Ange Postecoglou: Tottenham boss faces date with destiny as they capitulate again

If Ange Postecoglou is on the hunt for leaks at Tottenham Hotspur, his search should start with those running through his midfield and defence that have been left unattended to place his job in jeopardy.

Postecoglou revealed on Friday that there was a mole inside his club filtering out classified information into the public domain.

But what is no secret is Spurs are a soft touch for opponents with even the slightest hint of threat.

It was proved again in a 4-2 defeat by Wolves at Molineux - a masterclass in every reason why Postecoglou's side have lost 17 Premier League games out of 32, more than in any other season, and why they languish down in 15th place.

Their afternoon was encapsulated by Djed Spence's farcical own goal, as keeper Guglielmo Vicario palmed the ball against the backtracking full-back and into the net, to give Wolves a two-goal lead in a dispiriting first half.

Postecoglou's expression of thunder turned to one of complete disbelief when he went back to the bench to review the moment on a monitor. It was an X-rated horror show.

It is a flaw the Australian has simply been unable to cure, undermining all his fine attacking principles that prompted such optimism and hope in the early months of his reign.

Since Postecoglou took over before the 2023-24 campaign, only West Ham and Sheffield United (seven each) have scored more Premier League own goals than the six by Spurs.

And only the current bottom three clubs – Southampton (26), Leicester (22) and Ipswich (19) – have lost more league games than their 17 this season.

It is the most defeats Spurs have suffered in a league campaign since 2003-04 (19) when they finished 14th.

There does have to be some context applied to this defeat, though.

Postecoglou's priorities, perfectly understandably, lie with the Europa League quarter-final second leg away to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday after a 1-1 draw in the first meeting at home.

It explained the six changes that saw Son Heung-min, Micky van de Ven, Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie kept back, while Rodrigo Bentancur came on as substitute. The big bonus was the return of Dejan Kulusevski after injury for a 15-minute run-out.

There is also a worrying downside to that context too.

If there is any repeat of the carelessness and general incompetence that scarred this display, then Spurs' trophy hopes will be over for another season and so, in all probability, will be Postecoglou's spell in charge.

What cannot be explained away is the slapdash manner and lack of basic organisation that allowed rejuvenated Wolves to record a fourth straight top-flight success for the first time since January 1972.

It started inside two minutes, when keeper Vicario's tame punch from a corner found Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri unmarked from the set-piece on the edge of the area. He accepted the invitation to score.

The second was another calamity, Vicario again culpable when he turned home striker Marshall Munetsi's tame header on to Spence when he could have held on, the ball rebounded back into his own goal.

And even when Mathys Tel offered hope just before the hour with his second league goal in successive games, Cristian Romero flouted his status as a World Cup winner with a shocking piece of defending. The Argentina centre-back was robbed and beaten by Ait-Nouri, who crossed for Jorgen Strand Larsen to score with ease, and for a fourth successive game.

It went on.

Spurs inflicted more of their own wounds after Richarlison thought he had set up a tense finale with five minutes left.

Lucas Bergvall, instrumental in Spurs' first goal, then coughed up possession too easily in an instant, leaving Matheus Cunha to race clear and score just a minute later.

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