At the end of Tottenham Hotspur’s last away game in the Premier League, Ange Postecoglou stood on the touchline with his right fist raised triumphantly in the air. For the second time in a month, he had led them to victory over Manchester City. They were superb at the Etihad Stadium and thrashed the Premier League champions 4-0. The feel-good factor was back after the frustration of losing to Ipswich Town just before the international break.
Less than two weeks later and the mood has plummeted. After Thursday night’s dismal 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium, Postecoglou kept his distance while a few of the players applauded the away fans. The 59-year-old then strode over and had a tense exchange with the supporters. It was a million miles away from the scenes at the beginning of last season when they would sing “I’m loving Big Ange instead” to the tune of the Robbie Williams’ song Angels after home games.
“They are disappointed, rightly so,” Postecoglou said. “They gave me some direct feedback, which I guess is taken on board.
“I’ve got no issue with it. I didn’t like what was being said because I’m a human being but you’ve got to cop it. I’ve been around long enough to know that if things don’t go well, you’ve got to understand the frustration and disappointment. They’re rightly disappointed tonight because again, we’ve let a game of football get away from us. That’s okay, I’m okay with all of that.”
Ange Postecoglou, left, interacts with fans at the end of Tottenham’s defeat to Bournemouth (Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
The cracks in this relationship are deepening. Impressive performances against Manchester City and Manchester United temporarily masked Tottenham’s poor record on the road. Postecoglou’s side have lost eight of their last 12 away matches in the top flight.
There is a pattern emerging from those games. The opposition take an early lead, sit deep, and invite Spurs to break them down. When too many players push forward in a desperate attempt to score, Spurs are picked apart on the counter. Bournemouth’s only goal came from a set piece, another issue which plagues this side, but they massively outperformed Tottenham on xG (expected goals: 3.31xg to 0.58xg according to Opta). Evanilson, Dango Ouattara and Justin Kluivert were guilty of wasting chances on the break which would have ended this contest much earlier. Postecoglou described gifting Dean Huijsen a free header from Marcus Tavernier’s inswinging corner as “madness”.
“It is disappointing and not good enough,” he said. “It is not something that is a one-off. We have done that now three or four times and paid a price for it.”
Tottenham have taken one point from their last two league games against Fulham and Bournemouth respectively. They are 10th in the table, level on points with Brentford and Newcastle United. At this point, it is fair to ask how much significant progress have they made under Postecoglou?
Spurs’ playing style has been revolutionised, the squad is much younger and the underlying numbers look favourable. When everything clicks, they are thrilling to watch. The harsh reality is they have lost six out of 14 league games this season. Apart from Liverpool, the table is bunched and there is a great opportunity to break into the top four. With every performance like those against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace (a 1-0 loss) and Ipswich (a 2-1 defeat), Spurs lose momentum.
Postecoglou saw his team slip to another away defeat at the Vitality Stadium (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
There are mitigating factors. Guglielmo Vicario fractured his ankle and is out for months. First-choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are unavailable too while Ben Davies joined them on the injury list after pulling his hamstring against Bournemouth. If Romero is not fit enough to face Chelsea on Sunday, then Postecoglou faces a real dilemma about who should partner Radu Dragusin in the heart of his defence.
Archie Gray, who made his first Premier League start on Thursday, covered Davies after he was replaced by Pedro Porro. Starting Gray, whose favoured position is central midfield, alongside Dragusin against Chelsea — the division’s top scorers — would be a huge gamble but it is difficult to know what the alternative is.
Postecoglou was frustrated by not being in Europe last season but now Tottenham re struggling to juggle the demands of playing in multiple competitions. Richarlison and Wilson Odobert are ruled out long term, which places a greater strain on Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson. Porro and Destiny Udogie have featured in every Premier League game and made multiple appearances in the Europa League.
Djed Spence is not in their Europa League squad but has been used sparingly domestically and has never started a game for Spurs, despite joining them from Nottingham Forest two and a half years ago.
Postecoglou cannot rotate his star players as much as he would like to keep them fresh because their back-ups are either injured or not trusted.
Son Heung-min cuts a frustrated figure after the full-time whistle (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
What cannot be denied, though, is that this side struggles to deal with adversity.
After a bright 10-minute spell, Huijsen’s header dented their confidence. James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Solanke failed to connect with each other. Johnson looked uncomfortable on the left wing and Kulusevski kept drifting over to that side in the first half anyway, which meant there was nobody stretching Bournemouth on the opposite flank.
Postecoglou made a few bold changes by taking off Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma, leaving Lucas Bergvall as the Tottenham’s deepest midfielder for the final 15 minutes. Son Heung-min came off the bench initially at left wing and then dropped into central midfield. It was a bizarre experiment which did not pay off. Spurs had a lot of attacking power on the pitch yet somehow looked toothless.
Perhaps the most concerning issue of all, which Postecoglou alluded to, is that Tottenham keep repeating the same mistakes. This is a young team in their second season under a head coach with a unique philosophy. Things were always going to take time but constantly losing in the same manner suggests that something is fundamentally not working.
Spurs should be adapting to and overcoming these challenges — not tripping up on the same question in every test. Postecoglou needs to find a solution or else the number of disgruntled fans will quickly increase, and so will the pressure.
(Top photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
