Ange Postecoglou admits that a “fair chunk” of people will think he should be sacked as Tottenham boss, but believes his players are giving him everything.
Spurs blew a 1–0 half-time lead against Leicester to suffer a fourth successive league defeat, while their only top-flight win in their last 11 games came at bottom Southampton.
Tottenham have suffered back-to-back defeats to struggling sides, beaten at Everton—in a match in which they went 3–0 down at half-time—followed by the defeat of Leicester, who had previously lost seven consecutive league games.
Spurs are still in the mix to win a first trophy in 17 years with the North London side in the Carabao Cup semi-final, the FA Cup fourth round and on course to reach the last 16 of the Europa League reaches.
But their alarming Premier League form, which has seen them move closer to the bottom three than the top half of the table, has put Postecoglou under immense pressure after seven competitions in his last eight games.
Asked whether he should still be in charge once all his key players return from injury, he said: “Who knows? A reasonable lot will say no.
“When you are a manager of a football club you can feel vulnerable and isolated, I don't feel that. The players give everything. I concentrate on that and try to support the players.”
Postecoglou revealed that both Richarlison and Pape Sarr, in an ideal world, would not have started against Leicester, but such are their injuries, he had no choice but to play them.
He said: “It doesn't enter my conscious mind to convince people, I've been around long enough that people will judge where we are at the moment, which hasn't been good enough.
“If people want to put that into context then that's fine. The players are giving everything they can. Two players shouldn't have been there but they are desperate to turn our fortunes around. In the next 10 days we have to make some important Players who will help. We still have fantastic opportunities to make an impact – I'm sure that will happen.”
Despite the defeat and their precarious position in the Premier League, Postecoglou is still hopeful that Spurs can do “something special” in the Cup matches this season.
He added: “The players are committed to what we do. That's important to me. I believe in it. This is as low as we've been this year, but in the next three months we can do something very special. Players believe that it is difficult to visualize that now with our circumstances.
Son: Leicester loss painful
Tottenham captain Heung-Min Son described the loss to Leicester as “painful”.
The South Korean, who has been at the club for almost a decade, told Sky Sports: “Closing down or scoring goals is always difficult when it's a day that doesn't happen and you always get more frustrated than you should be.
“We were very frustrated and made the wrong decisions. It's painful.”
The 32-year-old added: “Mentally we have to renew and go again because we have a game in three days. Sometimes it's really difficult.
“We came back from winning in Germany and losing an important match in the league. It's very difficult.”
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