Ange Postecoglou says he would be ‘stealing a living’ if he thought it was impossible to banish Tottenham’s reputation for inherent fragility.
Accusations of ‘Spursiness’ returned after the collapse from 2-0 up at half-time to a 3-2 defeat at Brighton on their last outing rekindled the criticism of his predecessor Antonio Conte, who claimed it would be ever thus regardless of the manager.
Postecoglou revealed his team’s running stats were down by a staggering 20-30 per cent at the start of the second half at the Amex, and refused to accept Conte might have had a point when he delivered that critical parting shot in March 2023.
‘If I accepted that what am I doing here?’ said the Spurs boss. ‘Seriously, if I accept that this is somehow impossible to change, I am really stealing a living. I don’t believe that and I never have. If I fail the failure is on me and nothing to do with the club.
‘I knew the tag on the club when I accepted the position. It’s not a secret. It wasn’t like getting in here and going, ‘Jesus Christ, this club hasn’t won anything for 14 years, can you believe it?’
Ange Postecoglou says he would be ‘stealing a living’ if he thought he couldn’t end Tottenham’s reputation for being fragile
Accusations of ‘Spursiness’ returned following Tottenham’s 3-2 defeat against Brighton
‘I accepted the challenge so I can’t sit here complaining. It’s why I’m here. It’s up to me to change that. I don’t see it as impossible. I think it is achievable and that’s why I’m going to do everything in my power to change it.’
Postecoglou was more concerned with the passive nature of his players at the start of the second half after analysing the Brighton defeat, which brought a run of five wins to a sobering halt and confronted his players with the data on their return from international duty.
‘It’s not that complicated,’ he said. ‘It’s fair to say our sheer volume of running probably dropped 20-30 per cent in that 20-minute period. Our high speed running, our sprinting certainly dropped.
Postecoglou said that Richarlison, who is close to a return, has worked hard in training
‘I saw that anecdotally. I could tell because we were passive. When we’re running it means we’re pressing, and really aggressive in everything we do. We have the ball, we’re sprinting forward and I sensed that wasn’t happening. The data backs that up. It’s not up for debate.’
Heung-min Son and Richarlison return for Saturday’s derby against West Ham. Richarlison has been out since August and has been through a personal preseason regime by Spurs in the hope of ending his recurrent injury problems.
‘He recovered from his injury a couple of weeks ago but we’ve used the last couple of weeks to get his fitness base up,’ said Postecoglou. ‘He’s worked awfully hard, he’s trimmed down and looks really lean.’
