Jose Mourinho criticised his Tottenham team for failing to show any ambition to build on their early lead in the 1-1 draw against Wolves.
Spurs went in front through Tanguy Ndombele after just 57 seconds but then, just as they did at Crystal Palace a fortnight ago, retreated en masse and could not see the game out.
Incessant Wolves pressure was finally rewarded in the 86th minute as Romain Saiss headed home a thoroughly-deserved equaliser from a corner.
The performance and result, which meant Spurs failed to make up ground at the top of the table, will ensure their approach comes under scrutiny as they threw away points from a winning position for the fourth time this season.
Victory would have taken Spurs third, four points off leaders Liverpool, but they showed no desire to add to their early goal.
Mourinho said: “We are frustrated with the result. We had 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 that here we should win and we drew with a corner.
“We can say against Palace we should win and we drew with a free-kick. I could go even to previous matches.
“But I don’t think it is very obvious to go in that direction and not to go in other directions. The other direction for me is you score a goal in the first minute, you have 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn’t.”
Spurs have now dropped eight points from winning positions this season as they have had to settle for draws against Newcastle, West Ham, Palace and now Wolves after conceding goals in the last 10 minutes.
Mourinho said his side should be doing more to kill games.
“Of course it is a concern, but it is more of a concern that we score early goals and we don’t win matches,” he added.
“Of course against Liverpool it was about the post not wanting us to win a match. But against Palace, for example, by scoring an early goal, you must score (another goal).
“It’s as simple as that. We defend very well as a team, that is enough. It could be enough. If we don’t concede that last corner, we win 1-0 and you would be asking me different questions.
“But my feeling would be exactly the same.”
Wolves were worthy of their point and could have even snatched a winner had Fabio Silva not fluffed a late header.
Pushing until the end 👏 pic.twitter.com/V4wTaJTOJN — Wolves (@Wolves) December 27, 2020
It was the second successive home game in which they have come from behind to take something, after beating Chelsea last time out, and boss Nuno Espirito Santo was proud of his side.
“It’s a mix of everything. It’s not only to do with fitness,” he said. “It is a lot to do with belief and the spirit of the boys. Today was very hard on them and the next game we will clearly have issues because the effort was huge.
“After the first minute where we conceded, every action of our players was very intense, very aggressive.
“It requires a big heart, a will to do things to help the team. This is our spirit and we want to continue like that. Even in the last minute, we had a good chance. So we always want to stay and make things happen until the last whistle of the referee.”
