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The good feeling around Ange Postecoglou’s arrival in the Premier League has well and truly been washed away with Tottenham limping towards the finish line in dire fashion.
Another hammering — this time, Spurs went 4-0 down to Liverpool before two late consolation goals — has ramped up the pressure on the Australian with pundits starting to call-out the defensive frailty of his team.
Postecoglou was the toast of the Premier League early this season with Tottenham’s exciting, breakneck attacking play dazzling viewers while taking the team to the top of the table.
But the all-out nature of Postecoglou’s attacking philosophy was always going to leave holes at the back. Those holes are now being exploited ruthlessly, and regularly.
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Spurs have lost four-straight league games, conceding three goals or more in three of those defeats.
Tottenham also conceded three goals to Fulham in March, and has only won two of its eight Premier League games since beating Aston Villa nearly two months ago.
Spurs are now officially out of top-five contention, and is even at small risk of being caught by the chasing back of Newcastle, Chelsea and Manchester United, who are four, six and six points behind respectively.
All have two games left to play, except for United, which has three.
Things reached a new low point on Sunday when Liverpool netted four times in 59 minutes, before Spurs scored in the 72nd and 77th.
The goals took Spurs’ leaky defensive record to 58 concessions this season. That’s a staggering 30 more than Arsenal, and worse than Crystal Palace, Everton and Fulham.
The reaction in the UK has proven that Postecoglou’s grace period is all over — and that he simply must improve his team defensively, otherwise the axe looms.
“Oh, Ange mate. What was that first 72 minutes all about?” wrote Chris Bascombe in his match report for The Telegraph.
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“The Postecoglou-Spurs honeymoon ended months ago, but if there are more defensive away days like this there could be serious compatibility issues for the coach to discuss with (chair) Daniel Levy.
“This was a pitiful defensive capitulation for a side which, for most of a strange afternoon, seemed to have forgotten that the flip-flops are only supposed to come out when there is nothing left to play for.”
Bascombe wrote that Spurs were guilty of “unstructured carnage” at Anfield, and “didn’t deserve” to lose by only two goals.
He added that Postecoglou is faced with “deep, structural flaws”, writing: “Tottenham’s defensive frailties raise fundamental questions about where Ange’s vision is actually leading them.”
The horror show also invited harsh criticism from BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty, who noted that Postecoglou’s side has fallen flat when it has mattered most.
McNulty said Spurs are experiencing a “dramatic decline, in a season that held much promise and optimism at one time, (that) continues its sharp downward curve at a crucial point.”
McNulty added that Spurs were “woeful” and “passive” against Liverpool.
However, Postecoglou has at no point this season even hinted at the possibility of changing his philosophy, as he goes all-in on trying to tear teams apart.
On that major gamble, McNulty wrote: “It is a high-risk strategy in all respects but his defiant stance on his ideology makes it look like a chance he is prepared to take. Best of luck to him.
“The wheels have fallen off the ‘Big Ange’ bandwagon in recent weeks…
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“Yes, it is an improvement on last season. Yes, it is relatively early days in the Postecoglou project. Yes, they have been more pleasing on the eye than under Jose Mourinho and Antonio
Conte (not difficult admittedly) but when the pressure was on they failed to deliver again.”
Postecoglou has refused to publicly lay the blame on his players, despite his frustrations becoming clearer during games.
In last week’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea, Postecoglou tore strips off his players on the sideline, only to say “it’s on me” after the loss.
However, Manchester United legend Roy Keane sympathised with the Australian, saying that positive glimmers during losses — such as two goals in five minutes against Liverpool — would make the situation all the more frustrating.
“It’s easy to play when you’re losing two or three-nil,” Keane said on Sky Sports. “It really is. Players want it. You need to show that courage when you’re under real pressure. If it’s nil-nil, or you’re still very much in the game.’
“I think that’ll frustrate the manager. You know, we sometimes we sit here and we go, ‘well, obviously they showed a bit of fight’ … you want conviction in your play, and you want players to show that courage. And this team doesn’t show that.”
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