A good half but no desire to change
If one statistic summed up this latest Tottenham performance it's the one that stated that when Raul Jimenez delivered Wolves' first effort on goal with a header that tested Fraser Forster in the second half, Spurs had already taken 14 shots at the home side's goal.
Tottenham's first half and portions of the second half were unlike many of their previous ones against Wolves. Ordinarily the men in orange boss possession, dominate in a packed midfield and Spurs often have to rely on catching them out on the break.
Before this meeting, the north London side had only lost three of their previous 14 matches against the West Midlands team, despite the tight nature of the majority of those encounters.
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings vs Wolves: Porro improving, Forster busy but attackers struggle
Yet this time, Tottenham could have blown their hosts away in the first half, had they shown any semblance of composure in the final third. They had 11 touches in the Wolves box in that opening 45 minutes without the hosts having a single one in theirs, making 62 passes in the final third to the home side's 28.
Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui said: "We are happy for the three points, but to be honest the match has two very clear halves. In the first half they [Tottenham] play with fantastic rhythm and they deserve more.
"In the second half we improve a lot and we show our face in the end. I am happy, but I have to recognise that Tottenham has had chances."
In all Spurs had 21 shots on the Wolves goal, hitting the crossbar twice through efforts from Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min, with six efforts on target. Dejan Kulusevski and Ivan Perisic both forced Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa into saves and Porro had a shot deflected on to the roof of the net, but Tottenham could not find a clinical edge to their attacks.
Spurs had more of the possession, a better pass success rate (86% to 81%) and won 11 aerial battles to Wolves' eight. However, other key stats show that the hosts made 17 tackles to Tottenham's five and crucially the wasteful visitors were dispossessed 12 times to the home side's once.
Wolves eventually managed eight shots on goal with five on target and crucially the decisive one that flew past Fraser Forster, who had to make a string of saves from Jimenez and Ruben Neves.
Forster had saved Jimenez's effort on 82 minutes but in pushing it out he sent it into an area where Tottenham's defence were caught napping and of course it had to be Adama Traore standing there.
The 27-year-old guided it back past the fallen goalkeeper and in off the crossbar for just his second Premier League goal of the season, his first coming almost five months ago. The moment the muscular winger, perennially linked with Spurs, stepped off the bench, the Tottenham fans would have known the oiled up Spaniard would come back to haunt them.
It was the kind of lesson the profligate Spurs have been taught so many times over the years but never truly learned.
Tottenham assistant boss Cristian Stellini told football.london that the team had to be "nastier" in front of goal.
"I think the performance was good, particularly in the first half when we controlled the game in every aspect. We had some chances to score. We were not so nasty in the way to score," he said.
"When you have a chance like this, you have to kill the game. The game was under control but then in second half we struggled a bit at the start but after 10 minutes we adapted to the situation and we controlled the game.
"We had another chance with Sonny that hit the bar. After that I think they had some intensity in the game, winning some offensive duels and that created a situation where we struggled a bit and the game changed, but they found a way to score and we didn't. This is the history of the game."
What did not help Tottenham was that Lopetegui was constantly adjusting his Wolves side, forced at first through the injury to Diego Costa, although that proved to be to the hosts' benefit in this game as the more mobile Jimenez caused Spurs far more problems.
After that the Wolves boss made two half-time changes, in doing so switching from a back four to a three, and he had used all five of his permitted substitutes 10 minutes before Spurs even turned to their bench for the first time with just 13 minutes of the game remaining.
You might suggest that a current system that requires Antonio Conte to send word from Turin to his coaching staff that he wants to make a change, or his coaches having to ask him to make a change, naturally slows down the process.
However, Conte is not normally one for making swift and early changes anyway. There will occasionally be one substitution around the hour mark with one or two more coming in the final minutes if at all.
Some managers adapt their tactics to trouble or counter the opposition, but Conte is clearly a man who believes that the team he picks for the game is the right one and his system works when those players adhere properly to it. He will point to the silverware on his CV as the proof of what happens when they do.
