Tottenham’s stop-and-go start to the season has brought back criticism that surfaced towards the end of last season as they missed out on qualification to the Champions League.
Many have pointed out the apparent lack of guile in Spurs’ approach under their Australian manager.
However, Ange Postecoglou has insisted once again the he is not changing his approach.
Ange Postecoglou defends his tactics
Speaking to Optus Sport ahead of club football’s return later this week, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou defended his style of play, saying he wouldn’t change his approach for anything.
“What everyone wants me to do is what everyone else does. Now, I’m just not going to do that because there’s a reason I’m here today, it’s not because I’ve done what everyone else does.
“So I think everyone has their own unique journey to get to somewhere, I didn’t get here by doing what everyone else is doing.
“So I get the people who say ‘be more pragmatic’ like everyone else but I don’t want to be like everyone else. What others see as stubbornness or me being dogmatic, I see as real belief in what I’m doing.”
Postecoglou, as quoted by Hotspur HQ.
Tottenham host West Ham this weekend in the Premier League.
Admiration does not always bring success
What “success” entails depends on the context. For a team in the lower tiers, avoiding relegation is success to some, while getting promotion is so for the others. In the Premier League, similarly, there are teams who’d be happy to just remain in the division, while for others anything less than the title will be failure.
For Tottenham, success means striving for not just consistent good results in the league but also silverware, and you cannot achieve those without being realistic. Some of the most iconic, inventive coaches of their time—Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola, Sir Alex Ferguson, take your pick—understood the importance of being realistic while having their own unique way of going about things on a football pitch.
We have said this before and we say this again: it’s hard not to admire Postecoglou. The man has obviously succeeded many a time in his career. But success at Tottenham within the context of the Premier League and football at the very elite level in general requires a degree of pragmatism he simply refuses to indulge in. Fair enough, that’s a legitimate choice. But choices have consequences, and Postecoglou will meet his sooner or later.
