Postecoglou on thin ice with his Tottenham future uncertain
LONDON -- Ange Postecoglou is no stranger to risk, but on Thursday, he played his most dangerous game yet.
Tottenham Hotspur were midway through another insipid Premier League performance when his 64th-minute double change -- introducing Pape Matar Sarr and Brennan Johnson for Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert -- elicited a brief but audible chant of "You don't know what you're doing" from fans at the away end.
Moments later, Sarr rifled in an equaliser and Postecoglou took a few paces towards those now jubilant fans and cupped his ear before turning away and shaking his head.
How unfortunate for the 59-year-old head coach then, that the goal was subsequently ruled out due to a foul on Moisés Caicedo upon VAR review, reverting Enzo Fernández's header in the 50th minute to match winner status as Chelsea secured a 1-0 victory which takes them above Manchester City and into fourth place.
Postecoglou has been involved in heated fan exchanges before, most memorably at Bournemouth, most recently at Fulham and, perhaps most embarrassingly, after losing to relegation-threatened Leicester City in late January. Leicester have lost all eight consecutive games since.
He is famously short-tempered in defeat, but this incident occurred with the match still live and stands as a cantankerous reaction that threatens a tenuous relationship with supporters that he simply cannot afford to deteriorate. His explanation afterwards was unconvincing.
"Jeez, it's incredible how things get interpreted," he said.
"We just scored and I wanted to hear them cheer. We've been through a tough time and I thought it was a cracking goal. I wanted them to get really excited because I felt at that point we could potentially go on and win the game. I just felt momentum was on our way.
"It doesn't bother me. It is not the first time they've booed my substitutions or my decisions. That's fine, they are allowed to do that but we'd just scored a goal. I was, If people want to read into that, that somehow I am trying to make a point about something, I just felt we had been through a tough time and there was a bit of a momentum shift and if they got really behind the lads, we had the momentum to finish on top of them."
There is a growing clamour among Spurs supporters for change. Most of that has been directed at chairman Daniel Levy, who was once again targeted here. Chants of "We want Levy out" were first heard in the 18th minute and later provided the soundtrack to another interminable wait for VAR to rule out a superb Caicedo volley for an offside in the build-up.
A small banner reading "Time for Change" was also held up, another nod to the widely-held view that Postecoglou is merely the latest in a string of Spurs managers who have not been adequately backed by an ownership too focused on financial prudence rather than footballing success. Yet Postecoglou is risking turning that wrath on himself, a notion he did not dismiss.
"Ah, you know what? I am at such a disconnect with the world these days that who knows? Maybe you're right," he replied. "I don't know, but that's not what my intention was."
His uncompromising commitment to attacking football is breathtaking at its best, but kamikaze at its worst. This is Spurs' 16th league defeat of the season, their most-ever after 30 games of a Premier League campaign. They remain in 14th place, closer in points to relegation than the UEFA Champions League places they covet.
And yet, their injury crisis had eased sufficiently to field first-choice center-back pairing Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero with Dominic Solanke in attack and Destiny Udogie available again at left-back. Dejan Kulusevski is still sidelined along with January signing Kevin Danso, Richarlison, and Radu Dragusin, but Postecoglou could not explain yet another flawed display by highlighting a lack of options.
Quite simply, the risk-reward ratio was off yet again. They did not create enough to warrant being so open. This wasn't a collapse. In fact, Son Heung-min could have snatched an unlikely point a minute from the end of normal time but failed to get enough on his far post effort with Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez scrambling to cover.
But Spurs failed to register a shot on target in the first half, and Postecoglou's expansive approach made this the sort of game which suited Chelsea, rather than the low-block opponent that has frustrated them of late. Chelsea remain fragile themselves. Cole Palmer found his first league assist in two months with a fine cross which Fernández buried, benefitting from an alarming lack of marking at the heart of Tottenham's defence.
But they should have won by a wider margin. Nicolas Jackson was unable to capitalise on several promising opportunities before Jadon Sancho forced a stunning save from Guglielmo Vicario as the game neared the interval. Fernández's goal was enough to give Chelsea the win they needed to create some positive momentum ahead of Sunday's trip to Brentford and the tricky run-in that lies in wait.
Postecoglou's fate now surely rests on the UEFA Europa League. After hosting Southampton, Spurs face Eintracht Frankfurt in Thursday's first leg of their quarterfinal tie, knowing only a victory in that tie can offer a credible case for his continued employment.
He hung back at the final whistle, allowing a smattering of Spurs players to go and acknowledge the away end while he kept his distance. Perhaps he'd finally had enough risk for one evening. If the feeling among the majority of Spurs fans becomes mutual, Postecoglou's number will soon be up.
