Ange Postecoglou earned a first Premier League win for Tottenham this year with a distinctly different brand of football to ‘Angeball’ — and it did not go unnoticed in the UK press.
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Here is what is being said after a remarkable 2-0 win at Brentford, which featured a makeshift central defensive pairing of Archie Gray and Ben Davies, plus a starring role from fullback Djed Spence.
Writing for The Times, Gregor Robertson said that the pragmatic defensive display bore little resemblance to Postecoglou’s preferred MO of high-octane attacking football.
“Spurs made sure of the win when (Pape Matar) Sarr, a substitute, prodded in a second on the break with three of the 90 minutes left to play, but the buccaneering early days of Ange-ball felt like a distant memory in the intervening hour, during which Brentford largely laid siege to the Tottenham penalty area,” Robertson wrote.
“Spurs were still without nine players through injury, of course, and Postecoglou will have been proud of the way his patched up back four repelled Brentford’s early onslaught and barrage of crosses in the second half.”
Writing for The iPaper, Oliver Young-Myles surmised: “Well, that wasn’t very Angeball-y.
“A first Premier League win for Tottenham in almost 50 days brings some respite for Ange Postecoglou. And what was notable about the performance at Brentford was how different it was to the rinse-and-repeat style Spurs have played throughout the Australian’s reign.
“They were gritty; sat deep for virtually the whole second half; scored a scrappy goal from a corner; managed the game maturely and sensibly. An accusation against Postecoglou is that his team can only play one way. Here was evidence that they can mix it up. Here’s their Anfield blueprint for Thursday.
“Perhaps Postecoglou compromised, although he insisted that wasn’t the case.”
Postecoglou said the game style was an unavoidable result of circumstances, rather than a major philosophical change.
“They’re human beings, not robots,” he said of his players, who had come off a Europa League win three days earlier.
“People want to dismiss it. They want to talk about excuses but that’s the reality. I know the reality. These guys are giving everything.
“We knew we couldn’t go out there and dominate. Brentford had a week to prepare. We had 50-something hours. With the same group of players. With that context, the performance was outstanding.”
Writing for The Sun, Tom Barclay said: “This was not Ange Ball, but, frankly, who cares?
“Certainly not Tottenham fans, who were genuinely starting to worry about being sucked into a relegation battle and were singing “We are staying up” come the end. And probably not Ange Postecoglou either, whose need for this reviving win was becoming desperate.
“The Aussie’s position has been coming under more and more scrutiny after a bleak winter culminating in one win in 11 league games. He has been able to point to a crippling injury crisis as a mitigating factor and progress in the cups as a reason to believe.
“But make no mistake, the 59-year-old needed this victory and will have taken any means necessary to get it.”
Tottenham were boosted before the match with the signing of Kevin Danso from Ligue 1 club Lens, boosting their central defensive stocks.
Yet writing for The Telegraph, Matt Law noted the remarkable defensive effort that came from a thrown-together line-up.
“Kevin Danso’s arrival was announced on Sunday morning, but Postecoglou, while Tottenham waited for the defender’s international clearance, named a team with no recognised centre-backs,” Law wrote.
“It looked like a recipe for another Spurs disaster and yet Archie Gray, who is naturally a midfielder, and Ben Davies, who is normally a left-back, stood up to the task manfully – as did Djed Spence, a right-back filling in at left-back.
“Despite Tottenham’s two-goal winning margin, it was the brave defending of Spence and Co that got Spurs over the line, as Postecoglou waits for more reinforcements that could still include Chelsea’s Axel Disasi and players to return to fitness. Tottenham have agreed a deal to sign Disasi on loan, but the Frenchman had agreed terms with Aston Villa, who have been unwilling to meet Chelsea’s conditions. Talks were continuing into Sunday evening.”
Relief for Ange but more work ahead | 01:09
Writing for The Guardian, Nick Ames said that Postecoglou may be feeling more optimistic about his future after the result.
“Disciplined, unfussy, a little scrappy and garnished with a dollop of luck. Tottenham have rarely known afternoons such as this under Ange Postecoglou but they summoned a textbook away performance, rolling up their sleeves and putting a halt to the previous seven weeks’ freefall.
“Spurs had not won a league game since 15 December, and that was against the flimsy proposition of Russell Martin’s Southampton. This time they dealt with one of the division’s most exacting physical examinations and there was no doubting the importance to their manager, who leapt off his seat and punched the air when Pape Matar Sarr put matters beyond doubt late on.
“It will not remove the unease around Tottenham, which was demonstrated by regular chants from the away section demanding that Daniel Levy step down. But they had to start somewhere and, with the Austria defender Kevin Danso arriving from Lens and a move for Axel Disasi in their sights before the transfer deadline on Monday, Postecoglou might feel cautious optimism that the darkest hour has passed.”
Spurs’ performance was something of a surprise, with Brentford above them on the ladder and a particularly dangerous goalscoring threat at home this season.
As is turned out, Postecoglou’s men burned one of his media sparring partners. Liverpool great Jamie Carragher predicted pre-game that they would be soundly beaten.
“I’ll be absolutely shocked if Tottenham win there today,” Carragher said on Sky Sports. “When I look at that back four, they’ve been decimated.
“I thought (Micky) Van de Ven was going to be involved today. Obviously they’ve lost their goalkeeper, they’ve brought one in [Antonin Kinsky], but when you actually look at that Tottenham back four, if they concede less than three today, I will be surprised.
“I’m not criticising them – they’re young kids; Ben Davies is in there, he’s not a centre-back, he’s a left-back. Archie Gray’s done brilliantly for them, he’s an 18-year-old kid – to go away to Brentford, set pieces, long balls, what you’ve got to deal with as a centre back…”
The Mirror concluded that Spurs had put “Jamie Carragher’s pre-match prediction to shame”.
