Tottenham face more scrutiny on their set pieces after a 2-0 London derby defeat to Chelsea condemned them to a third consecutive Premier League loss.
Ange Postecoglou’s side’s Champions League aspirations took another seismic hit after goals from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson – both resulting from free-kicks in dangerous areas – helped Mauricio Pochettino to victory against his former club.
It came days after Spurs were undone by two more set-piece goals in the north London derby against Arsenal – and their top-four hopes are now hanging by a thread with fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester City still to play.
We lacked a real sort of conviction and positive mindset in our football,” Postecoglou said afterwards.
“We didn’t really have any fluency, any sort of aggression with and without the ball. It’s a bit unlike us because if nothing else we’ve always been competitive, especially in the first half it was missing today.”
Back in March, Postecoglou defended his decision not to hire a specialist set-piece coach. Spurs previously employed one under Antonio Conte – Gianni Vio – but his focus was on attacking from set pieces, not defending them. This season, Postecoglou says he has “split the roles between [first team coaches] Mile [Jedinak] and Ryan Mason”.
“I always think it’s better if that’s somebody who’s a part of the coaching staff because then that’s an extension of how we play our football,” he explained. “I don’t separate set pieces from everything else we do, in terms of the team we want to be. It all hopefully links in.”
There has been an argument that Guglielmo Vicario has not received enough protection from referees, but Spurs have also appeared conflicted between zonal marking and man-marking – and familiar issues are plaguing their European push going into the final weeks of the campaign.
Here’s every goal Tottenham have conceded from set pieces so far this term.
Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa – Pau Torres
Douglas Luiz drifts a free-kick into the box, headed in by Pau Torres.
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