Fine balancing act with team rotation as Postecoglou focus turns to Eintracht on Thursday

Postecoglu refused to blame the outcome on the six changes he made after Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Eintracht.

Ange Postecoglou claims there is a mole in the camp after some ten team selections were leaked onto social media but is more concerned with the costly mistakes here.

Premier League: Wolves 4 (Ait-Nouri 2’, Spence 38’, Strand Larsen 64’, Cunha 86’) Tottenham 2 (Tel 59’, Richarlison 85’)

Tottenham Hotspur’s mole has gone to ground and it felt like head coach Ange Postecoglou and many of the team disappeared too after this performance.

Awful defending from Spurs gifted Wolves three goals – worrying portents for the visitors’ Europa League second leg tie at Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.

Postecoglou claims there is a mole in the camp after some ten team selections were leaked onto social media but is more concerned with the costly mistakes here.

“We made some individual errors which was unusual for us,” admitted Postecoglou. “It’s unusual for those players.

“Those moments might happen once in a season but they happened multiple times in one game and we got punished.

“Those players (Cristian Romero and Lucas Bergvall) are pretty reliable in those situations and are fantastic footballers.

“The most important thing for both of them is they recover and focus on the next game.” 

Postecoglou refused to blame the outcome on the six changes he made after Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Eintracht.

“You always try to do the right thing and we got some game time into some players and rested a few, so hopefully that will put us in good shape for Thursday,” he added.

Spurs looked like strangers to each other as Rayan Ait-Nouri gave Wolves the lead after 87 seconds.

The left wing back’s volley into the ground flew past goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after he punched away Jean-Ricard Bellegarde’s free kick.

A farcical error in the 38th minute gifted Wolves a second goal.

Vicario’s punch from Marshall Monetsi’s header hit Djed Spence and bounced into the net.

Mathys Tel tapped home in the 59th minute to punish Nelson Semedo missing Brennan Johnson’s cross.

Romero was at fault as Strand Larsen restored Wolves’ two-goal cushion in the 64th minute.

The Spurs skipper allowed Ait-Nouri to dispossess him chasing Toti’s long pass and the Algerian crossed for Strand Larsen to finish.

Romero headed against the bar to allow substitute Richarlison to nod home on 85.

But in typical Spurs fashion, they shot themselves in the foot, conceding within a minute.

Lucas Bergvall lost the ball and substitute Matheus Cunha – returning after his four-match ban –raced away and sidefooted past Vicario.

A fourth straight top-flight win for the first time in 53 years put Wolves 14 points clear of the relegation zone with 18 to play for.

Head coach Vitor Pereira said: “If I speak about being safe I don’t show my ambition.

“I didn’t come to England to work just to avoid relegation – I’m not this kind of coach.” 

Wolverhampton (3-4-3): Sa 7; Doherty 6 (Bueno 46 minutes, 6), Agbadou 8, Toti 7; Semedo (c) 7, J Gomes 8 (Hee Chan Hwang 83 minutes, 6), Andre 7, Ait-Nouri 8 (Cunha 69 minutes, 6); Monetsi 6, Strand Larsen 8 (R Gomes 69 minutes, 6), Bellegarde 6 (Sarabia 42 minutes, 6).

Subs: Bentley, Traore, Djiga, Mane.

Tottenham (4-3-3): Vicario 5; Gray 6, Romero 4, Davies 6, Spence 5; Bissouma 6 (Bentancur 54 minutes, 6), Maddison 6 (Kulusevski 75 minutes, 6), Sarr 5 (Bergvall 55 minutes, 6), Tel 6, Johnson 5, Solanke 5 (Richarlison 75 minutes, 6).

Subs: Kinsky, Udogie, Porro, van de Ven, Moore.

Referee: Anthony Taylor 7.