The knives are coming out, the vultures are circling and judgment day is coming for Ange Postecoglou, according to some in the British press, after Tottenham’s latest Premier League loss, a 4-3 home defeat to second-place Chelsea.
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Thirteen months ago, the Australian manager was serenaded by Spurs’ fans after being dismantled 4-1 at home by the same side, because they loved the commitment to ‘Angeball’ despite having two players sent off for most of the second half.
Now, the attacking nature of Postecoglou’s tactics are not being so well-received.
Tottenham were 2-0 up inside 11 minutes, but conceded the next four goals of the game as things unravelled.
Centre back pairing Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, who returned from a toe injury and a hamstring problem respectively, as well as winger Brennan Johnson, were forced off with injuries.
Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr gave away penalties with unnecessary challenges, and Cole Palmer slotted both of them home, the second with a cheeky Panenka-style dink to lob it over the diving Fraser Forster and rub salt into the wound.
It was a comedy of errors, and Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes they are the sort of mistakes that could cost Postecoglou his job.
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Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher rejected the former Socceroos boss’ post-match comments praising his side, and said that if Postecoglou does not adapt, he will be shown the door.
“Ange said how well they played. I can’t imagine any Liverpool manager I played for and we conceded four in a game would say in the interview we played well,” Carragher said.
“If you play this way you’ll get the result like at Manchester City but you’d also get results like this one where you’re 2-0 up. I’ve never got my head around managers saying we play a ‘certain way and we will never change’ – I think it started with Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.
“This idea that wherever they play, they will play their way. But that was the best team I’ve ever seen. Pep Guardiola then had to change his Man City team who were winning the leagues every season, putting centre-backs at full-back.
“This idea that you can’t change is alien to me. The game-state dictates how you play, not all the time but if you go away to a tough away ground you shouldn’t play the same way as you do against a team at the bottom. There’s this idea of playing a pure game and the Tottenham fans signing ‘we’ve got our Tottenham back’ but you won’t win anything, you won’t challenge.
“I wake up every morning hoping the sun is shining, so I can put some shorts and a T-shirt on but if it’s raining, you put your coat on. You can’t have this idea about playing one way, it won’t work. If it doesn’t change, he won’t be here next season.”
Tottenham have won just once in their last seven games in all competitions, and that victory was a 4-0 romp of the reigning champions at the Etihad two weeks ago.
Adding to the bizarre nature of their recent run is that despite sitting 11th on the Premier League table, Spurs have the fourth best goal difference behind the top three of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, and only Chelsea have scored more goals than them this season.
Defensive frailties continually haunting them has meant that some are now turning their attention to what is going on in the minds of the club hierarchy.
Chairman Daniel Levy declared three months into Postecolgou’s tenure that “we’ve got our Tottenham back” after dour years under the likes of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, but that positivity now feels like a lifetime ago.
“In the directors’ box chairman Daniel Levy looked down and his face said it all. It was even more taught than Van de Ven’s hamstring,” the Telegraph’s chief football correspondent, Jason Burt, wrote.
“It is the manner of the defeats, and the ease with which they concede goals, that is killing them at present and surely putting Postecoglou’s job increasingly at risk.
“There is, unfortunately, a soft underbelly and a flakiness that opponents are seizing on. Spurs lost a two-goal lead for the 11th time in the Premier League, four times more than any other side.”
The problems at the back are also being compounded by issues in attack, particularly around their star goal-scorer Son Heung-min.
Postecoglou returned the Korean to the starting front three, which also featured Dominic Solanke up front and Johnson on the opposing flank, after bringing him off the bench in the 1-0 loss at Bournemouth mid-week.
Son has battled hamstring issues in recent months and has been out of sorts since coming back to the pitch.
His rut was exemplified by an uncharacteristic miss during the second half, that proved to be costly and symbolic of his manager’s struggles.
“At 2-2, Son Heung-min wasted a huge chance to lead, when the captain raced through on goal and steadied himself before whipping a shot wildly off target,” The Independent’s Lawrence Ostlere wrote.
“One of the most deadly finishers in the Premier League looked bereft of confidence, like his team, and his tap-in at the death was not enough to make amends as Spurs went down 4-3. Postecoglou rued a “big moment” that slipped by.
“Yet that sense of self-sabotage might also be levelled at the manager. Spurs played with typical abandon which produced moments of joyous football in the first half, but when the momentum of the game swung, Postecoglou failed to react. His midfield was inexplicably open, with the overrun Bissouma understandably drawn to Palmer, leaving the advancing Enzo Fernandez in wide-open space time and time again.
“’Tottenham Hotspur, it’s happened again,’ sang the Chelsea fans, and there was a devastating simplicity to that refrain. It was losing to Chelsea, the team who have enjoyed more success than any other visiting this stadium; it was letting another lead slip away in a clichéd collapse; it was how they seemed to melt in the middle.”
ESPN’s James Olley took a similar approach in saying that “this game is in danger of resembling a metaphor for Postecoglou’s time at Spurs”.
“Start well, generate dizzying excitement, lose players to injury, look increasingly one-dimensional and end up defeated,” Olley wrote.
Postecoglou was abused by fans in ugly scenes after the Bournemouth loss, he had a frosty exchange with a supporter following their 2-1 home defeat to newly promoted Ipswich Town last month, but despite the fans growing more restless, there was no boil over of emotions at the full-time whistle.
Many Tottenham fans on social media are pointing the finger at Levy and other off-field figures, while calling for Postecoglou to be afforded more time.
Others want him gone, as is always the way with these things.
But Postecoglou made a key move pre-game, in a pointed response to the events of the south coast days earlier.
“Postecoglou had applauded the South Stand at length before kick-off, which felt significant after what had happened between him and the travelling Spurs fans at Bournemouth last Thursday. He needs them behind him,” The Guardian’s David Hytner wrote.
“His team would make the dream start, two up after 11 minutes, and yet it never looked like lasting. There would be boos at the full-time whistle but no fan mutiny.”
There is also no player revolt.
Romero spoke with glowing praise of Postecoglou post-match, and expressed his belief that those on the pitch should be shouldering the responsibility for Tottenham’s recent run of poor results.
“He’s a great coach. We saw it in the first season. In this second one we’ve suffered a lot of injuries,” Romero said.
“Players should be the first one to be criticised, then if we lose 10 games, the staff can be changed.
“We are very happy with this staff, me and my colleagues. We love how they work and the football they try to play.”
Regardless of what the players or sections of the fan base believe, if more poor results come, more people will be baying for blood.
Tottenham have four more matches before Christmas, and they could decide Postecoglou’s future.
The Australian has always won a trophy in his second season charge, and it feels somewhat forgotten that he still has two live chances to keep that impressive streak alive, and deliver Spurs their first piece of silverware since 2008.
On Friday morning Australian time, Postecoglou will travel north to Glasgow, to return to a scene of former glories.
Tottenham will face Rangers, the biggest rivals of Postecoglou’s former club Celtic, at Ibrox Stadium in a key Europa League contest.
Both sides sit on ten points after five matches, in eighth and ninth respectively, with the top eight after eight matches receiving a bye through to the Round of 16 in the new format.
A week later, Spurs take on Manchester United in a Carabao Cup quarter-final at home.
Either side of that clash is a trip to Southampton and a date with league leaders Liverpool.
It is crunch time for Postecoglou.
As the past fortnight since Tottenham’s demolition of Manchester City has shown, two weeks is a long time in football, and Postecoglou could be in the doghouse or the penthouse by Christmas Day.
