Postecoglou rues Tottenham’s finishing in Newcastle loss
Tottenham Hotspur suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season as they were beaten 2-1 by Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Sunday’s matchday three clash.
Harvey Barnes and Aleksander Isak scored for the Magpies while the Spurs record on the scoresheet came through Dan Burn’s own goal.
The Lilywhites have the international break to fix some teething issues from the early days of the season which even saw them drop points away to Leicester City on the first matchday.
Speaking in his press conference after the match, Ange Postecoglou has said that he believes the team’s finishing let them down while Newcastle took advantage of their chances in an end-to-end game. He said (via BBC Match of the Day):
“Story of our season so far really. We played well and controlled the game for the most part. They were a threat in transition but we still had enough chances to win the game comfortably.”
Indeed Tottenham have not been able to take their chances in front of goal, especially away from home against well-organised backlines like Leicester’s and Newcastle’s.
Having said that, the away side also had control of the game. They did everything but win the midfield battle and finish off their chances, in which case the result would have been different.
The likes of Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski have also been surprisingly wasteful in front of goal, perhaps suggesting that they have still not gained full match fitness after the off season.
Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson, meanwhile, have failed to get into convincing goal-scoring positions and are showing a visible lack of confidence when they are fed the ball.
Dominic Solanke, on the other hand, is still unfit and has yet to make his debut for Tottenham Hotspur though after 19 goals for Bournemouth last season, he will be expected to be Spurs’ go-to man in this campaign.
The international break is coming at a good time for a number of teams that need to rework on a number of things, Tottenham included, and they now have a fortnight before the North London Derby against Arsenal later this month.
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Postecoglou will welcome the break and it would be very surprising if the Australian is still not able to fix some tactical issues in the upcoming period.