His substitutions when they come are often like for like unless it is late in the game and his team are losing, which can mean sacrificing a defensive player for an attacking one, as has been the case twice in this disappointing week.
football.london asked Stellini whether with Wolves looking far fresher in the second half there had been any temptation to make earlier changes to match them.
"No, the team needed only five minutes to adapt. We were playing well, and the pace and we controlled the game," he replied. "There wasn't a reason to change.
"Afterwards we changed because there was a reason to change because we needed more energy and to interrupt their pace in the game, but only one detail changed the story of the game."
Tottenham had the better of this game for more than half of it, but ultimately that meant little without the ability to finish proceedings off and the defeat also made the decision to make six changes for the FA Cup game a redundant one.
Attacking problems and that free-kick
Spurs have gone from scoring plenty of goals - 11 more in the Premier League after the Chelsea game compared to the same stage last season - to struggling to get the ball in the net with enough consistency.
Since 2023 began, the unexpected 4-0 victory at Crystal Palace aside, Tottenham have netted just nine goals in nine Premier League games, conceding 13, while scoring 13 goals in 13 matches in all competitions and conceding 15.
Losing Son's goals this season has been part of the problem. The South Korean star has netted just five times in 24 Premier League games this campaign, those strikes coming in just three games. After 24 league matches last season he had scored 11 goals, every single one of them coming in a different game.
Son would then go on to increase his strike rate to fire home 12 more goals in the final 11 league matches on his way to the Premier League Golden Boot. How Conte and Tottenham could do with a similar end to this season from the 30-year-old.
His performance against Wolves showed far more glimpses of the old Son, with three key passes, including a wicked, curling free-kick for Perisic to head at Sa, and some excellent movement, getting into positions for four shots, two of them on target.
Son is never better than when he's instinctively striking his efforts early. At the moment though he's taking little extra touches and delaying his shots while he overthinks them and he's also finding that luck isn't on his side. That was in evidence with his strike that deflected up on to the crossbar as he was played through by Kane.
Confidence is clearly an issue with the player and that was shown with a first half chance that was afterwards flagged offside but saw him run clear on his own only to dally, cut back inside and fire wildly over. Son in top gear would have buried his shot while on the run.
Dejan Kulusevski has also struggled to maintain his remarkable start to life in England in the time since the World Cup. He has no assists in the nine Premier League games since and just one goal in the 12 games in all competitions.
Still just 22-years-old, inconsistency is to be expected from the young Swede but his exciting 2022 at Tottenham had given so much that it was always likely that any dip in his form would be even more noticeable.
Harry Kane was heavily involved on Saturday as he dropped deep, spraying passes around and winning free-kicks that only further enraged a Wolves crowd that have taken a particular disliking to the England captain over the years. He even gets booed like a pantomime villain when he steps off the team coach.
It was one of those free-kicks that brought a bewildering moment though. Pedro Porro had sent Spurs' best direct set piece in months crashing against the crossbar minutes before the visitors won another one in a similar position.
Logic would have suggested the Spaniard had another go after coming so close before. However, Kane took charge only to add another effort to his long, long list of unsuccessful free-kicks, sending it into the wall. Kane is one of the greatest goalscorers in the modern era but free-kicks are not his friend.
The Spurs striker was not his clinical self at Molineux and he was despondent after the game and a week that has seen the team fail to score across 180 minutes of football against an understrength Championship side and one struggling near the bottom of the Premier League.
"I thought we controlled the game for large spells but we just weren't clinical enough in their final third," he said. "Whether it's the final finish, the pass or the cross, we just weren't clinical enough and at this level you get punished and that's what happened towards the end of the game."
On that 14-0 shot count before Wolves had even had an effort on Spurs' goal, he added that there were a couple of problems hindering the attacking ability of the team: "That's what I mean. You can't fault the effort of the lads, you can't fault the way we played, but at this level, if you want to be fighting at the top of the table you need to be clinical in different moments and that's not just the finish, it's the final pass and when you're three vs two and scenarios like that and I feel like we just need to get better in those moments.
