Abandoned Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham's transfer mess and what he told his players at half
While his words suggested otherwise, Ange Postecoglou looked like an abandoned man during his post-match press conference at Goodison Park.
The 59-year-old sat behind the desk, speaking in a low, quiet and thoroughly beaten down way into the microphone. Those who follow Tottenham know this look in a manager well.
The Australian was well aware that the dreadful, disorganised way his Spurs team played at Everton in the first half especially, fell on his shoulders after he had attempted to find a different structure to utilise his 11 fit first team players.
It had failed. Spurs were fortunate to get in at half-time at only 3-0 down. The stats at the end of the game will show 11 shots for the visitors to Everton's 12 and six on target for each side, with the possession 64% in Tottenham's favour but those numbers would not tell the tale of a game in which 3-2 ultimately flattered Postecoglou's side.
If the first half felt like that of a classic Spurs end of days match, then what came next was a second period that at least showed the players are still fighting for the Australian.
It was not enough though on the day. Everton had only won once in the Premier League since mid-October and Dominic Calvert-Lewin hadn't scored a single goal in the competition since September. Enter Dr Tottenham from stage left to cure their misery.
Yet there has been no cure and no help for Postecoglou. For the past six weeks, he might as well have walked around N17 wearing a sandwich board emblazoned with the words 'we need more players' and on the back 'Dom needs help' as they've been his two most-used phrases during this damaging period.
Help has not arrived for Postecoglou or Dominic Solanke in the first 20 days of the transfer window. The £65million striker is one of Spurs' most overused assets and on Saturday on one of the Hotspur Way training pitches, the 27-year-old's knee twisted as he tried to do what he is meant to do all the time - take a shot.
Postecoglou will take the blame for some of Spurs' hamstring injuries with his intense playing style and training sessions - before this period when those have naturally become fewer with so many recovery days required. However, Solanke's injury was a freak injury and Postecoglou's squad has also suffered from plenty of those this season.
Solanke's absence on Saturday took Spurs' absent player list up to a grand total of 10, with only about four of Postecoglou's regular starters left in the line-up. Everything the Australian has been warning the club about privately and publicly has come to pass.
His bench on Sunday, other than Richarlison and Sergio Reguilon, contained six teenagers and his team featured another couple. Of the six on the bench, one was 16 and two 17. There was also a January signing in 18-year-old Yang Min-hyeok, who appears to be a long way off being ready to contribute in Postecoglou's eyes.
It did not have to be this way. Tottenham have had those six weeks or so - at least - to get their house in order and identify and sign outfield players to aid the squad and Postecoglou, even if it meant paying over the odds to do so.
As the Australian and his players failed those travelling Spurs fans in the first half at Goodison Park and ultimately in the result, so the club have failed him and the squad in not providing reinforcements when they desperately needed them the most.
football.london asked the Tottenham boss on Sunday if any transfer was imminent as the current injury list is not likely to clear any time soon.
"I'm sure like everybody, the club's well aware of our situation and they're doing their utmost. As far as I know at the moment there's nothing imminent, but you know, I assume between now and ...we're getting to the end of the window that hopefully something comes up," he said.
Hopefully....With that in mind, football.london followed up by pointing out that Postecoglou's future was potentially tied up with the club's inability to provide him with the players needed to put out a fit and fresh side that can compete.
"I separate myself from that (his future being important). This is not about me, but what is about me right now is I have the responsibility for the group of players I do have, to try and get us through this, and that's what I've got to focus on," he said.
"For me to focus on anything else is abstaining myself from the responsibility I have. I'm just determined to get us out of this. The club's doing its best to...it's more about helping the players than helping me because they're the ones.
"We're asking some massive jobs of 18-year-olds. We had a 17-year-old out there trying to win games of football for us, and others who are just playing week on week, so you know it's more about getting the players help rather than me help."
This week Postecoglou has trotted out his predecessors' often-used line about the January transfer window being tough but that the club are working hard.
The difference is that those predecessors were later not shy when it then went wrong in letting everyone know how it was not their fault. Postecoglou, perhaps with his different journey to Tottenham compared to those managers, has not chosen to go down that route as of yet.
"There will be urgency [in the transfer market] but it doesn't need me to say it, everybody can see that. I have no issues with how the club are going about it, they are working hard and trying to find solutions," he told the BBC on Sunday.
"These players need help and hopefully over the next 10 days or so we'll find a solution. It is really tricky, we're not the only ones in the market. The club are trying hard."
There's that phrase again. Postecoglou will look around though and see that while the January window is undoubtedly more difficult than the summer one, other clubs - not all but some that really needed them - have made their moves for players and signed them.
