their last five games and sit in fifth on 27 points, just three ahead of ninth-placed West Ham.
It is an alarming run of form given Tottenham were unbeaten through the first 10 games of the league campaign.
But Postecoglou knows there’s “no alternative” other than beating European contenders Newcastle on Monday (AEDT) if they are to get themselves out of the rut they are in.
“There’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, looking for a cuddle anywhere,” Postecoglou said.
“There’s only one way to change our circumstances and that is to come here on Sunday and put in a performance, not just play good football but go out there and show some conviction about ourselves as a team.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, I’ve said that from the start, we’re still right at the beginning of what we need to create and days like today just give me further evidence and fuel of how much we need to do.”