Should Tottenham Hotspur fire Ange Postecoglou? The precarious position of the coach who broke Spurs’ curse

After the party, the clean -up operation. The question for Tottenham is whether they are planning to entrust the man who made such a mess in the first place for good and sick.

Certainly, Ange Postecoglou has spoken as a man who will return next season, with the help of the Platform of worship to him at the Europa League Trophy parade on Friday that “like the best television series” season three would be better than season two. A few days later he was no less frank and delivered a robust defense of the work he had done so far in his two years at Tottenham.

“I came to the club and we were finished eighth,” he said. “I didn’t take a club that second had ended. They had no European football to talk about, one player who probably guarantees a European football [Harry Kane]. That was my starting point.

“At the end of two years I have the club a trophy for which it screamed, Champions League football, we ended up last year. Both people say:” Last year it was a huge deviation for us to finish fifth or this is what we deliver well. “

“I have had no doubt that we will be in a much stronger position next year, a challenge for the top places. I have no doubt that we will tackle the Champions League with the same determination that we have tackled the Europa League. I have no doubt that if people are looking for more evidence about me.

Certainly, the club has seen a lot of In a short time. Ten games in his prime minister League and a won in a dangerous position would be enough for another chorus of “I love it instead of Big Ange.” Northern London was charmed by the Aussie that would not give hell, high water, or a banjaxed backline, to the kind of football with forefoot that Spurs longed for in the attritional days of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho.

Those days should only be a moment ago in the blurry afterglow of the triumph over Manchester United. Since then a lot had continued. The injuries, the needle and the defeats. There were really many of them. Twenty-two at the last count for the domestic competition season, the most every Premier League side has ever suffered without being degraded.

More than 76 league matches of Postcoglou -Voetbal, the underlying output from Tottenham was close to the average in the Premier League. The fifth place in the year one flattered, although not as much as 17th was a hard reflection in a season that ended with a full tank task for the Europa League. Their expected target difference under current Management is a shadow under zero, inferior, not only for four of the Big Six (no prizes for guessing the other missing team), but also Bournemouth, Brentford, Crystal Palace and Brighton. Even this younger, Kane-Less Spurs should be better than they do.

Postecoglou can and often point to mitigating factors. The most striking was the injury crisis that inspired his defense, where he did well for a large part of the winter if he could make two of his first choice back. Micky van de Ven has managed only 40 Premier League performances over the past two years. Cristian Romero missed 25, Destiny Udogie 23.

On the other hand, when injuries continue to happen with a team that wants to play with a high line, one must ask if the Postecoglou system requires too much, in particular of the middle backs that have to cover most of their half when opponents try to break away. When Romero and Van de Ven start, Spurs on average 1.66 points per game, a return that would have them right in the mix for a top five finish over a full 38 games. When both are missing, they are at 0.92 points per game. That is worthy of relegation racing.

Like so many in recent months, one may wonder how different figures can be in the Europa League. Postecoglou won praise in that competition for showing a different approach, culminating in the bright last position in Bilbao, where Spurs were deep and Manchester United easily challenged to break them down. A more reactive approach worked on the continent, but Postecoglou tried it in the Premier League, where the single pivot was dumped when the injury bug stayed its teeth. Plan B has never really worked there. When Daniel Levy and new Chief Executive Vinai Venkatesham come to weigh the value of the European performance of Postecoglou, they will have to ask where AZ Alkmaar, Bodo/Glimt and even Eintracht Frankfurt can end in the Premier League.

They will also want to consider who may be sure to do it better. Andoni Iraola has the appearance of a coach in the form of Mauricio Pochettino before he came to Tottenham, his side of Bournemouth clearly struck their wage account. The Spaniard has shown that they are effectively adapting, so that the high press he had taken over from Rayo Vallecano, but still building a team, but still building a team that could be devastating effective with their long passing by. No wonder that owner Bill Foley wants to expand a contract that will expire next summer, with Iraola already removed the interest of the Saudi Pro League.

If not Iraola, perhaps Thomas Frank, another who has long been connected to Tottenham. Since he brings Brentford to the Premier League, he has also shown a level of tactical adaptability that has allowed a side with lean resources to remain in danger. Management in the Champions League would just be a reward for that.

Similarly, it would also be for Postecoglou. Given the absence of a Champions League -Drop -Outs of this season, the Europa League may not be the most challenging competition on the planet, but Tottenham still won. That is important for a club and fan base that had not added to its trophy cabinet for 17 years. It is important that the boys in Bilbao have put an end, perhaps only temporarily, to the era in which tracks are the marchs of everyone’s jokes. Manchester United, that’s you now.

Even when their side fell at home against a tough defeat against Brighton, Tottenham supporters knew what they wanted. It took only three minutes for the hymns to start in favor of Postecoglou. An Ange in Banner was raised high, perhaps an act of preventive challenges against Levy, whose presence on the big screen attracted a choir of angry. The banner James Maddison and Sergio Reguilon held up with the famous comment from their manager about always winning things in his second season, suggests that the dressing room would rather want Postecoglou hanging around.

Since Pochettino has left, the atmosphere on the High Road of Tottenham has often slipped in Rancor and Division. Postecoglou has united the fan base and he sees no reason why he is not allowed to build on his work.

“That is something we have to build on, we have to use,” he said when discussing the common energy that followed on the Europa League victory. “Furthermore, if we are all together, it shows the power of the club. That is what a trophy does. That is what does something as we have done in recent days.

‘My gut feeling is that I now feel that I have done something that nobody believed that I could. And I shouldn’t be talking here [my future]. “

Postecoglou Behind the back of one win in one match can feel a bit this season as Manchester United who is settling on Erik ten Hag this season, but the first has actually achieved a reasonable target in year two of the Tottenham -Herbouw. Just like any other club owner, Levy must be willing to do Due Diligence about what the management market could have. If Iraola or another clear young coaching perspective can be tempted, the time for a change would rise. A look with a cold eyes to Postecoglou’s suggests that he probably did not deliver this team to consistently perform at his talent level.

However, if a dugout upgrade is not clearly available, then there is value in the sentimental. Postecoglou has won the hearts of Tottenham supporters and, in the most curious ways, achieved what was certainly an ambitious expectation of Champions League qualification in his second year at the helm of a resolved team. More than that, he has yielded a reason for celebration that has not been seen in North Londs for many years. Why not see if he can let the good times roll?