Put yourself in Ange Postecoglou’s shoes for a moment. The Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool at Anfield on Thursday has been trailed for a good while as a kind of personal D-day. There have been questions about whether the Tottenham manager will even reach it – specifically after dismal Premier League defeats by Everton (away) and Leicester (home).
Postecoglou’s job security has been a major talking point as his team have slid to 14th in the table and the first thing to say is that the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, has sacked managers who have been in better positions. The lack of a compelling, available alternative – internally or externally – has helped Postecoglou.
Postecoglou battles on to Anfield, boosted by progress into the Europa League last 16 and the critical league win at Brentford on Sunday, and it is always going to be an emotional occasion for a guy who was in thrall to Liverpool as he grew up in Australia; a devotee of their great teams of the late 70s and early 80s. Spurs are 1-0 up from the first leg and for a romantic like Postecoglou, there is a script to be written.
This is the bit where reality intrudes. In the red corner are the outstanding team of the season so far, chasing four trophies; settled, pretty much all of their players in good physical condition. The Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, has a theory that his squad are getting stronger rather than feeling the fatigue, based on how they are growing under his leadership, understanding him and his methods with exponential levels of clarity.
Winning, of course, breeds confidence. It generates momentum. And a word, too, for Slot’s expert rotation of his admittedly rich playing resources; the courage of his convictions. At Southampton in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup, the tie had threatened to turn when the home team scored on 59 minutes to cut Liverpool’s lead to 2-1. Slot had left a host of key players on Merseyside. Now he doubled down, withdrawing the midfield mainstay, Alexis Mac Allister, and introducing the academy prospect James McConnell. It is just a small example but an instructive one. Liverpool would close out the win.
Postecoglou is without 10 injured players for the Anfield showdown. He has regularly run with a double-digits absentee list over the past couple of months. It is tempting before kick-off to want to mention Dane Scarlett to make it up to a full XI; the striker, recalled from his loan at Oxford, is cup-tied.
Postecoglou includes his outfield signings from the winter transfer window – Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel. Both arrived late and have barely trained with their new teammates. It stands to be a fiery baptism. Elsewhere, numerous players are running on fumes. Playing and training in Postecoglou’s high-intensity style is demanding. When there is little to no respite, the matches coming every three to four days, red zones are entered, breaking points reached.
There are 6,000 masochists in the away end. “Why do we do this?” they ask themselves on the journey north. Because it is what they do; a ritual, a religion. And because of the hope, which Postecoglou is so good at nurturing in those pre-match media conferences. When you listen to him, so convincing and invested, it is as if all of the physical and psychological blows that have rained down will be overcome.
It was interesting to hear Postecoglou talk on the Friday of last week about the home game against Manchester United next Sunday being “a point for us to relaunch our campaign”. It was because he believes he will have at least two or three of the injured players back for it; the majority of them should return over the next fortnight. Spurs have a couple of free midweeks. They go to Ipswich on Saturday 22 February. The flaw in it all is that the season could have a hole blown in it by then.
There was no sign of the cavalry at Anfield, nor will there be for Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Aston Villa. And we can now count a full injured XI without Scarlett after Richarlison’s misfortune against Liverpool. He damaged a calf and was forced off before half-time.
Postecoglou has traded heavily on the hope of a brighter future; he has practically tied his continued employment to it. It will be OK. It has to be OK. How can you condemn a manager working under such impossible constraints? He would be able to explain away a defeat against Villa. He plainly needs the United and Ipswich matches. And is there not the tantalising prospect of a run at the Europa League? Win that and the season would be a success, even if they finished 17th in the league.
Can Postecoglou drive the needed improvement after he and the team have fallen so far? There were troubling signs at Anfield, the mitigating factors not withstanding. Postecoglou started with what most people consider as his pragmatic option – in other words, Dejan Kulusevski on the right wing, three more solid central midfielders.
The plan seemed to be to stay compact, not to commit too many runners forward. But that was not it, Postecoglou would reveal. He wanted his team to play as normal – with aggression, putting pressure on the opposition; with boldness in possession. None of it happened.
There was a glaring lack of leadership from the senior players and that started with the captain, Son Heung-min. Above all, there seemed to be a shortage of belief, which was understandable on one level; unforgivable on another. “When the reality of it out there hits you, it’s a bit different to maybe what you envisioned in your head,” Postecoglou said.
The reality of Spurs’s plight is clear and the discussion must surely take in how the high number of muscle injuries are not entirely down to bad luck. A part of it has to be load management. What is equally clear is that Postecoglou cannot dream forever of tomorrow. He needs something today.