In the era of managerial principles, you would be hard pressed to find someone whose philosophies have been scrutinised harder than Ange Postecoglou.
Should you sacrifice your trust formula to prioritize performance effects?Should it tone down its ultra-proactive global offense and protect a bit with a deeper defensive line?She also loves to be asked about all of this.
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Let’s be honest, it’s not even a debate as to whether he will tone down or double down. If that wasn’t already abundantly clear, then when he suggested after the catastrophic 3-2 defeat at Brighton that he didn’t want to be “falsely rewarded” by making substitutions to try to see out the game, well, there’s your answer.
The principles may not change, but what about the players? Will they be able to adapt to what postcoglou wants? If not, why don’t the Spurs buy bigger ones?
Tottenham’s new defeat opposed Nottingham Forest, who left them in the table decrease and 11 broadcast the team of Nuno Espirito Santo, third, highlighted contrasting styles between the two groups and the two managers, which could have been predicted before. To start.
The forest was incredibly physical, almost to the point of intimidation. They defended deeply and in gigantic numbers, gleefully pounced on loose balls, countered at pace and were vile. These were Nuno traits also honed in his time at Wolves (and I never had the spurs moment).
Spurs were the opposite defensively, leaving spaces for Forest to exploit. At the other end, they tried to pick locks, having to forge, twist and scythe to create an opening through the red wall with combinations and quick movements, with 70% possession. . With Dejan Kulusevski dubbed, it rarely worked. Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson just didn’t need it.
All of this made the first purpose so important. . . and in turn made the way his comfortable half faded to allow Morgan Gibbs-White’s area and time to venture ahead and put together the pass that made Anthony Elanga’s winning goal was even more unforgivable. Kulusevski can dream of such luxury.
Forest is a team and a club having unforgettable moments at the moment, with a dynamism that can be touched and felt (like that generated through Postcoglou at Spurs 15 months ago). There’s no shame in losing here, especially given Spurs’ existing list of absentees, but watching them try to force their way through Forest’s midfield, not to mention their defence, we can’t be left wondering: “Is this the right thing to do?” most productive that the Spurs have?” ‘
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It was not a defeat centered on principles or even tactics. After falling behind, Spurs had 60 minutes to try and score a goal in an educational training session on attack versus defense and didn’t create much of a chance, let alone equalize. Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels was not under too much pressure in the second half.
With so many players attacking in the field, were they commands that Postcoglou had given them or the players were up to it?
Son and Johnson were unable to create much of note, Kulusevski was crowded out and full-backs Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence weren’t too impactful in the final third. The bench couldn’t lift them either, with James Maddison and Lucas Bergvall not making much of a difference to a one-paced midfield, and Timo Werner thrown on in the closing minutes because he was the only attacker to choose from.
Spurs may at some point decide their manager isn’t for them and that they need to go through another cycle of purgatory, but if, as a club, they are short of players good enough to take them to the top end of the table — and short of the squad depth required to cope with the style and amount of football they are playing — then the cycle will only repeat itself.
Pragmatism, idealism, defence-first, attack-first; whatever the approach, the results haven’t consistently improved for some time now. And the only consistency in that time comes from above.
“I think the most important department in the club is the scouting department,” Pep Guardiola said in 2019. “Much more than managers and players. When they choose well, 80 per cent of the job is done.
“When we don’t decide well or they don’t decide on the players we want because of the way we want to play or the quality they have, you spend a lot of time and power and you don’t have enough time. With the number of games, it will improve. ”
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Do you spend time and energy looking to improve and don’t have enough time? Sounds quite familiar.
Tottenham is paying for the mistakes he made in the summer: errors such as signing a single senior player of Dominic Solanke and spending more from the budget on 3 young people.
Archie Gray probably would have shown once again why Spurs were so willing to spend so much money on him as a central defender, but there’s no doubt that Spurs needed a replacement goalkeeper, some senior relief defenders and one or two more in a position-to-employment attacker with a definitive product. All this did not happen, despite the terrible injuries they suffered last season and despite the fact that “they have more games to face this season”.
“We’re asking a lot of this group of players,” Postecoglou said. “A lot of these guys are playing every three days. It’s only logical they are not going to be at their sharpest but they are trying and that’s all I can ask if them.”
They try. And they play at Postecoglou, but the team is quite big and the problems they have are predictable.
With Spence now missing Tottenham’s game against Wolves on Sunday after being booked twice against Forest and Radu Dragusin potentially facing time out having suffered an ankle injury, their problems will be compounded even further.
Spurs have won two league games from eight since early November: both against two of the league’s out-of-form teams in Manchester City and Southampton. They are miles off the top four and hope is dwindling of having a decent season.
In the circle of blame, a significant percentage can be attributed to Postecoglou, but recruiting, which is the foundation of any team’s good fortune, deserves the most scrutiny of all.
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The Briefing: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Tottenham – Nuno has the last laugh, Spence sent off
(Top photo: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)