Tottenham are going into their second season under Ange Postecoglou and have huge hopes riding on this one to build on the good work that the Aussie tactician put in last campaign. Spurs were one of the most watchable teams in the league last time despite results not always going in their favour.
Their style of football was a stark contrast from the placid, frankly boring football that they played under previous managers Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte. Postecoglou took the bull by its neck and made sure that Tottenham played an open-minded, free-flowing, attacking game that sometimes ended up being their downfall.
Daniel Levy has backed Postecoglou in the transfer market for the second successive season. He has provided him with the ammunition required to challenge for big trophies. Whilst the Premier League itself might be a stretch this season, Spurs could surely be looking at one of the Cups or even the Europa League.
In this article, we present to you five questions Ange Postecoglou and Spurs will have to answer this coming season.
1. Player maintenance (How will Postecoglou maintain his players?)
Injuries are going to come for all regardless of the style of play. The ever-burgeoning footballing calendar is only going to get worse, and for every team and manager, the way they deploy their players on the pitch and how they allocate them minutes over a season of 60+ games will be key.
Postecoglou wants intensity from his players, but he also needs to make sure he rotates them timely to avoid muscle injuries, especially with Spurs back in Europe this term.
2. Tactical preferences (Will Postecoglou relent from his dogma?)
As Spurs’ campaign fizzled out towards the back
end of last season, so did the side that finished above them in the league, Aston Villa.
Had Postecoglou and Co employed a bit more pragmatism, had they taken the foot off the gas for a game or two and been a bit pragmatic, maybe Spurs could have chased the slowing Villains down.
But that’s not how Postecoglou plays. He’s a man of strong morals with a very particular idea of how football is to be played under him, and he refuses to budge.
But football, despite romanticising its dogmatic heroes, records only victories, and victories require long-term thinking, it requires compromises, if not in your ideals then at least in your ability to accept your limitations and play accordingly.
The Premier League is one of the most competitive competitions on earth. Maybe Postecoglou’s high-octane football gets him into the top four or even something better this time if the cards unprecedentedly fall his way, but by large he’ll need to think long-term and take the pressure off the pedal every now and then.
The Spurs fanbase will not be forgiving the way they were last season if their side’s performances fizzle out towards the back end again.
3. Cup competitions (Will Postecoglou give preference to cup competitions?)
Come the end of this season, Spurs will either have ended a 15-year trophy drought or taken it into its 16th year.
Given the lack of silverware, Spurs would even bite some hands off for the Community Shield, so you better hope for the sake of the Spurs fans that Postecoglou wants to prioritise one of the three cups while also keeping things competitive in the league.
At this point, if he were to deliver the club the Carabao with a seventh-place league finish (or even a bottom-half one, for that matter), he’ll become their most successful manager in two decades regardless of what he goes on to achieve going forward.
4. Airing out the dirty laundry (Will he risk publicly shaming the club this time?)
Towards the end of last season, Postecoglou almost got himself out of the job by talking down his club
publicly. Had it not been his first season, and had Spurs not been bad with their managerial decisions in the years before, with his predecessor also having done the same thing, Postecoglou would have been shown the door, but circumstances bailed him out.That won’t happen this time around. The manager is more than in his rights to criticise things he doesn’t like, but he may want to be diplomatic about doing that this season or be prepared to face harsher consequences.
5. Mid-winter aid (How will Spurs support their manager in January?)
Spurs are going to need help. They will not get all their players through the door before the ongoing transfer window ends, and even if they do, there’s a very good chance they’ll need reinforcements in the winter.
Last season as well, Spurs had to bring fresh legs by loaning in Timo Werner and buying Radu Drăgușin. This time, depending on how many competitions they find themselves competing in by the final third of January, they may need a few more pairs of legs. Will Daniel Levy pull out the chequebook to do the same?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
