Is Ange Prioritising The Cups This Season?

Famously, Ange Postecoglou has pronounced that he always wins a trophy in the second season that he has been in charge of a team. This was certainly true of his time at Celtic, Brisbane Roar, South Melbourne and Yokohama F. Marinos.

But will the same be the case this season for Spurs? Fans are certainly hoping so as performance to date in the Premier League has been disappointing at best, with some people being far more damning in their assessment. Yes, Spurs are still in contention in the middle of January for cup success both in England and Europe but we’ve all seen that these kinds of hopes can evaporate if not in an instant, then over 90 minutes.

The Premier League season so far

Ange’s early success with the team in his first season in charge may have now become an albatross round his neck. Brought in to provide a clean sweep he managed to catapult the team up to a fifth-place finish and a return to European football.

So, quite understandably, hopes were high that this domestic success would continue. However, with 22 games played by late January there have been seven wins and 12 losses with lowlights including the 6-3 defeat by Liverpool just before Christmas and the 3-2 loss to Everton a month later.

Sitting at a lowly 15^th in the table the team may at least be safe from the relegation zone but they’re certainly a long way away from where they would hope to have been this season, a fact that is reflected weekly in their Premier League odds.

So why the poor performance?

There are a number of probable reasons why Spurs find themselves in this position. It’s questionable whether they are self-inflicted or simply bad luck.

Key to many of the problems have been the sheer number and severity of injuries. With limited resources Ange has often had to cobble tams together, making players play out of their normal positions and relying on youth over experience.

This has particularly affected the defence with Porro, Romero, Van de Ven and Udogie all being sidelined at some time or another. Injuries to Vicario and Ben Davies haven’t helped and the only senior attacker not to have been out is Kulusevski.

As a result, Ange has had to fall back on the teenage talents of Archie Gray in defence and Mikey Moore up front. Both may well develop into world-class players one day, but they’re certainly not there yet.

Then there’s the question of tactics. While Ange’s style of positive, attacking play might be exciting to watch it does leave some big holes in defence which the best teams are always going to exploit. Debatably, it might also be the reason why players are picking up more than the expected number of injuries.

Perhaps by being more flexible in his approach to suit the teams he’s been forced to field might have seen the team in a better position than the one in which they currently find themselves.

Some have also argued that, while these tactics might not be best suited to the marathon race of a full season, they are effective for single matches in a knockout tournament, especially as it reaches its later stages.

The trophy prospects

As of the end of January the tournament that looks like it will be hardest to progress in is the Europa Cup. Sitting 9^th in the table this doesn’t qualify them for immediate entry into the round of 16 but would be good for entry into the playoffs. From there, the opposition will be tougher, and the stakes higher for the team.

Turning to the Carabao Cup, the team has advanced to the semi-final stage and has even won the first leg 1-0 against Liverpool – some revenge for the 6-3 beating they received in December. The game itself was full of incident with Liverpool claiming that the scorer, Lucas Bergvall, should have been penalised for a foul on Kostas Tsimikas which would have seen him being sent off as he was already on a yellow card. So it looks like the second leg will be a heated affair.

Turning to the FA Cup, a Fourth Round meeting with Aston Villa looms on February 9^th. When the teams met back in October last year it was a decisive 4-1 victory for Spurs so they will be hoping for a similar level of dominance when they meet.

If Spurs do win there is still a considerable way to go before they make it to Wembley in May. But a victory against Villa, currently seven places ahead of them in the Premier League, would be a real confidence booster.

Pull off just one of these and it would be the team’s first trophy since the 2008 EFL Cup, but whether that would be enough to secure Postecoglou’s position we’ll just have to wait and see.