The Ange Era
Tottenham last won a major trophy in 2007/08, the League Cup. It’s the only one they’ve won in the 21st century.
For a club of their size and stature, one that regularly competes at the top end of the Premier League and in Europe, boasting an average attendance of over 60,000, this is pretty surprising.
They’ve been looking for the answer for quite a while now. Mauricio Pochettino came closest, guiding them to second place in 2016/17 and to the Champions League final in 2018/19. José Mourinho took them to the Carabao Cup final in 2020/21, although he was sacked before the match. Neither man managed to guide Spurs to silverware.
Nuno Espírito Santo and Antonio Conte came next. Both fell short. Now it’s Postecoglou’s turn.
The 59-year-old built up a strong CV in his native Australia and in Japan, which saw him join Celtic in 2021. Two years later, he departed after winning five trophies. Tottenham saw this as a perfect opportunity.
His first season ended with a fifth-place finish, but in his own words, ‘I don’t usually win things, I always win things in my second year’.
Season so far
Postecoglou’s style has been his best friend and his worst enemy. An attack-minded coach, he wants to see free-flowing, exciting football that focuses on pace and energy. That can lead to defensive issues, particularly when playing a high line (which was memorably exposed by Chelsea almost exactly a year ago).
The Australian is someone who’ll live by the sword and die by the sword in equal measure. That's what's helped him become so successful in his managerial career so far.
He obviously expected Tottenham to kick on this season after a decent campaign in 2023/24, but it remains to be seen whether that’ll happen. After 10 games, they sit seventh in the table with 16 points from five wins, one draw and four defeats.
A disappointing opener away at newly-promoted Leicester City ended 1-1, but they followed it up with a 4-0 demolition of Everton in North London. Were they able to build on that? Nope, they were subsequently beaten 2-1 by Newcastle United and 1-0 by arch-rivals Arsenal on home soil.
They bounced back with five wins in a row in all competitions. A nervy 2-1 win at Coventry City in the Carabao Cup came before a 3-1 win against Brentford and a 3-0 win against Qarabağ, both at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. They then went to Old Trafford and dismantled 10-man Manchester United in a 3-0 win before beating Ferencvaros 2-1 in Budapest.
Again, after a brilliant run, they came unstuck. Having gone 2-0 up away at Brighton, they ended up losing the match 3-2. Postecoglou labelled it as ‘the worst defeat since I’ve been here’, but his players made up for it by beating West Ham 4-1 and AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in their next two games.
Never too high, never too low, they were sent crashing back down to Earth with a 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace – a flat performance where they never got going. However, they were able to steady the ship once again by knocking Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup before easing to a 4-1 win at home to Aston Villa.
Then, in their most recent game - only on Thursday night - they were beaten 3-2 away at Galatasaray in a game where they easily could have conceded more.
What does this say about Spurs? Simply put, they’re inconsistent. On their day, they’re a fantastic team, one that can easily put together a string of wins to rise up the table, but they’re also prone to suffering damaging slip-ups that feels uncharacteristic, although their supporters have seen it happen many times before.
When they get going, they're undoubtedly one of the best teams in the league. They're fast, powerful and clinical, boasting some of the best players in Europe. There's a feeling that this all needs to lead to some silverware sooner rather than later, however.
Set piece woes
The North London Derby defeat to Arsenal showcased a huge weakness for Spurs – set pieces. Defender Gabriel Magalhães was the match-winner on that day, heading home from Bukayo Saka’s corner.
The stats thrown at Postecoglou after the match were damning. Since he took over at the start of the 2023/24 campaign, only Nottingham Forest have conceded more goals from set pieces than Tottenham.
Back in May, when the weakness was first brought up, he said he ‘wasn’t interested’ in it, but he went down a different route when asked about the defeat to the Gunners, saying: “I know for some reason people think I don't care about set-pieces, and it's a narrative that you can keep going on for ages and ages. I understand that.
“Like I said, we work on them all the time, like we do with every other team.
