Ange Postecoglou turned up the pressure on himself ahead of a huge week for Tottenham.
Spurs boss Postecoglou insisted after his team’s defeat to Arsenal in the North London derby that he ALWAYS wins a trophy in his second season. Tottenham go to Coventry City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night and cannot afford a repeat of last year when they went out at the first hurdle.
Postecoglou saw his team lose at Fulham on penalties and that haunted him for the rest of the campaign as any chance of silverware had gone before the end of January with their FA Cup defeat to Manchester City. Tottenham also face a tricky home game with Brentford in the Premier League next Saturday and cannot afford another slip up.
Their underwhelming start has left Spurs in 13th place in the Premier League table and the expectation among fans is that they will get back into the Champions League next year. That should be achievable when you consider that Tottenham have spent big since Postecoglou arrived and their record £65million deal for Dominic Solanke this summer has underlined the club’s ambition.
Tottenham are back in Europe this year with the return of the Europa League and that gives them another crack at silverware. It is 16 years since Spurs won a trophy - their last was the 2008 League Cup - and Tottenham fans quickly took to Big Ange in his first season in charge thanks to his attacking style of play.
But it feels like the honeymoon is over and it is time for Postecoglou to deliver this season and their indifferent start has not exactly inspired confidence. However, Postecoglou’s bold claim about always winning in his second season does stand up if you look at his club jobs with South Melbourne, Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory, Yokohama F. Marinos and Celtic.
But it will be arguably far tougher to repeat it with Tottenham - after all Celtic dominate Scottish football - this season. Realistically, getting into the Champions League places - and fifth may be enough - is more likely to be a barometer of success or failure for Postecoglou this season.
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But it is Postecoglou himself and his swashbuckling approach - always demanding first place - who is setting the standards higher. His first target must be to improve defending set pieces and, while he may not admit it publicly, they have spent far more time working on it this summer.
Tottenham keeper Guglielmo Vicario has insisted they will analyse their defensive mistakes as he also heaped praise on Postecoglou after their North London derby defeat to Arsenal. Vicario said: “It is tough to find a solution. Of course in our meeting we will analyse, try to fix it and try to do better. It is tough because in this case small details can change the result and the outcome of the games.
“We have a brilliant coach, brilliant staff that can help us so we just need to stay together and believe in our football because we played such good games until now.
“It was a big defeat, we take the responsibility for that and now we have to prepare our best level for the next two games. We will fix it and take the rewards in the future. If we stick together, play this football with our focus, I think we will have a lot of victories this season.”