Jermain Defoe shares what Tottenham absolutely cannot avoid doing now in wake of Sunday's 'disappointing' result

Today at 12:15 PM

Tottenham Hotspur once again let their fans down just before an international break as they lost a game despite leading 2-0 at the break.

Spurs took on Brighton & Hove Albion away last Sunday and, for a while, things were going great for Ange Postecoglou’s charges.

Tottenham, who had won their last five games in all competitions, were quick out of the blocks as the in-form Brennan Johnson scored for a sixth straight outing.

James Maddison then doubled the visitors’ lead before the break to give Spurs a healthy 2-0 lead, but Yankuba Minteh halved that deficit shortly after the restart.

Georginio Rutter then equalised just before the hour-mark before helping to set up Danny Welbeck to head in and seal a shocking turnaround in the 66th minute.

There was plenty of criticism of Tottenham after the game, with Spurs cult hero Jermain Defoe one of the pundits expressing his dismay with how the match panned out.

Jermain Defoe says Tottenham should have sat behind the ball for 10 minutes

Defoe, speaking on Optus Sport, made a seemingly obvious claim about Spurs, namely that they can’t be so tactically rigid during a game.

Postecoglou ought to have anticipated that Brighton were going to be on the offensive and should have sat behind the ball for a while, suggested Defoe.

"The game changes, you can't always be like 'this is how we're going to play',” said Defoe.

"If you get two goals, you may have to change a little bit, the environment, the score, you can't always play the same. For 10 minutes, sit behind the ball.

"It was disappointing in terms of Tottenham."

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A little bit of pragmatism is needed

It’s all well and good delivering exciting and entertaining football for your fanbase, but this needs to be paired with obtaining results.

It’s not as though Postecoglou would have needed to park the bus for the rest of the game either. He just needed to take the sting out of the opening 10-20 minutes and then they could’ve pushed for a third.

This needs to change. Spurs need to find a way to marry their exciting football and attacking intent with actually being able to withstand attacks.

When are Tottenham next in action?

Spurs host West Ham United in a Premier League fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium scheduled to kick off at 12:30pm on Saturday 19 October.