That was Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham Hotspur supervisor and longtime defender of the excessive press, rejoicing with the Sky Sports activities workforce following his workforce’s 4-3 victory Thursday over Manchester United within the Carabao Cup.
The win was tense, edgy and surprising, with Heung-Min Son’s winner coming within the 88th minute, however Postecoglou was ebullient nonetheless.
“What would you like? Do you need to scramble it in 1-0?” Postecoglou mentioned, laughing. “I do know the studio’s most likely going right into a meltdown over my lack of techniques, however you realize what, I like the truth that we go on the market and simply take it to our positions.”
That is Postecoglou’s Spurs for you: a do-or-die, forward-thinking group dedicated to enjoying their sport their manner in all conditions. When it really works for them, because it did Thursday towards United, it is thrilling and earns breathless admiration from world soccer media.
When it does not, although — because it did not Sunday towards Liverpool, when Postecoglou’s Spurs misplaced 6-3 — that very same media adjustments its tune.
Final season, The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew was in awe of Postecoglou’s insistence on fashion and leisure even within the face of sure defeat. “When Postecoglou holds court docket, you pay attention,” he wrote, calling him a “pastor” and celebrating his concentrate on fan feeling.
On Sunday, Liew took the identical blocks he used to construct Postecoglou a pedestal and threw them again in his face, calling him “not serious” and accusing his Spurs aspect of being “divorced from outcomes” for taking part in aggressive soccer whereas dropping in a blowout.
Liew is hardly alone in his hypocrisy right here. The Guardian’s Barney Ronay known as Postecoglou “real” and “vindicated” for his strategies final December; he known as him “wrong, bad and decadent” for a similar factor following the loss to Liverpool. TalkSport’s Martin Keown known as Postecoglou “striking” a 12 months in the past and “an embarrassment” now.
That is the issue, the tightrope that Postecoglou walks each time his Spurs workforce takes the sector. By specializing in enjoying enjoyable, thrilling, and, sure, entertaining soccer in any respect prices, Postecoglou makes himself equally straightforward to lionize and criticize. When issues go effectively, he is a revered iconoclast. When issues go poorly, he is a naive idiot.
In actuality, Postecoglou is neither. Over the course of a season, his Spurs workforce performs precisely like what it’s: a bunch of gifted (and infrequently world-class) gamers.
Tottenham’s 6-3 loss to Liverpool had nothing to do with Postecoglou’s insistence on leisure and all the pieces to do with the truth that Liverpool’s gamers are distinctive the place the Spurs will not be.
Due to accidents, Postecoglou’s Spurs are lacking 10 of 11 first-team starters. It began 18-year-old Archie Grey within the middle of protection and tasked him with marking the Premier League’s most interesting goalscorer, Mo Salah. It is no surprise the Spurs allowed six objectives. It’s a surprise that Spurs managed to attain three alongside the way in which.
If the media need the Spurs to concentrate on profitable trophies, it should direct its frustration towards Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, a person who has systematically failed to find the right investors to fund Postecoglou’s player needs.
If there’s something “unserious” or “embarrassing” about the 11th-place Spurs’ current standing in the Premier League, it is Levy’s lack of funding, not Postecoglou’s dogged dedication to thrilling soccer.
He is doing one of the best he can with restricted resourcing. His finest put three objectives previous the presumed Premier League champions. That is nothing to quibble with.
Can Spurs enhance? Completely. Can Postecoglou be taught slightly extra flexibility to assist shield his workforce towards gorgeous outfits like Liverpool’s? In fact.
However the wild swings round his character — pushed by an “leisure over outcomes” subplot that merely does not mirror the Spurs’ actuality — should cease. This can be a workforce, and a supervisor, preventing by one of many Premier League’s most determined damage crises and managing to win the hearts of neutrals alongside the way in which.
Due to Postecoglou’s efforts we’re, certainly, entertained. And with wins briefly provide due to a burned-out workforce sheet, is not that every one we will ask of him?
The Spurs will proceed their Premier League season Thursday towards fourth-place Nottingham Forest.
