Ange Postecoglou loves to talk about his team, and he was in a particularly loquacious mood after Tottenham Hotspur lost 2-1 to Aston Villa, a result that crashed them out of the FA Cup in the fourth round, their second cup exit in four days. But Postecoglou’s answers and tone were a little different this time around. In his post-match press conference, Ange adopted a “us against the world” mentality in comments to the press, stoutly defending his beleaguered squad of backups and teenagers and implying that the rampant criticism of him and his team in the footballing media is agenda driven and unfair.
Ange particularly hammered home how playing constant football every few days for mon
“[Two cup exits in a week] is not damaging for me, it’s obviously disappointing for us in terms of our objectives. But for two-and-a-half months, this small group of players have given everything in multiple competitions. I think they’ve been outstanding. We had 11 first-team players missing today. We started with four teenagers, a 21 year old goalkeeper coming to one of the best teams in the country, away from home. After playing the best team in the country on Thursday night. After playing a Premier League game last Sunday, playing a Europa game [before that]. The same group of players. No rotation. And they’ve been doing this since the middle of November.
“I think they’ve given everything they can and I’ve got so much respect and admiration for the players and how they’ve gone about that. We get a couple of midweeks off now, great for them to recover. We’ll get some players back which is also great for this group that they’ll get some help. And we move on.
It’s hard to discount the negative impact on performance that comes with having to play without 10-11 first team players for 2+ months, while playing two matches a week consistently during that stretch. Postecoglou also pointed to Liverpool’s loss to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup on Saturday, a loss in which Arne Slot heavily rotated and was without many of his regular starting XI.
“I was saying in there, take a back four of Vicario, Dragusin, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Odobert, Werner...take them out of any team... How did Liverpool go today? And they just did that for one game. Do that for two-and-a-half months. Any team. Do that for two-and-a-half months in multiple competitions. I don’t care about me. People will judge me. But you can’t judge this group of players on what’s happened. They’ve given everything, the performance.
“Like I said, two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 21-year-old goalkeeper starting against one of the best teams in the country at home. They’ve had a week off, they didn’t play Thursday night against Liverpool. We did. Same group of players. Not a change. You can’t measure this group of players on that and their performance where they’re at. It’s too easy for people to be critical of them. I just have huge admiration and respect for them. We kind of knew this game was going to be the finishing line because we knew what was coming ahead in terms of midweeks off and getting some players back. But they tried their hardest and that’s all you can ask.
“I don’t know how else to explain it. I don’t know how else to explain it if you can’t see that this team is just trying to play its hardest in the most extreme of circumstances. Two and a half months of asking 18-year-olds and 17-year-olds and senior players, with no rest, to play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday. I’ll keep going for two-and-a-half months and if you think that is not at all a factor of how this team is performing then there’s nothing else I can say. There’s nothing else I can explain.”
Postecoglou was also asked about his own job security amidst this dismal run of form since November. In the past, Ange has taken the full weight of responsibility on his shoulders for the team’s performance and he did so again today, but did his utmost to protect and defend the players who are at his disposal and playing every few days.
“I’m not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I’ve done a bad job, I’m not up to it or whatever. That’s fine. What I’m saying is you can’t be critical of players or players’ performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they’ve got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have, and have to play every week. And not for one game. I’m not just saying we had to do this today. We’ve been doing this since the middle of November and you can’t judge performances of these players and critique them on what they’ve done.
“All they’ve done is given all they can and that’s all you can ask for. Me, that’s not of interest to me. My responsibility at this football club is this group of players and this team, to get them to play in the manner I want them to and bring us success. Whether people think I can do that or not, that’s for others to judge. But there’s got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months. It can’t be that people think that’s an excuse. That’s just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That’s just agenda driven stuff. If it’s to get rid of me that’s fine. Good on ya. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they’ve given over the past two and half months has been outstanding, it’s a credit to them, I can’t speak highly enough of them.”
As for the constant drumbeat of negative criticism directed at his team and himself, Ange tetchily suggested that the media might be driven not by balanced analysis, but by an agenda. Ange was asked by one reporter why his Spurs side doesn’t play in his preferred style like they did earlier in the season, and Postecoglou fired back that he would if he could, but he didn’t want to drive his players into the ground.
“No, because they’re tired mate. Do you think they can press like [we would]. If we hadn’t played Thursday night and I hadn’t rotated that team do you think we wouldn’t have been pressing aggressively today? Fair chance, unless you don’t think they’re human beings. Unless you’re super human and you think no, after playing Liverpool on Thursday night they should be flying tonight. It doesn’t happen. They’re human beings. Why do you think Liverpool and others rotate 11 players? Why? There’s a reason and I wish I could do the same. So you can bring a freshness to the team.
“Of course they’re not playing anywhere near the levels that we want or expect, but that’s not because they’re not trying. It’s because they can’t. I think this group of players once we get the rest of the group in, will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that. Whether other people can’t see that, that’s of no interest to me. If you want to measure anything on what they’re doing at the moment, other than the extreme situation they’re dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed and it’s not objective. That’s my opinion.”
The good news is that Tottenham is set to welcome back a number of injured players over the next week. There are reports (this is another article) that Destiny Udogie is back in training as of this week, and players like James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke, and Guglielmo Vicario are all anticipated to return within the next couple of weeks. Spurs crashing out of both domestic cups also means they have a couple of weeks with only one match, which should provide some additional rest to their depleted and exhausted squad.
Tottenham’s record isn’t good, nor but for a few exceptions have their performances, but there’s still optimism that with time, health, and a little luck, Spurs can still salvage something respectable from what has been a train wreck of a season. And whatever happens to Ange over the next few months, you can’t say he doesn’t have his players’ backs. Thus far, that feeling is mutual with his players.