Tottenham Hotspur have won two Premier League games in a row for the first time in a long time.
Indeed, Spurs beat Manchester United at the weekend a fortnight on from their win at Brentford, and, for the first time in a while, things are looking up for Ange Postecoglou.
Tottenham’s injury issues are subsiding, and while Postecoglou is under pressure still, things are slowly but surely improving.
However, there are still some quirks in this Tottenham team that are hard to understand.
Speaking on The Game Football Podcast, Tony Cascarino has been discussing how this Spurs side operate, and the pundit has been baffled by the fact that Spurs refuse to manage the clock late in games, especially when they’re holding narrow leads.
Tottenham refusing to manage the clock late in games
Cascarino spoke about how Tottenham are acting naively late in games.
The pundit says that he finds it very strange that Tottenham don’t know how to manage the clock late in games.
“One thing that I still find strange with Spurs, I’m not saying you have to do this, but it seems like a good idea. When they’re in a good position and there’s like two or three minutes to go is maybe try to run down the clock slightly, which they didn’t,” Cascarino said.
“And I was thinking, you could have played. It’s not the way they play. I know, but it’s like, it’s not a great idea because there are teams that are going to catch you in the final minute of football, because they were still trying to do the thing to get them another goal and I get it.
“But two, three minutes to go, I’m thinking, that could end up getting an egg on their face with a goal.”
Tottenham’s record of conceding late goals
As Cascarino says, Spurs are not very good at managing the clock late in games.
However, this season, their record when it comes to not conceding late goals has been stellar.
Indeed, say what you will about this Spurs team and their defensive deficiencies, they haven’t conceded a single 90th-minute goal in the Premier League this season.
However, that may be a by-product of the fact Spurs have rarely led late in games, so teams aren’t necessarily pushing for late goals.
Indeed, last season, Tottenham were in much stronger positions more often late in games, and they conceded a lot of late goals.
Spurs have managed to avoid conceding late goals this season, but their ability to shut up shop late in games in which they are leading does appear to be a long-term problem.
This is something Ange Postecoglou really needs to try to address.