Matt Doherty has claimed that Tottenham did not lack intensity against Wolves on Sunday but insisted that the home side paid for their sloppiness.
Wolves raced into a two-goal lead through Raul Jimenez and Leander Dendoncker within 20 minutes after a couple of mistakes at the back from Antonio Conte’s men.
That left Spurs without a mountain to climb and despite Conte’s decision to change formation and go to a back four, the Lilywhites did not manage to claw their way back into the encounter.
Doherty, who got a rare start ahead of Emerson Royal, admitted that the poor opening period from the home side gave the visitors a lot of confidence.
The 29-year-old told NBC Sports after Tottenham’s 2-0 loss on Sunday: “Obviously didn’t start well, they were two-nil up pretty fast, we were a little sloppy but I think our intensity was there.
“We just were sloppy on the ball and giving it away and it kind of changed the atmosphere in the stadium.
“It gave them a lot of confidence and look before we knew it we were two-nil down and we’re playing against a quality side so we knew how difficult it would be from then on.
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“I think we made mistakes again for the goals obviously. We need to individually be better, that’s not just the people involved in the goals. I think we all made mistakes out there which probably could have led to goals.
“We just need to, I don’t know, show a bit more focus and concentration and then just kind of wipe those mistakes out because they are costing us points at the moment and it is costing us a lot.”
Doherty admitted that the first-half performance from Spurs was not good enough but he insisted that the home side gave a much better account of themselves after the interval.
The former Wolves man claimed that Tottenham had the chances to get back into the game in the second half.
When asked if the change of formation saw Spurs wrestle back control, he responded: “For sure, yeah.
“There were times in the first half where we got ourselves in strong positions where if we were a little bit quicker or the pass was a little bit better we would have had a good opportunity.
“In the second half, I thought we did create some good chances and we just didn’t manage to put them in which is how things have been for us in the last couple of games and that is how everything has kind of fallen to the opposition and we are not getting the breaks that you want to try and get at home., we’ve got to refocus on switch on.”
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While a lot of the focus for our last two losses will be on our defensive mistakes, I thought we were also quite poor on the other end of the pitch. We certainly fashioned enough chances to score a couple on Sunday but we let ourselves down with our finishing.
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