Gary Neville has criticised Tottenham’s slow starts and believes a worrying pattern is now emerging for Antonio Conte’s side.
Tottenham hosted Liverpool on Sunday afternoon with no Son Heung-min, no Richarlison, no Dejan Kulusevski and no Cristian Romero in the starting XI.
That was a daunting prospect and Tottenham gave themselves a mountain to climb.
Mohamed Salah pounced not once but twice to score for Liverpool in the first half, leaving Conte facing a 2-0 deficit at the break.
Harry Kane did pull one back as substitute Kulusevski threaded him in, but Tottenham couldn’t find a leveller late on.
Gary Neville has criticised Tottenham’s slow starts
Tottenham just keep giving themselves too much to do.
It has become a recurring theme of late that Tottenham concede the first goal too often.
In each of Tottenham’s last four Premier League games, they have conceded the first goal. Spurs have taken just three points in that time.
Tottenham have also conceded the first goal in their last three Champions League games.
This just gives Tottenham so much to do to get back into games and get points from losing positions.
On the one hand, it’s great that Tottenham can show so much resolve and fight to come from behind to claim points.
On the other, Tottenham just can’t keep giving the opposition a head start and Gary Neville is concerned.
Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, Neville suggested that Tottenham have a pattern developing in terms of starting games slowly and forcing themselves to respond in the second half.
Neville believes that Tottenham were like a horse that timed their run too late against Liverpool even with Conte trying to push his players on.
Neville also thinks that whilst Tottenham can maybe get away with slow starts against Marseille and Bournemouth, it just won’t work against Liverpool.
The former Manchester United defender believes Tottenham have a mentality problem now and Conte and his players must answer the questions soon.
“They just left themselves too much to do,” said Neville. “It’s almost like a horse that’s left the run too late, and you see the jockey frantically on the edge trying to whip the horse and Conte was whipping his team but the problem was, he’d left the run too late and tactically, that has got to happen from the very first part of the game.”
“Yes, you can come back maybe against Marseille, you can come back against Bournemouth, but against a top team – of which Liverpool obviously are and have been, certainly in the last few years – they just left themselves too much to do.”
“I think the set up and the mentality of the team at the beginning is, to me, like a glass half empty rather than a glass half full and you can see that in the players, and then in the second half they come out and they have to, they’re almost made to go for it, and then they respond.”
“Why do they have to go down, why do they have to wait for the second half for these moments to occur? There’s a mentality thing there that’s developing and it’s a pattern now for Spurs, and only Conte and the Spurs players can answer that question,” he added.
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