A few days after Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United to reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals, they have been brought crashing back down to earth.
Sunday’s 6-3 defeat to Liverpool, which Ange Postecoglou described as “painful,” means they are 11th in the Premier League table after 17 games and sit eight points behind fourth-placed Nottingham Forest. They are struggling with the demands of playing in multiple competitions every week and have been rocked by injuries. But this is the third home game in a row where they have conceded at least three goals. They went one step further against Liverpool by conceding three times in each half.
There was a 10-minute period in the second half when it felt like Archie Gray and Radu Dragusin were constantly running back towards their own goal, trying not to fall over as they were swept up by wave after wave of attacks from Liverpool. Spurs pushed so many players forward in their desperate attempt to reduce Liverpool’s lead that they were constantly hit on the counter. You could argue that this tactical approach led to Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke’s goals, but it benefitted Arne Slot’s side more.
Tottenham’s results have been like a rollercoaster this season. They have beaten Manchester City and Manchester United twice. They thrashed Aston Villa and West Ham United 4-1. However, they lost narrowly to Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace before being overpowered in chaotic encounters with Chelsea and Liverpool.
Following their 4-3 victory over Manchester United on Thursday night, Postecoglou was asked about what aspects of the performance he enjoyed. “I liked the whole bit,” he told Sky Sports. “Are you not entertained? What do you want? Do you want a scrambling 1-0? I know the studio are probably going on a meltdown over my lack of tactics but, you know what, I love the fact that we just go out there and take it to the opposition.
“In terms of the mentality of the boys, I love it. I love football and I love watching teams that go out there and entertain. Obviously, we want to be successful as well and we won’t be if we, you know, make things difficult for ourselves like we did tonight. But you balance that up with the situation we’re in right now — 10 first-team players out — I keep saying it and I don’t think it’s registered with people but that’s OK.”
Tottenham’s performances might be entertaining for neutrals but it is worth considering if their fanbase feels the same way.
Since the start of December, Spurs rank bottom for goals conceded (12), shots faced (85), shots on target faced (37), expected goals against (14) and big chances against (25). They have one win in their last five league games — and that was against a Southampton side who are bottom of the table and sacked their head coach Russell Martin a couple of hours after the full-time whistle. Tottenham’s chances of improving on last season’s fifth-placed finish are slipping away with every bad result.
Postecoglou speaks about the challenges his team faces. Many senior players are unavailable, including Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Guglielmo Vicario. Postecoglou wants more people to sympathise with their predicament.
But if the problems are that severe and they lead to bad performances, surely you should approach the situation differently. Or maybe we should give them more credit for scoring three goals against the top two sides in the division.
“I get the idea that people think that I should just flip a switch and change and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team,” Postecoglou said after the defeat to Liverpool. “I’m just going to continue to stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want. In the interim, we are going to have accept there are going to be challenges along the way.”
To be fair to Postecoglou, he had no choice but to put out an inexperienced defence against one of the best attacks in world football. Gray — a midfielder or full-back by trade — and Djed Spence have a combined total of five Premier League starts and they have all come in the last fortnight. They were tasked with stopping Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz. They did their best but needed more protection from the midfield.
Radu Dragusin joined Tottenham from Genoa in January for £25million ($31.4m). He is supposed to be the third-choice centre-back who can challenge Van de Ven and Romero long term. Postecoglou’s decision to put Van de Ven and Romero straight back into the starting XI for the defeat against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago, when they were only just coming back from injury, potentially betrayed a lack of confidence in Dragusin. There was a moment in the first half against Liverpool when he screamed at the defender for a misplaced pass which went out of play.
The Romania international is clearly not as comfortable on the ball as the other centre-backs, including Gray. Under pressure, he frequently hit the ball long — which often led to Liverpool winning possession. He lost a crucial aerial duel on the halfway line to Dominik Szoboszlai just after James Maddison’s strike made it 2-1. Liverpool’s midfielder then burst into the box to score while Dragusin scrambled to catch up. Postecoglou is not to blame for those individual errors.
It is hard to judge a side which regularly jumps between great and awful performances. There is optimism that Ben Davies and Mikey Moore will be available for selection before the end of the year but Romero, Van de Ven and Richarlison need more time. It means Spurs will probably face Nottingham Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United with the same group of players.
Nine members of the starting XI against Liverpool started three games in eight days. Postecoglou will be desperately hoping that Van de Ven and Romero return in time for the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool in the second week of January.
It is also fair to say the team have not lost the crowd. Fans were loud in the second half — and there were a few chants of the head coach’s name as Spurs scored twice in 10 minutes.
“After the City game, we had a look at it and we knew this would be our toughest period,” Postecoglou said. “We’ve had shorter turnarounds than just about every opponent we’ve played so far, shorter rest days than every team we’ve played whether it’s here or in Europe. And I haven’t been able to rotate the team. I have massive admiration for the efforts these players are putting in for this club at the moment. We know what a difficult situation it is and that’s not going to change.”
As long as Spurs are stuck in this situation, expect them to be entertaining and frustrating in equal measure.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
