The Times

“I get the idea that people think I should just flip a switch and change and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team. I’m just going to continue, stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want.”

Postecoglou also has admitted Tottenham will need new signings in January even when players return from injury. Spurs have only won twice in the eight games that have followed their 4-0 win over Manchester City.

Injuries have particularly hurt, with Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Guglielmo Vicario all absent for the heavy defeat by Liverpool, a game in which the 18-year-old Archie Gray started at centre back for the third time in a week.

“Absolutely,” the head coach said when asked if reinforcements would be required next month. “Some of them will be internal. We’re at different stages of getting players back from injury. We’ve got a couple of long term ones in Vicario and Wilson [Odobert], but the rest hopefully at some point in January they’ll come back.

“That will help us in terms of numbers and dealing with the schedule, because the schedule is not going to change. We’re in the Carabao Cup semi-final, we’re still in Europe and the FA Cup starts. We’re still in all the competitions, so it’s not going to get any easier. We’re going to need some of those players hopefully to come back and contribute.”

Asked whether Tottenham will be able to recruit players in the transfer window, he added: “Yeah, I guess if the right players are there. Again it’s about making sure it’s something that’s going to help us continue to build on what we’re doing.”

Tottenham are eight points off the top four and they will spend Christmas day 11th in the table. Postecoglou said he was unhappy about the team’s position when asked about whether he felt pressure about their standing. “People aren’t throwing platitudes at me so that’s fair enough,” he said. “Again from my perspective, all I can do is navigate us through a difficult period and try and make sure we do get to a position where hopefully we have a healthier squad.

“If you’re saying that [position in the table] means I’m not doing a good job and I maybe somehow should be uncomfortable, well that’s for others to judge.”

Meanwhile, Arne Slot, the Liverpool head coach, said he felt the victory rivalled his side’s best away performance, their 3-0 win over Manchester United in September. While the Dutchman was pleased to top the table at Christmas — Liverpool have opened up a four-point gap over Chelsea with a game in hand — he was unhappy to have conceded three goals.

“Until 60 to 65 minutes, I really, really, really enjoyed what I saw,” he said. “If we would have gone into the dressing room with a 2-1 lead [at half-time], that would not have done justice to all the chances we had.

“That was why I was quite happy with the fact we scored 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, an incredible display.

“But then you also saw that no matter how much quality players have, they think they don’t have to run anymore. In this league, especially against Tottenham because they are so good with the ball as well, they immediately start to create and they scored two goals.

“I was happy when the sixth one went in, to be fair.”

Arne Slot is not a showman and under his command Liverpool have been efficient in giving us spurts of beauty and breathtaking pace and finishing –but not too often. It is a long and harrowing and draining campaign and the Dutchman plans for the long haul. But sometimes an opponent is so open and so vulnerable that it is harder to be deadpan than witty and so Liverpool played as if with a fit of the giggles. This was great fun and, crucially, did not sap the team at all.

The Merseyside club moved four points clear of Chelsea at the top of the table as Slot registered his biggest league win of the campaign so far. His has been an efficient, 2-0 sort of

Marcus Rashford looks set to miss Manchester United’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur despite the club’s head coach Ruben Amorim saying he wanted the forward to stay at the club.

Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were omitted for the Manchester derby at the weekend but while Garnacho is set to return for Thursday night’s game, Rashford looks like he could miss out after appearing not to have travelled with the squad.

He was not with the rest of the squad as 21 members of Rúben Amorim’s squad boarded the train at Stockport Station to go to London on Wednesday evening. It is not yet clear why he was not with his team-mates but he missed training on Monday through illness.

Amorim wants Rashford to stay

“And through it all, we’re playing the way we want to. Big Ange Postecoglou, whether I’m right or wrong.”

Robbie Williams singing an adapted version of Angels in August last year. That was peak Postecoglou. Something had shifted. Spurs fans would declare they did not care what the result was, they just loved his style, his demeanour, the way he made Tottenham stand apart as a free-flowing, entertaining team.

