The pressure is mounting on Ange Postecoglou once again after the recent North London Derby defeat made it five league games without a win.
The Lilywhites are in the second half of the table, dangerously close to the drop zone and much farther from the top five. In a season where a fifth-place finish is set to guarantee Champions League football for the next season, Spurs’ inability to build upon last season, which saw them fail to make the top four despite Aston Villa’s torrid end-of-season run, reflects even more poorly on the team and their manager.
Daniel Levy has his reasons to have stuck with the 59-year-old for as long as he has. After all, his last three managerial appointments were José Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo (whom they didn’t want in the first place), and Antonio Conte. All three of them are typecast as defence-first coaches, and two of them were brought in particularly to end their silverware drought.
It didn’t work out, however, and Levy saw it fit to revert to type and bring “good” football back to Tottenham. But in doing so, he seems to have gone too far in the opposite direction.
So we ask again: what do Spurs do with Ange Postecoglou?
It’s not a word one wants to use, but the word is “naive”. Tottenham do not enjoy the same station in the Premier League that Celtic do in the Scottish Premiership. The Bhoys are one of the two biggest clubs north of the border by virtue of both financial and historical might, so it was easier for Postecoglou to have one set plan and scarcely need to change it.
Not that he doesn’t deserve credit for his Celtic stint, of course. His terrorising side managed to stop Rangers from a historic ten league titles in-a-row and quickly went from a struggling side to one of the most existing British teams of the century, and he rightly deserves credit for that.
But the good comes with the bad, and the bad is not looking good at Tottenham. It’s also not just tactics, it’s also the injuries. Players are going down more frequently now thanks in no small part to the footballing calendar that is unsustainable and yet being made worse, and of course, Postecoglou is not to blame for this at all, though responsibility does need to be taken for his training regimen making things worse for players. This is something that is happening not just this season; it had last term as well, and it was also a matter of concern during his time at Celtic.
Postecoglou’s never-say-die football attitude is an admirable stance, and indeed such tone in coaching helps the younger players become better senior pros in the long term, as shown by the promise of the Tottenham youngsters under him, but this does not entirely translate to long-term league success.
Ange Postecoglou, for all intents and purposes, is a man who should not be continuing at Spurs beyond the season. There’s a very good chance he leaves before May as well, with the Carabao Cup semi-final offering him a few more threads to hang on to.
Daniel Levy wanted to revert to having exciting football played at Tottenham, and he has. But neither does he preside over a club that can entertain dogma as rigid as Postecoglou’s for the long term, nor is the Premier League a kind of competition where you insist on doing the same thing over and over again, changing not an iota, and expect to not be found out in the long run.
Postecoglou is an irresistible personality, and the sport is all the better for having him in its ecosystem, but life does not run of romance alone, even if it’s one of the main reasons it’s lived for. Reality is what Tottenham are needing to consider right, and reality is smacking them in the face reminding them that results cannot be ignored. A balance needs to be struck between playing exciting and playing wise—a balance Spurs have struck in the past.
One hopes Postecoglou sticks around the European football scene, but there is no doubt Tottenham are better without him in the long run, even if he secures cult-hero status at the club by delivering them a trophy this season.
