Tottenham’s Ange Postecoglou not bothered by ‘Spursy’ tag after winless run
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Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou celebrates after Dejan Kulusevski scored their third goal in the 3-3 draw with Manchester City.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Tottenham Hotspur’s faltering form has invited the “Spursy” tag from critics who see it as typical of the club, but manager Ange Postecoglou says he wants to focus on the work at hand instead of labels.
The club briefly led the English Premier League, winning eight of their first 10 matches, but dropped out of the Champions League spots after a five-game winless streak.
“What I need to know is that this club hasn’t won anything for 15 years. That’s all I need to know,” Postecoglou said on Dec 8. “That’s the reality. There’s no going away from that.”
Spurs’ last major silverware was the 2007-08 League Cup.
“Like most organisations, you’ve got to learn from the mistakes of the past, you’ve got to come up with a plan,” he added. “Whatever tags other people want to put on it, that can’t be your motivation.
“If you want to bring success, you’ve got to have a clear idea of how you’re going to go about it and stick to the process.”
The Australian, who joined Tottenham in June on a four-year deal, said he was still in the early stages of implementing his plans.
“With the players... I give them a clear idea about what I think and then it’s about how they embrace and execute that,” he said.
“It’s only natural that at the beginning of a cycle there’s going to be some gaps.”
Tottenham, who have lost their last three home matches, host Newcastle United on Dec 10.
Worryingly, they have taken the lead in every game in their winless run, becoming the first team in Premier League history to drop points from a winning position in five straight games.
But Postecoglou said he would stick to his attacking philosophy.
“Nothing really changes, we stay the course,” the 58-year-old said.
“The pressure is the pressure, but I’ve got a clear idea about what I’m trying to do... We want to set a standard in terms of the type of football we want to play and we’re not going to waver on that.”
He also said that Newcastle, who like Spurs have been badly hit by injuries, would be fired up after their 3-0 defeat by Everton in midweek.
Spurs captain Son Heung-min suffered a blow to his back in the midweek loss to West Ham United and is an injury doubt. The Spurs treatment room is still packed, with Ivan Perisic, Rodrigo Bentancur, Micky van de Ven, James Maddison, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon and Eric Dier all out.
Newcastle are missing the likes of Nick Pope, Jacob Murphy, Dan Burn, Callum Wilson, Elliot Anderson, Sean Longstaff, Sven Botman, Joe Willock, Harvey Barnes, Matt Targett and Javier Manquillo.
“Some of the injuries we’ve had have just been things we’ve had no control over,” said Magpies boss Eddie Howe.
“We’re missing not just some big players, but big personalities as well that make a difference within the group. We would need a very similar performance to last year (2-1 win) where we were excellent. We were at our best defensively, we were at our best in attack as well.” REUTERS, AFP