Watching Tottenham was fun even if you didn’t support them. The manager was hilarious, what with his gruff Aussie accent and the way he could make the word “mate” sound pally or intimidating depending on his view of the question asked.

A breath of fresh air; that was Postecoglou. Corner kicks? Pah. They are boring in

“I’m now in the place I want to be,” says Giovani Lo Celso, rejuvenated at Real Betis after he never found his place at Tottenham Hotspur. Lo Celso has scored seven goals in 12 games for Betis already, which is a remarkable start, given his last seven goals for Spurs spanned nearly four years.

He is happier now, playing free again, but the wounds from his time in England have still not fully healed. “It’s a bit of everything, about feeling comfortable, and being made to feel comfortable, about having rhythm and confidence, that’s what allows a player to give his best version,” he says. “That’s not what I had before.”

Perhaps nobody encapsulates the chaos of the past half-decade at Tottenham better than Lo

Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero appeared to criticise the club’s hierarchy for a lack of investment in the team after his side’s 4-3 home defeat by Chelsea on Sunday.

Tottenham allowed a two-goal lead to slip and the result meant that Ange Postecoglou’s team have won only one of their past seven games.

After the match, the Argentinian spoke to the Spanish outlet Telemundo Deportes and said that Tottenham needed to look beyond the coaching staff to resolve their problems and should mirror their rivals’ investment.

Ange Postecoglou has said everyone will miss his swashbuckling style of football when he’s gone and insisted Tottenham Hotspur would not have beaten Manchester City by bowing to calls to be more pragmatic.

Spurs have thrilled and infuriated in equal measure this season after demolishing City 4-0 on Saturday having lost at home to Ipswich Town. On Thursday night in the Europa League Tottenham conceded in stoppage time to draw 2-2 with Roma in an end-to-end contest.

Only Liverpool, the league leaders, have a better goal difference than Tottenham’s impressive +14 this season but defeats by Crystal Palace, Brighton & Hove Albion and Ipswich in recent weeks mean they sit sixth in the Premier League, three points off Arsenal in fourth. Yet Postecoglou has reiterated

Tottenham Hotspur have suffered a major setback after confirming that goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has undergone surgery for a fractured right ankle.

The 28-year-old suffered the injury during Tottenham’s 4-0 win over Manchester City on Saturday, when he collided with the City winger Savinho during the first half.

Vicario was able to play on and completed the full 90 minutes, making a string of important saves. However, following further assessment over the weekend, an injury was confirmed that required surgery, which took place on Monday.

“We can confirm that Guglielmo Vicario has today undergone surgery for a fracture of his right ankle,” a Tottenham statement said. “The 28-year-old suffered the injury during Saturday’s Premier League victory at Manchester City. Guglielmo will be assessed by our medical

Rodri was back in the middle of the pitch, albeit showing off the Ballon d’Or rather than his talent, and Pep Guardiola took the pew that will remain his for the coming seasons. Yet, by the end of a rainswept contest, the sense of familiarity that matters most to Manchester City had been ripped from their grasp once more.

Undressed by clinical, devastating Tottenham Hotspur, who had stars in the dazzling James Maddison and the electric Dejan Kulusevski, City’s campaign has become a calamity. A fifth successive defeat in all competitions not only prolonged Guardiola’s worst run as a coach but also represented the club’s heaviest home defeat in 21 years, dating back to when they played at Maine Road and a bygone time when

James Maddison left on Saturday with a face like thunder and came back on Monday right as rain.

It was just over a month ago when Maddison had been taken off at half-time against West Ham United, with the game in the balance at 1-1, despite Tottenham Hotspur controlling the match and monopolising the chances. Without Maddison, the floodgates flew open. Spurs scored three in the second half and romped to a 4-1 win.

Ange Postecoglou’s big call came off but that doesn’t mean Maddison had to feel happy about it. A half-time substitution is high on the list of worst offences for any elite footballer and Maddison is no exception. On Monday morning, staff at Hotspur Way suspected, expected even, that Maddison would be