He could look at Aston Villa, Ipswich, Wolves and Manchester City among others, while Bournemouth are not helping Postecoglou's cause in that they are struggling with injuries, yet are winning matches and have also added to their squad this window, albeit with young players.
Postecoglou may well argue that Tottenham's mass of injuries have come heavily in certain areas of his team, robbing him of much of his first XI at the back and up front and killed his ability to rotate with far more matches to play than Bournemouth this season.
Tottenham have faced 33 games already in contrast to Bournemouth's 24. It's those extra free midweeks that have allowed the Cherries to breathe and recover to go again without tiring.
Yet Postecoglou knows that Tottenham's results still must be much better regardless of who he has available.
"I have never played the victim. At the end of the day I still believe the responsibility lies with me to get this right and that is where I sit with things," he said. "Whatever the circumstances are and it is fair to say it is a challenging situation for sure, a lot of it is out of your control as a manager when you are losing the amount of players we are at the moment.
"But I still have to steer us through and if I start worrying about myself and the cards I have been dealt with, it is a dereliction of my duty and my responsibility. It is not how I see it. I see it as these are the cards I have been dealt and it is up to me to get us out of it and I have to be good enough to do that."
The Australian has had to adapt and change up his tactics in reacting to the decreasing options available to him, but his switch to a back three at Goodison Park with Ben Davies returning alongside Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray and the wing-backs taking on the winger roles, was quickly exposed by sloppy, confused defending and Everton's direct play.
Twelve minutes in, Calvert-Lewin received a ball in too much space between Gray and Dragusin inside the box and turned three Spurs players inside out before wrong-footing the otherwise impressive Antonin Kinsky with a low shot.
Spurs skipper Son Heung-min had a couple of big first half chances to find the net, the first taking far too long to get a shot away after running through into the box and eventually getting tackled and then the second involved firing an unmarked low effort from eight yards out comfortably into Jordan Pickford's grasp.
Tottenham were punished when Dragusin left himself in no man's land in hesitating over coming out to Iliman Ndiaye and the Everton man ran through the middle and hit a powerful shot into the net. Matters got even worse before the break when Gray could only divert a flicked-on James Tarkowski header into his own net to make it 3-0.
Kinsky was called into action on other occasions and Everton wasted further chances to extend their lead.
"It wasn't great the first half. I guess the majority of that is down to me," Postecoglou told football.london. "I changed the team and changed the structure. We had a couple of setbacks in terms of player availability and we struggled to get control of the game and allowed Everton to capitalise on that.
"Obviously at half-time we had a mountain to climb. Fair play to the players, they kept going until the end but ultimately fell short."
football.london asked the Spurs boss why he had made that decision to switch to a back three for this game.
"I had 11 fit players so it was a way of trying to find a way to fit the ones we had fit into a structure. The players tried hard enough but it didn't work," he admitted.
Before the break Dragusin took an elbow to the face from Calvert-Lewin which left him with a cut above his right eye. The 22-year-old Romanian did not emerge for the second half, which forced a change to a back four and created two new risky situations.
Postecoglou said before the match that Davies could not play the full 90 minutes. The Welshman had no real choice but to and it's doubtful Richarlison was going to get much more than half an hour of action this time but instead played for 50 minutes or so.
Spurs did improve in the second half slightly, helped by Everton getting sloppy in their play. Richarlison battled away against his old club but it was the arrival of 17-year-old Mikey Moore that began to push the game back towards the visitors with his direct play and trickery.
First James Maddison drew out Jordan Pickford with a run into the right-hand side of the Everton box and the midfielder found Moore. The teenager's shot was blocked but it came back out to Dejan Kulusevski, who clipped a delightful first-time chip over the covering defenders and Pickford.
It was a beautiful goal that will unfortunately get forgotten about in the mists of time amid a mess of a day.
Spurs huffed and puffed but couldn't find a second goal until added time when Moore curled in a perfect cross for Richarlison to slam home at the back post with a well-timed run. The Brazilian took a big whack from Pickford in doing so which brought the sight of him limping heavily back to the centre circle while waving to the bench to say he was fine. Nobody needs another Richarlison injury, least of all the 27-year-old.
It was too little too late though. Both substitutes will take heart from their displays - as long as Richarlison came through unscathed. The forward held the ball up well and Spurs looked better with him through the middle than Son, although if the skipper had taken his chances it could have been a different story.
After the game Richarlison walked around the Goodison Park pitch applauding fans on all sides, knowing that it might be the last time he sees the old stadium where he spent four years as a Toffee, before Everton move into their new home next season.
