One of the most frustrating facets of Tottenham Hotspur’s nightmarish season for Ange Postecoglou must be the constant pile-up of injuries.
Jamie O’Hara has called for Postecoglou’s sacking and while the Australian will admit things are far from good enough at Spurs, he would be feeling sorry for himself due to the injuries he has had to deal with.
While Tottenham were not exactly playing champagne football when all their key players were fit, missing 11 players during their latest 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa in the FA Cup would not have helped matters whatsoever as well.
Unai Emery predicted Tottenham to return to form once their injury crisis becomes a thing of the past — highlighting that even fellow managers realise the struggles Postecoglou has endured this campaign.
The challenge for Ange Postecoglou during this rough period of injuries has also been that he does not have the luxury to rest players.
Tottenham simply lack enough players capable of being relied upon as starters to be resting vital cogs to his side, which includes youngsters like Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.
Ange Postecoglou told Tottenham’s injury crisis is down to his style of play
While the Lilywhites languishing in 14th place in the Premier League is unacceptable, the job that the former Celtic boss has had on his hands in managing an injury-raved squad has also not been an enviable one.
But Jamie Carragher has a theory that Tottenham’s persisting injury woes are down to the high-octane brand of football that Ange Postecoglou plays. The pundit compared Liverpool’s reduced injury problems as a squad from Jurgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield to Arne Slot’s debut campaign to drive his point about how the Dutchman’s more controlled style of play has helped them attain an increased level of fitness as side.
Carragher said on The Overlap US’ ‘It’s Called Soccer!’ show: “When you look at styles of play, now Tottenham are one of the most intense teams in the league, they press really high, they get the ball back in play really quickly from throw-ins and goal kicks. So, they’re always at it and we think that’s a good thing, that’s how we like football to be played, quick, on the front foot, exactly.”
“But when you think of teams like that, you think of Bournemouth, you think of Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool last season, the reason Liverpool are doing better this season, I don’t think all of a sudden they’re a completely different team, they’re slightly different. I don’t think they’re a million miles better but they’re fit.”
“They don’t have any injuries, Liverpool last season were in Tottenham’s sort of situation where they had like six or seven first-team players out, you go back to the Carabao Cup final, bringing kids on in the final and that had to be with how Jurgen Klopp played, now it’s slightly different with Arne Slot, there’s not as many injuries.”
Jamie Carragher feels that a simple case of misfortune cannot be attributed to Tottenham’s injury problems while linking them to how Ange Postecoglou sets up his side to approach games.
“You look at Bournemouth, they’re flying in the league but a couple of weeks ago, they went to Newcastle, they had nine first-team players out, Tottenham is the same. I don’t think that’s bad luck. I think sometimes you can have a little bit of bad luck, that can happen but when you’re continually getting muscle injuries, you’ve got to then look at the style of play from your manager.”
“And think, ‘Okay, well, do we need a bigger squad if we’re going to keep with this manager and have this style of play? Or do we have to accept that this style brings a success but the fall down is that we’re going to bring their players?’ So, has to be in the owners’ mind when they bring managers in and that was one of the reasons why Slot was chosen by Liverpool, when they analysed managers, not just about results and trophies, how often do his players get injured?”
“That seems to happen a lot under [Ange] Postecoglou. So, I understand, he’s using that as mitigiation and understandably as his best players are off the pitch. But is his style of play contributing to the amount of injuries that they get? I probably think there’s a good chance that it is.”
Ange Postecoglou explained why he suffered similar injury problems at Celtic
Ange Postecoglou’s response to the constant injuries at Celtic in 2021 was that his former side did suffer some fitness issues due to his style of play but also due to players being rushed back from their recovery process.
“No, it’s not possible. It’s a by-product of the team we want to be and it’s part of the process. I’ve been through it a number of times with teams I’ve taken over and the initial process is always difficult.”
“Games are coming thick and fast, but that’s the level we want to be at. We’ve still got seven games to go between now and the break, so we have to make sure we keep presenting ourselves well and get some game time to the guys who played well tonight. It’s not ideal but the guys have coped with it in the past. As you saw tonight, we have a good level of intensity and energy and we are just going to keep doing that in every game we play.”