Tottenham Hotspur have taken 48 shots in their first three games of the Premier League season, according to Opta — more than any other team apart from Nottingham Forest (53). They rank one behind Forest for shots on target with 20, and are joint-second for efforts outside the box (18) behind Crystal Palace’s 19.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have produced three good performances in those matches by dominating possession and boldly playing out from the back yet have only four points from the nine available. Things are not likely to get any easier, as they face Arsenal and Brentford, both at home, in the first two matches after this international break before taking on Manchester United at Old Trafford on September 29.
In the 2-1 away defeat against Newcastle United on Sunday, Spurs created a lot of chances — as the numbers above would suggest. Dejan Kulusevski, who started up front with summer signing Dominic Solanke still out injured, and Son Heung-min, who started on the left wing but moved centrally in the second half, only had three shots between them though (Kulusevski took two), and none of those were on target.
As a team at St James’ Park, Tottenham generated an xG (expected goals) figure, a metric which measures the quality of the chances they create, of 1.3 but the average xG value of each shot was only 0.06. More than 50 per cent (11) of their goal attempts (20) were from outside the penalty area, too.
Is the problem as simple as missing Solanke, their £65million ($85.4m) club-record signing? If Solanke, who suffered an ankle injury in their opening game against Leicester City and has sat out the two matches since, had been attacking the six-yard box yesterday would the result have been different? Or is the issue their failure to consistently create high-quality chances?
The Athletic breaks down their struggles in front of goal against Newcastle.
“Fair play to (goalkeeper) Nick Pope, I thought he had an outstanding game but we could have tested him more with some better decision-making and not just the opportunities we did create,” Postecoglou said. “I thought there were another six to 10 moments where we could have created even more opportunities. That has been a constant theme for us — that we are trying to break through.
“They had 10 bodies in (the box) at times. Apart from (striker Alexander) Isak, everyone else was in there. We worked our way into that area pretty well. There were other times we got even closer to goal but we just lacked composure. Sometimes our positioning was off.
“We let them off the hook.”
Postecoglou’s frustration is understandable.
Take this example early in the second half. It starts with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario playing a bold pass to Kulusevski, who pops it off to Yves Bissouma.
The midfielder spins away from Isak and Harvey Barnes before driving forward.
He locates Son, who dribbles towards Newcastle’s box.
The South Korea international forward could feed Brennan Johnson here for a potentially simple first-time finish…
..but selfishly shoots into a crowd of bodies instead.
Johnson had started the game on the bench but replaced Pape Sarr at half-time. Postecoglou made the switch because 1) Sarr had been booked and 2) he thought Johnson could take advantage of Newcastle’s full-back Lloyd Kelly, who had also received a yellow card, with his speed — which is what happened.
Here, a couple of minutes before the above sequence, Kulusevski weaves in between Barnes and Bruno Guimaraes…
…before finding Johnson. Kelly backs off so the Welshman has a couple of extra seconds to line up a cross towards the back post, where James Maddison and Wilson Odobert are directing their runs.
Odobert sneaks past Tino Livramento but makes awkward contact with the arriving ball.
This camera angle shows the ball hits Odobert’s knee when he should have stooped and headed it.
Johnson had a lot of joy down the right, and this passage of play is indicative of how much Tottenham miss the presence of Solanke or Richarlison, who picked up an injury in training so also missed this match, in the box.
Here, the former Nottingham Forest forward presses Anthony Gordon into a mistake…
…and then accelerates away with the ball.
Johnson follows what we assume were Postecoglou’s instructions perfectly by whipping a cross into the box but Son is the only team-mate there to attack it and Guimaraes clears. Odobert is arriving on the edge of the box and Maddison is even further back and out of frame in the screengrab below. Nobody took a shot here in the end, but it was a good opportunity that should have been capitalised on.
Johnson was also guilty of a lack of composure when Pedro Porro’s shot ricocheted off a Newcastle defender and landed at his feet.
He produces a fantastic initial piece of skill to control the ball in mid-air and flick it past Dan Burn.
He should stroke the ball into the bottom corner — but lashes it over.
If there was one moment which summed up Tottenham’s performance in front of goal on Sunday, however, it would be this sequence inside the opening 10 minutes.
Radu Dragusin, replacing the injured Micky van de Ven at centre-back, realises Newcastle’s back four is out of shape, with Joelinton temporarily playing at left-back. Odobert and Kulusevski run into the same space on the Brazilian’s inside.
Odobert controls the ball from Dragusin ahead of Joelinton and Kulusevski.
The France Under-21 international is about to race into the box for a one-on-one with Pope but Kulusevski, who has strayed offside, is in the way and touches the ball. Instead of Odobert shooting, the move ends with Newcastle being awarded a free kick.
An early-season lack of familiarity between two team-mates — Odobert only signed from Burnley on August 16 — has potentially cost Spurs a goal.
It was a much better performance from Tottenham than on their previous two visits to Tyneside, when they were overwhelmed by Newcastle’s intensity and lost by an aggregate score of 10-1. Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe admitted his side did not play with “enough control” and “composure”, which will make this defeat at St James’ Park sting in a different way for Spurs — it was a wasted opportunity.
There are parallels between this game and the 1-1 draw with promoted Leicester two weeks ago. Tottenham had long spells in both fixtures where they kept carving their opponents open. Postecoglou has two weeks now to reset before they host Arsenal on September 15 and will be desperately hoping Solanke is fit by then.
His return will not solve all of their attacking problems, however. This team clearly need more time to become better at converting territory into great goalscoring opportunities and to stop constantly shooting from long distance.
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