"Premier League games when it's 0-0 for a large portion you can always get caught and that's what happened."
Tottenham's front three are misfiring right now and they're lacking creativity from anyone but Kane. Then there's the strange hierarchy of the other three attackers.
The Lucas Moura decision and Pedro Porro
The 77th minute of the match at Molineux brought a moment that left most Tottenham fans and the media perplexed.
Spurs spent £60m to bring Richarlison in from Everton in the summer and then signed Arnaut Danjuma in January on loan from Villarreal after he scored 16 goals the previous season, including six in the Champions League. The Dutchman arrived at the north London club with a 24m euros (£21.2m) option to buy.
In contrast, Tottenham decided not to take up the option to extend Lucas Moura's contract by 12 months before that option expired in December, making it clear that the club have decided that they are happy to let the 30-year-old leave this summer.
Lucas has not scored or provided a single assist for Conte's men this season across 14 appearances in an injury-ravaged campaign. Last season brought just two goals in 34 Premier League games, with three in the 30 of the season before.
You can spot the pattern. Despite a handful of big nights for Tottenham, the numbers show that in more than half a decade in the Premier League and 147 games, the Brazilian has just 19 goals and 16 assists to his name.
On top of that, Lucas had played only four minutes of league football since October, yet when that board went up on 77 minutes on Saturday it was his number 27 that was held aloft.
In one moment, Conte and Stellini had shown that they will continue to favour experience over other options and they essentially slapped £81m worth of attacking talent down the pecking order.
They might argue that Richarlison had not done enough in his past three appearances to earn the right to come on first in this game, his showing against lower league Sheffield United particularly underwhelming for a £60m man.
That does not explain Danjuma though. The 26-year-old is yet to start a match for Tottenham since arriving in January and has 11 minutes of Premier League football to his name since - coming on in the defeat at Leicester - and nine minutes in the Champions League loss at AC Milan and 27 minutes across two games in the FA Cup.
The longest the Netherlands international has had on the pitch, the 19 minutes at Preston, brought a debut goal but he is yet to be deemed worthy of a start despite the indifferent form of others.
It feels like Danjuma is now fulfilling the Bryan Gil role - that chap on the bench who will only come on if everyone else is injured or all other options have been exhausted.
It all makes the option to buy in his deal a rather redundant exercise because with the games and competitions running out for Tottenham so the opportunities for him to prove his worth are also ticking away, barring an injury crisis at the club.
Instead Lucas, with his own time ticking away in north London, is getting added game time and he did not do much with it on Saturday, other than one bouncing pass through to Kane.
One bright spot for Tottenham did show though and that came in a display from Pedro Porro that suggested the 23-year-old is starting to adapt to the team and the system's demands.
He sent an early shot well wide, but then hit the crossbar with that powerful free-kick before seeing a shot deflected inches over. His defending was also improved and he will able to state that Wolves' goal came moments after he left the pitch.
Porro provided two key passes and attempted four shots on goal in a busy attacking performance, while also making two clearances at the other end. He sent in two crosses with one reaching a Spurs man, while Ivan Perisic on the other side slung in 10 crosses with two reaching their target.
It's no coincidence that Porro looked more comfortable playing next to and in front of the aggressive, confident Cristian Romero after his previous two starts alongside the shakier Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez.
Stellini was happy with the performance of the Spaniard.
"Pedro Porro played a good game like all the team," he told football.london. "We know Pedro Porro is this type of player. We need to help him to adapt himself to a new league but today he was important for us. The only thing is be ready, nasty and aggressive in the way you have to kill the game."
When asked how you make the squad nastier and and more aggressive in that way, the Spurs assistant boss put the ball firmly in the players' court.
"They have to find this solution during every game but today was not the lucky day that you shoot on target the first and you score," he said. "We needed maybe more chances but when you have five, you need to score one."
Conte's return and the circus to come
Sunday marks the return of Antonio Conte to Hotspur Way and it comes at a time when the Tottenham players need something to change in the dynamic.
