Jose Mourinho questions Tottenham's 'lack of ambition' in Wolves draw
By Tom Gott
Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho was left hugely frustrated as his side conceded a late equaliser and dropped two points in Sunday's 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Romain Saiss headed home from a corner in the 86th minute to snatch a deserved point from Spurs, who had been leading ever since Tanguy Ndombele's strike after just 57 seconds.
Spurs, who needed Hugo Lloris to save them from more late goals from Ruben Neves or Fabio Silva, had spent the vast majority of the game sitting deep and defending, with Wolves routinely managing the threat of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, but Mourinho insisted after the game that his plan was never to prioritise defending.
"Yes, frustrating with the result," he said (via football.london). "We have control of the game but we had 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn't.
"It was not just about not scoring goals, it was also about not being dangerous and not being ambitious. For me that's the problem. Of course we can go back to a corner, we can say that in Liverpool we should win and we lost with a corner. We can say here we should win and we drew with a corner. You can say that against Crystal Palace we should win and drew with a lateral free-kick.
"I don't think it's very, very obvious just to look in that direction and not to go in other directions. The other direction for me is you score a goal in the first minute and you have 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn't."
Mourinho also told BBC Sport: "Defending deep, that's not the intention. They know what I asked them at half-time, if they couldn't do better it's because they couldn't do better."
Spurs have now conceded in the last ten minutes of five different games this season, but when asked whether his side might have a mentality issue when it comes to retaining leads, Mourinho insisted scoring more is the perfect answer to the problem.
"Of course it is a concern, but I repeat it's more a concern the fact we score early goals and we don't kill matches," he added.
"Of course, in Liverpool it was about the post not wanting us to win the match and it's not expected to go to Liverpool to have five, six or seven chances and score one, two, three or four goals. In this match, against Palace for example, are matches were by scoring an early goal you must have a go and it's simple as that.
"Even defending very well, which we do as a team, that is not enough. It could be enough as if we defend that last quarter we win 1-0 and maybe now you are asking me different questions. But my feeling would be exactly the same, scoring in the first minute we had 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn't."