Let’s start with the positives.
This situation is recoverable for Tottenham Hotspur. It’s only half-time in their Europa League round of 16 tie against AZ Alkmaar, and they’re down 1-0, with 90 more minutes to come – in London. Their opponents don’t travel well and couldn’t even score off their own boot at their own place.
That’s where the positives end.
Unless Ange Postecoglou can get a different tune out of these players next week in the second leg, his hopes of continuing his famed second-season trophy streak will be finished. And maybe he will be finished too, if chairman Daniel Levy takes the same dark view as an increasing number of Spurs fans, for whom this was the final straw.
The vanquished visitors walk off.Credit: Getty Images
Postecoglou couldn’t coax anything good out of these players on Friday morning (AEDT) as they produced one of their worst performances this term in arguably their biggest and most important match.
Everyone is waiting for this project to finally take off, but even the most strident defenders of Postecoglou and ‘Angeball’ must concede that he is running out of runway. An unprecedented injury crisis and packed schedule has given him cover in previous months, as Spurs’ results have tanked in the absence of up to 12 senior players.
But most of them are back now – save for arguably the most important two, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, who were named on the bench but not used. Dominic Solanke was, coming off the bench for the first time after 10 games out with a knee injury, but he hobbled off in stoppage time after copping a knee to the back from AZ goalkeeper Rome Owusu-Oduru, and had to be subbed out.
The tone was set early, with AZ making a front-foot start and the visitors showing a lack of desire and urgency, struggling to win second balls, constantly turning over possession and failing to create anything when they did manage to work the ball into their attacking half.
Dominic Solanke’s return from injury didn’t last long.Credit: Getty Images
Lucas Bergvall’s unfortunate 18th-minute own goal gave AZ the lead, and they protected it well, but they were helped by Tottenham’s dismal efforts. AZ clearly wanted it more. How could that be?
This sort of thing happens too often. It happens when they have a busy fixture list, and it happens when they have eight days to prepare, as they did here. It happens when they have their stars out and when they have their stars in. It happens home and away.
Those who have long wanted Postecoglou to be sacked will say this is just more proof of what they’ve been saying for weeks and months. Those who have resisted those calls and pointed to the bigger picture will struggle to deny it, now, unless things turn around. But it’s hard to keep having faith that they will, when evidence to the contrary keeps stacking up.
This team can be so much better. They’ve shown it, but nowhere near often enough to silence the howls of discontent.
The blame should be shared. Players of the calibre of Son Heung-min, James Maddison, Rodrigo Bentancur and others can and should do better. It is not Postecoglou out there shirking challenges and misplacing passes against the sixth-placed team in the Eredivisie. As his predecessor Antonio Conte once famously said: “They’re used to it here. Don’t play for something important. They don’t want to play under pressure. They don’t want to play under stress.” Same old story.
But it is Postecoglou in charge, and while it’s not directly his fault, it is his responsibility. He is supposed to be the circuit-breaker.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of effort or attitude,” he said post-match. “I don’t think it is going out there and not trying, but like I said, we didn’t really come to grips and have the right mindset to tackle an away fixture in Europe.”
Postecoglou is a master of manipulating mindsets. Why is it not happening?
Whatever he did at training in preparation for this clash didn’t work. Whatever inspirational words he said pre-match and at half-time didn’t work. His substitutions didn’t work. His teams are usually brave fighters who make things happen. This lot are not that.
At some point, the players’ individual failings have to fall on him.
Before they return to the Europa League, Spurs will face AFC Bournemouth, whose manager Andoni Iraola is the one who most ‘Ange Out’-ers would love to replace him.
That match (1am Monday, AEDT) will be played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Lose that, and fail to overturn this tie against AZ a few days later, and the mood will become so grim it will be hard to imagine how Postecoglou can survive it. This isn’t the point of no return, but it’s not far off.