They had initially responded well to their work with Stellini and Ryan Mason, perhaps with the enjoyment of pupils having the teacher absent from class.
Ultimately complacency set in with the FA Cup exit and the players saw a very different Stellini in the aftermath of that game, the 48-year-old furious with the manner of their defeat to the Championship side.
He sparked an improved sense of urgency from the Spurs side, with plenty of pressing and energy at Molineux but they were undone by a lack of quality in the final third and once again, one lax moment in defence. The assistant boss admitted on Saturday that he was angry again after the final whistle at Wolves.
Now Conte will walk through the doors at the Enfield training complex on Sunday looking to trigger another change in fortunes.
It has been more than a month since the Spurs squad worked with a fully fit, refreshed Conte and with the Champions League second leg against AC Milan up next, with a 1-0 deficit to overcome, the timing could be key.
"Antonio will be a massive boost for us from tomorrow until the end of the season," said Stellini on Saturday. "It is important that Antonio is back.
"We want to have him back with a different result but the team show to Antonio it is alive. They want to win, they want to control the game, they want to dominate the game and this is important I think."
That Conte will return with a match against an Italian side means the circus around him will only be intensified.
The Italian media are set to descend upon north London in their droves for the match. The game in Milan last month brought questions galore for the then clearly still recovering Conte, selfies aplenty with many of the home journalists and the Spurs boss making his love of Italian football very clear in his comparisons with the English game.
However, Conte cannot afford a sideshow to distract from the job at hand this time. This match needs to be all about him and his Spurs team. It's a chance to harness the noise of a packed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium rather than send out any mixed messages to dilute that.
Another sideshow was taking place in Bahrain with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy out at the latest Grand Prix. That US billionaire Jahm Najafi, vice-chairman of the McLaren Formula 1 team, has been linked with buying Spurs - albeit more intensely with putting funds into Everton - and was pictured out in the Middle Eastern country with Levy only continued to set tongues wagging.
Spurs insist their chairman was only in Bahrain, alongside chief commercial officer Todd Kline, as part of their freshly-signed 15-year partnership with Formula 1. That Levy was wearing his Spurs-branded clothing while walking around did not suggest the most clandestine of visits.
All eyes at Tottenham need to be on Wednesday's Champions League clash.
"Wednesday is the most important game for us now," said Kane. "It's the next one and it's an opportunity to stay in the Champions League. It's going to be tough playing against a really good side but we're at home, we'll have our fans behind us and that's really important.
"A tough week for sure, but in football the next game is only ever just around the corner so we need to make sure we're ready for that."
Conte decided to get the back three likely to face Milan accustomed to each other at Molineux with Eric Dier, who is suspended in midweek, left on the bench. It brought a rare outing for the trio of Romero, Clement Lenglet and Ben Davies.
Some within the club believe that Lenglet has the ability to be the best option in the centre of the back three with his passing ability with his left foot. The Frenchman's performance on Saturday did not particularly sell that idea.
One misplaced pass in the second half left Spurs wide open and Lenglet was indebted to Matheus Cunha's wayward shot from six yards out as he struggled to race back to get anywhere near him.
However, the centre-back received no such good fortune when he stepped out of defence to try to stop Jimenez outside the Tottenham box with eight minutes to go of normal time.
The Mexican breezed past him with ease and when Forster saved his shot, Traore found himself in the big pocket of space left behind his out of position former Barcelona team-mate and he netted the deciding goal.
Ben Davies was caught between whether to close down the now free Jimenez's shot or stick with Traore and in the end did neither.
Lenglet and Davies will need to be better against Milan on Wednesday night because Spurs must keep the Serie A side at bay and of course score more at the other end if they are to progress to the quarter-finals.
Milan's recent run of four straight wins came to an end on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat at Fiorentina and Tottenham will be hoping the Italian club struggles again on the road in a few days' time.
Conte returns to a Spurs side that has enjoyed highs and lows in his absence. They need to find some stability and the Italian needs to get the Tottenham fans believing again. How his tenure at the club is remembered may just depend on it.
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