That was Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham Hotspur supervisor and longtime defender of the excessive press, rejoicing with the Sky Sports activities crew following his crew’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 wish to scramble it in 1-0?” Postecoglou stated, laughing. “I do know the studio’s in all probability going right into a meltdown over my lack of techniques, however you already know what, I really 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 recreation their method in all conditions. When it really works for them, because it did Thursday in opposition to United, it is thrilling and earns breathless admiration from world soccer media.
When it would not, although — because it did not Sunday in opposition to 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 model and leisure even within the face of sure defeat. “When Postecoglou holds courtroom, you pay attention,” he wrote, calling him a “pastor” and celebrating his deal with 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 enjoying aggressive soccer whereas shedding in a blowout.
Liew is hardly alone in his hypocrisy right here. The Guardian’s Barney Ronay referred to as Postecoglou “real” and “vindicated” for his strategies final December; he referred to as him “wrong, bad and decadent” for a similar factor following the loss to Liverpool. TalkSport’s Martin Keown referred to 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 crew 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 properly, 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 crew 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 every thing to do with the truth that Liverpool’s gamers are distinctive the place the Spurs aren’t.
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 best goalscorer, Mo Salah. It is no surprise the Spurs allowed six objectives. It’s a surprise that Spurs managed to attain three alongside the best way.
If the media need the Spurs to deal with 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 study a bit of extra flexibility to assist shield his crew in opposition to gorgeous outfits like Liverpool’s? After all.
However the wild swings round his character — pushed by an “leisure over outcomes” subplot that merely would not replicate the Spurs’ actuality — should cease. It is a crew, and a supervisor, combating by means of one of many Premier League’s most determined harm crises and managing to win the hearts of neutrals alongside the best way.
Due to Postecoglou’s efforts we’re, certainly, entertained. And with wins briefly provide because of a burned-out crew sheet, is not that each one we will ask of him?
The Spurs will proceed their Premier League season Thursday in opposition to fourth-place Nottingham Forest.