“You know that they're a threat. As I said, for the most part we handled them really well today, but we switched off in one and we paid a price. You learn from that and you move on.
“It is what it is. It's my burden to carry and I'm happy to do that. Like I've always said, for me there's a bigger picture that's at play here that's much more important than the finer details of us getting to where we want to.”
What does that come down to? Concentration and positioning, certainly, which falls firmly on the shoulders of set-piece coach Nick Montgomery. However, simply put, a lot of it comes down to aerial dominance. That’s not necessarily just highlighted by corners and free-kicks, but also from open play, as Opta Analyst argued using the Arsenal match as an example.
“The home side (Tottenham) attempted 31 crosses to Arsenal’s 13 and had more corners than Arsenal (7 to 6) and yet the Gunners never looked threatened. Spurs’ only chance of note was a late Romero header directed straight at David Raya. Dominic Solanke was a handful, but he was contained by the likes of Gabriel and William Saliba.
“Improving their efficiency in both boxes is something Spurs desperately need to improve if they are to have any hope of propelling themselves into the top tier of Premier League teams. Their defensive record is poor and going forwards isn’t much better; they’ve scored just 12 goals from set pieces since the start of last season. Nine sides can better that tally.”
Of course, when it comes to set pieces, Arsenal are among the best in the league, but Kieran McKenna will surely be briefing the likes of Leif Davis, Cameron Burgess and Dara O’Shea on how to hurt their opponents this weekend.
A star on the right
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom at Tottenham - far from it. There’s a real sense of optimism that they can maintain consistency to have a good run at a top-four finish. They’ve undoubtedly got the talent in their squad to achieve that.
Right-back Pedro Porro ranks towards the top for chances created among full-backs. Dejan Kulusevski, who’s been moved into central midfield, is even better in that department. Left winger Son Hueng-min has had an injury-hit campaign, but still has three goals and three assists to his name, while Dominic Solanke is starting to find the back of the net following his big-money move from Bournemouth.
Ipswich fans won’t forget about ex-Norwich City midfielder James Maddison either. He’ll be desperate to play the role of pantomime villain, and he’s unlikely to get a kind reception from the away end this weekend.
The surprise package of the team? Well, that’d have to be Brennan Johnson.
Arriving from Nottingham Forest last season, the winger showed inconsistent flashes of brilliance in his maiden season under Postecoglou. This season started horrible, with his performances receiving unwarranted abuse on social media. He deactivated his Instagram account following the defeat to Arsenal to focus on his football and shut out the noise. It worked.
The following game against Coventry saw him net a late winner to send Spurs through. It started a fantastic run for the Wales international, where he scored in seven consecutive games for club and country, turning him into one of the in-form Premier League players.
The goals have dried up a bit since then, but he did bag one in the win against Aston Villa last weekend. Crucially, you can see in his performances that his confidence is back. He’s willing to chase after balls, take on defenders and go for goal.
Davis has faced some tough opponents in a Town shirt so far this season and Johnson will be right up there.
Team news
Tottenham are facing some pretty major injury issues, particularly at the back.
Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero have been Postecoglou’s first-choice centre-backs this season. The former is certainly out with a hamstring injury that he picked up in the Carabao Cup win against Man City, while the latter ‘has a chance’ to feature against Ipswich as he continues to recover from his toe injury.
Romanian international Radu Drăgușin is expected to shift over to the right, with Welshman Ben Davies possibly coming in for his first league start of the season. This partnership started against Galatasaray, where they found it really tough up against Victor Osimhen, who scored twice.
In attack, former Town target Wilson Odobert has been plagued by issues, suffering a setback with his hamstring injury. There’s no timeline on his return to action. Brazilian international Richarlison will also miss the clash after picking up another groin injury. This one is expected to keep him out for a month.
Timo Werner is definitely out, as is talented youngster Mikey Moore, as confirmed by Postecoglou in his pre-match press conference.
Make no mistake – regardless of injuries, Ipswich will be coming up against a strong and experienced side.