Richarlison will take confidence from the minutes in his legs and that well-taken goal and Moore was again a handful and now has a first Premier League assist to his name with the pinpoint cross. After the game,
There were a couple of other positives, once again from the younger players. Kinsky put in another display in goal that shows the 21-year-old will be absolutely fine in the Premier League with a more settled defence in front of him.
Lucas Bergvall again took control in the midfield when others wouldn't, the 18-year-old a busy presence at both ends of the pitch in another 90 minute-plus appearance.
Djed Spence tried to make things happen with seven successful dribbles, more than double the rest of the Spurs team combined, although he did also lose the ball five times and have two unsuccessful touches during his endeavours.
Gray had a tough day at the office as he continues to play every single minute every few days in an unfamiliar position and it's a wonder Postecoglou didn't finally give him a turn in midfield with Bergvall and Pape Matar Sarr. Perhaps he wanted to give Davies as little running to do as possible on his return.
Overall though the performance was not good enough across the squad, with the senior players mostly anonymous again, other than Davies who did well to last 90 minutes.
"It is probably the toughest period since I've been at the club," the Welshman admitted after the game before laying down a challenge to his team-mates.
"We'll see the players who are willing to fight and show they really care about this. It is a tough time for the club and squad. We need people who will really fight. I see the work we put in every day. Everyone is hurting. It is a very difficult period and we're hurting too like the fans."
Maddison did his interview shortly after having seen the unhappy faces of the travelling Tottenham fans, who were doing the trip up the country and back amid strikes and cancelled trains, and that was clear in the midfielder's words.
“[The two goals were] too little too late. We’re in a tough moment, there’s no denying that. It was a tough afternoon," he said. "They were quite direct, but we should do better for the goals. We need to be more resilient. We need to be tougher to score against really, collectively. It was a tough first half.
"It is what it is. We’re in a tough moment at the minute. A very depleted squad. To be fair, no excuses for that first half.
"The message [at half-time from the manager] was to be resilient, take a bit of pride in the second half. We nearly got back into it but like I said it was too little too late and a tough afternoon."
He added: "We had 11 fit senior players today, maybe 12 with Richarlison but he’s nowhere near ready to start today because of his injury. There is context to it, but ultimately as 11 starters, 11 professionals, the first half is unacceptable.
"We know that. The fans will have their opinion and criticise and rightly so. We’ve just got to stare that in the face and take that on the chin. They probably don’t want to hear me talking too much either, they want to see action.
“We’ve got a good chance to do that at Hoffenheim in the Europa League on Thursday."
The problem for Postecoglou and Tottenham is that the availability only gets worse for that Europa League game as Spence and Sergio Reguilon are not registered for the competition and neither is Kinsky.
Bentancur could be back from his concussion but the Uruguayan is the only one likely to return in time.
Postecoglou said Brennan Johnson is expected to miss three to four weeks with his calf injury, Solanke a number of weeks and Yves Bissouma could be back for next weekend's match against Leicester City.
"It's a pretty extreme situation, we've lost three players, significant players since the last game and we've already got seven or eight out," the Tottenham head coach told football.london.
"Obviously we lost Dom really late yesterday in training, something innocuous, so it's just the run we're on at the moment, the situation we're in. At some point that will change, we'll get some players back, but right now it's just the situation we're dealt and the responsibility lies squarely with me to try to get us out of it."
The defeats, the unavailable players and the dreadful run in the Premier League are hampering Postecoglou's chances of getting out of that rut and morale was shot in the first half, even if the players showed some spirit to get those goals back in the second period.
The Australian loses the support of more fans with every defeat even if there is a realisation that nobody else is going to be parachuted in and magically find a different squad situation at the club.
Andoni Iraola will no doubt be catching Spurs' eye with his work at Bournemouth but the Spaniard is highly unlikely to leave the south coast in mid-season and even he can't magically heal injuries.
Whatever Spurs choose to do next it must involve moving swiftly and successfully in the transfer market rather than just 'working hard'.
Postecoglou believes there is still a lot to motivate him, the squad and the club to push through this horrendous spell.
"Plenty [for] the club, our fans, our season. We are still in four competitions this season. We are in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, we have a couple of big European games coming up, still in the FA Cup, obviously our league position is not great to say the least," he said.
"We need to improve that and eventually our players will come back. It is significant talent that will come back. It is not like this is what it is, there is motivation to get through this so that when we do get our players back we can get something significant out of our season."
Postecoglou needs help and he needs results. Only Tottenham can provide one if they want him to provide the other, and so far they've done nothing this month but leave the Australian sitting there with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
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