Under pressure Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou is confident his players are giving everything to end their terrible run of form, and is confident their results will turn around soon.
Tottenham's terrible season reached a new low on Sunday as they slumped to a 2-1 home defeat to Leicester City despite taking the lead through Richarlison's first-half header.
Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss struck as Tottenham conceded two goals in the first five minutes of the second half for the first time since a defeat to Liverpool in November 1997.
Spurs have now gone seven Premier League games without a win, suffering six defeats and drawing 2-2 against struggling Wolves in that period.
It is their longest winless run in the top flight since 2008, with injuries to Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Brennan Johnson, James Maddison, Timo Werner and Dominic Solanke leaving them depleted.
But after Tottenham's 13th league defeat this season – the same as 19th-placed Ipswich Town – Postecoglou refused to criticize his players.
“It hurts a lot. The players have given everything again,” he told Premier League Productions. “We're going to look at a lot of things, but in terms of effort, I can't ask for more from this group. It just didn't go the way we wanted.
“We created some good chances and unfortunately things didn't go wrong for us – not because the players didn't try, and that's the most important thing.
“The players are giving everything they can. That's all we can ask for as a football club, and I can ask for that as a manager. They're doing their very best and that's all anyone can ask for.”
“When you're in this situation, they're doing the best they can and sometimes that doesn't give you the clarity in decision-making.”
1912 – Tottenham's defeat to Leicester today was the first time since 1912 (against Notts County) that they have lost to a team following a seven-match losing streak in the league. Stinging. pic.twitter.com/7f8YCAPHNs
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 26, 2025
Tottenham remain fifteenth in the table, eight points ahead of the relegation zone and sixteen points behind the top seven.
They then head to Brentford before visiting Liverpool in the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final, taking a 1-0 lead from the first leg.
Postecoglou is confident they will win again if they get the key players back. He says: 'All you can ask for is for people to do as much as they can, and from my perspective I see a group of players giving as much as they can. as they can. I know it will change.
“We are bringing back a number of players. We fell short again today, but in the coming weeks we have some very important players coming back who I know will help this group.
“We haven't reached a ceiling yet. We have been working this way for two months. They did a huge job on Thursday to make sure we're doing well in Europe, and they had to get behind that today, but there were probably at least two or three players who weren't 100%.”
In the elevator
Leicester disappears from the bottom three #TOTLEI pic.twitter.com/y5mwP2LI6G
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 26, 2025
Chairman Daniel Levy was the target of dissenting chants during Sunday's match, while some sections of the home crowd ridiculed Postecoglou's decision to withdraw Richarlison in the 54th minute.
The result has put the former Celtic boss' position under scrutiny and he knows he will be held accountable if things do not turn around.
“I am a football manager and I am judged by results,” he concluded. “That's the way of the world.”
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