Ange Postecoglou left ‘hurt’ after Tottenham fail to hold on against Wolves | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou admitted it hurt to watch his weary Tottenham players fail to hold on for a much-needed victory against Wolves, but promised to do everything to help them turn around the season after a 2-2 draw.

Injury-hit Spurs were on track to end a torrid month of December on a high after first-half goals by Rodrigo Bentancur and Brennan Johnson cancelled out Hwang Hee-chan’s brilliant opener for Wolves.

Tottenham captain Son Heung-min also squandered a 43rd-minute penalty, but it did not appear to be too costly until visiting substitute Jorgen Strand Larsen smashed home with three minutes left to ensure the spoils were shared in north London.

Spurs will start 2025 in the bottom half after one win from their last seven Premier League fixtures and yet Postecoglou rallied around his depleted squad, with Destiny Udogie the latest to limp off to become their ninth unavailable player.

“I’m the person in charge, so of course it hurts,” Postecoglou reflected.

“When I see how hard they are trying, it hurts even more because you want them to get a reward and I think today they deserved a reward for their efforts.

“Even though they were dipping into their reserves of energy, which I don’t even know where they got from, I wanted them to get a reward for their efforts.

“It hurts immensely. At the same time it’s my responsibility for where we’re at right now and it’s my responsibility to try to get us out of it.

“It’s fair to say we’re dealing with a fair bit and it doesn’t feel we’re getting a smooth run at anything in terms of getting players back and allowing us to freshen up the team.

“As soon as we get one back, we lose one. We’ve just got to get through it. There’s still a hell of a lot for us to play for.”

Tottenham were sixth and only three points off Chelsea after a 4-0 win at Manchester City on November 23, but are now closer to the relegation zone than top-four.

Postecoglou refused to be too hard on his players, who will get two days off with Spurs set to have a rare clear midweek ahead of Saturday’s visit of Newcastle where Bentancur will also be suspended.

He added: “We have to try to get some support for the players. Both mentally and physically and in terms of numbers to give them the opportunity to play at their best.

“They’re very disappointed, but it’s not through the want of trying.”

It was another afternoon to savour for new Wolves boss Vitor Pereira, who has claimed seven points out of nine since he replaced Gary O’Neil.

The visitors also suffered injury problems with talisman Matheus Cunha forced off, but Strand Larsen came up trumps with his seventh effort of the campaign to move them two points clear of the relegation zone.

“I think it is a good result for us,” Pereira said.

“A difficult week because we lost Toti, we lost Cunha at half-time and this is not a big squad.

“We showed we must find solutions and the speed I saw in the second half, the team tries to play more with the ball, the team tries to create situations to score and because of this period and the personality, I am very happy.”