It’s simply the best way they play, mate. From 3-4 to 1-1 to 5-0 to 4-3 to 3-6, with taking and giving up leads and mounting comebacks and scoring within the first minute and conceding at nearly any level, usually in calamitous style. No scoreline is protected, no onlooker bored. Some are exhilarated, some exasperated. And if can fall into the latter class, his, not his riotously erratic workforce. They’ve been 5-0 up and 5-1 down in the identical week. Even by their very own requirements, it has been a wild experience.
As, the defiance got here not from a workforce who had been lower open again and again, however a supervisor who’s adamant he’ll follow his philosophy. “I believe I’ve been actually affected person the final 18 months sitting up right here answering the identical questions over and over,” he stated. “If individuals need me to vary my method, it’s not going to vary.”
Uncompromising to the final, Postecoglou typically appears to have backed himself right into a nook; unhelpfully, maybe, given the common accusation is that Spurs can’t defend a nook, even when they contrived to concede six occasions in open play in opposition to Liverpool as an alternative. He’s zealot and idealist, the person with the unconventional stance that may result in accusations he’s delusional. It’s good when it really works; the issue is it doesn’t work usually sufficient.
Tottenham have gained three away league video games this season: 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0. They’ve 4 victories in opposition to the Manchester golf equipment, and a house defeat to Ipswich. They’re the ’s high scorers. They’re additionally within the backside half of the desk. They’ve twice scored three whereas shedding. Angeball is compelling. Angeball can be bizarre.
“We’re doing it for a cause as a result of we predict it should assist us to achieve success,” stated Postecoglou. There’s diminishing proof they are going to be. After his great first 10 league video games produced 26 factors, the final 45 have yielded 63, a mean of a mere 1.4 per match. Postecoglou stated final month that nobody can be completely satisfied if Tottenham had been tenth at Christmas. They’re as an alternative eleventh. “In the event you’re saying that tenth [or 11th] means I am not doing a very good job and I perhaps by some means needs to be uncomfortable, that is for others to evaluate,” he stated.
And a verdict did are available. There have been some boos on the finish, although extra protests and chants lately have been directed at chairman Daniel Levy. “The followers they need to really feel the best way they should about what it’s taking place,” stated Postecoglou. “Who is aware of, perhaps a few of them perceive the scenario we’re in in the present day. It appears many don’t.” Not for the primary time, it was Postecoglou at his most passive-aggressive.
And, in mitigation, . Maybe, with their full-strength defence, and never simply solely Pedro Porro from the first-choice again 4 and goalkeeper, Liverpool wouldn’t have recorded the very best ever xG in opposition to Tottenham in a Premier League sport, or threatened to attain 10. And but one of many damning components of the Postecoglou blueprint is that final season Porro, Future Udogie, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Guglielmo Vicario all impressed and so they nonetheless conceded 61 objectives. It represented a warning. The ways are a recipe for probabilities.
A part of it’s the excessive line; the magnificently entertaining fiasco of final season’s 4-1 defeat to Chelsea led to Postecoglou’s notorious assertion that it was simply the best way they play (mate). However they’re open in midfield, don’t defend the full-backs, don’t observe the runners and make kamikaze makes an attempt to play out from the again.
Perhaps the fashion of play is so bold that it takes time; the rewards will be so nice, as they confirmed. “We’re nonetheless rising as a workforce and we’re 18 months into constructing a brand new workforce with a brand new approach of enjoying,” stated Postecoglou.
However, persistently inconsistent, with the factors tally of a mid-table workforce and the scoreline of a facet from the Nineteen Fifties, are they constructing and rising or simply careering alongside on the Postecoglou rollercoaster, veering up and down with all of the thrills and spills, however not really getting anyplace?
It might be exhausting to say. It’s a recipe for enjoyable for outsiders however the Australian isn’t having fun with the criticism and a few followers aren’t having fun with the defeats.
The criticism was that Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte didn’t perceive Tottenham properly sufficient. Maybe Postecoglou understands them too properly. Or perhaps he has out-Tottenhamed Tottenham, proving extra excessive than the membership within the id he has embraced, making a situation the place some search one thing a bit extra regular.
Perhaps a number of the Spurs trustworthy are beginning to crave some moderation, some pragmatism, a 1-0 win as an alternative of a 6-3 defeat. However that, as he without end makes clear, is just not the Postecoglou approach.
