“This idea that you can't change is strange to me. The game state determines how you play,” Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “I wake up every morning in the hope that the sun is shining, so that I can do some shorts and a T-shirt, but when it rains, put on your jacket.”
The comments of Carragher were focused in Tottenham after they had given four goals in their defeat to Chelsea in December, but they were just as applicable on Sunday as Spurs were eliminated from the FA Cup to Aston Villa. It was clear within a minute.
Ange Postecoglou itself described Villa afterwards as “one of the best teams in the country at home” – so why was full -back Pedro Porro caught on the field in a few seconds? He was not only behind goal scorer Jacob Ramsey, but also Lucas Dignne.
Even when Postecoglou launched a passionate defense of his players and spoke about an “agenda -driven” story about him and his team, there is the suspicion that he – instead of someone outside the club – undermines their best efforts.
The statistics still tell us that this Tottenham team, for all their struggles this season, play a little differently than everyone. The principles of playing with Postecoglou's Spurs five points clearly at the top of the table at the beginning of last season remain in place.
No team in the Premier League has won the ball high on the field than Tottenham. No team allows so few passes per defensive action. No team plays with more width than Tottenham. By design it is supposed to be intense and extensive.
Asked why that intensity was not against Villa, Postecoglou said: “Because they are tired, size something more aggressive today?”
Postecoglou, it seems, was aware that his approach would not be that effective for what, then remember, a one -time head of draw. And yet too often the positioning of Spurs suggested that they were still set to press. Bodies prior to the ball. No protection for the defense.
The Australian coach seemed to acknowledge this with a wise resting switch and introduced Yves Bissouma instead of Mikey Moore. It gave his side more to the ground in the game and they then enjoyed their best enchantment of the game.
There had been hints of this more flexible approach in the recent victory over Brentford, a game in which Tottenham fell deeper, struck some pressure and then came through to claim the points. At Villa the adjustment was much too late.
This idea remains that to make a compromise is to dilute the message, to undermine all that hard work. “My responsibility at this club is this group of players and team, to let them play in the way I want. That will bring us success.”
But the alternative is certainly harmful. Not only for Postecoglou, but for these young players, those who, he says, his primary focus. Moore does not want to be addicted during the break. Antonin Kinsky and Archie Gray do not enjoy so exposed.
“You cannot judge this group of players on what happened,” says Postecoglou. “They gave everything. Two 18-year-olds, a 17-year-old, a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old keeper.” He added: “It cannot be that people think that is an excuse.”
He is right, to a certain extent. But then few assess these players. Gray is a real prospect and will enjoy better times in his career than this. Many of them, it is hoping, in a Spurshirt. Lucas Bergvall has shown a lot of promise. It was the first start of Mathys Tel.
No, the frustrations are targeted elsewhere. It was chairman Daniel Levy, who was the focus of fans of anger in Villa Park. It is expected to be expected now. Because the argument that these are merely mere puppies that are badly equipped for the challenge, just goes that far.
Gray and Bergvall accounted for nearly £ 50 million from the club's transfer budget last summer. Much of the rest was spent on Wilson Odobert. Tel, from Bayern Munich, is one of the teenagers he mentions. Kinsky was an arrival of £ 12.5 million from Slavia Prague last month.
Czech made a promising start against Liverpool, so it is a bit alarming how his confidence seems to have taken a hit since then. There is a 36-year-old former goalkeeper of England on the bank in Fraser Forster. Choosing young people is a choice, not an excuse.
The idea is of course that they were there to support, to be relaxed in a team that is built around more experienced figures, such as World Cup winning defender Cristian Romero. Injuries have changed the entire comparison, the dynamics shifted and the results are ugly.
“They are just injuries. I mean, you can walk outside and say,” Jeez, it's really clear “and say to yourself:” Maybe it's not the sun. “But it's the sun, size. We just have Having injured.
Every team would suffer without its best players, but not so bad, and not so long without making the required adjustments. Moreover, the difficulty for Postecoglou was that he had worsened the issue himself by his decisions and his approach.
Both Romero and Micky van de Ven return for the aforementioned match against Chelsea was a surprise that brought little sympathy in his own way. The medical team may have signed it, but the move did not seem careful before both were broken.
Accident? Perhaps not considering that Tottenham of Postecoglou has made more sprints this season than any other team in the Premier League. The evidence suggests that the way of playing with regard to costs is. The number of muscle injury is probably not a coincidence.
Proponents will still be divided because the desire to play ambitious, front-foot football with young players, feels like a mission declaration that is worth buying. But they are defeats, not an agenda that form the story. Waiting for players to get fit may not be enough.
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