‘We had no choice’: Deflated Ange’s big revelation as Spurs’ crisis deepens

Falling behind early, hitting the lead, missing a penalty, conceding late, more injury blows, boos from the fans, it has became an all too familiar tale for Tottenham.

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The ever-repeating script played out once again in a 2-2 draw at home to relegation-threatened Wolves as the scrutiny on Ange Postecoglou intensifies.

The visitors, who are unbeaten with two wins and a draw since Vitor Pereira took over as manager, opened the scoring in the seventh minute with Hwang Hee-chan curling home a superb strike from the top of the box after a brilliant set play from a free kick.

To add to the moans and groans of the home fans, the first goal created an unwanted slice of history for Spurs.

It was the 15th time in 2024 they have conceded the opening goal of a Premier League game at home, the most ever in a calendar year.

Things looked back on track as Rodrigo Bentancur header from a corner and Brennan Johnson’s classy finish from a pass from Dejan Kulusevski put Tottenham in front at half time.

It could have been a two goal advantage however, as Johnson was brought down in the box minutes before his goal but Son Heung-min’s penalty was saved, and it proved to be costly.

Tottenham looked spent in the second half and they paid the price in the 87th minute when Strand Larsen smashed the ball into the roof of the net from a ridiculously tight angle to equalise, and create more unwanted records for Spurs.

They are now winless in five straight home Premier League matches, the first time since October 2008 when they failed to win eight straight times at home before manager Juande Ramos was sacked.

At present, Tottenham sit 11th on the table with 24 points from 19 outings.

They have won once in their last seven matches, and a dealing with an injury crisis at the back.

All those factors are why The UK Telegraph’s football news correspondent Matt Law wrote that “watching Spurs should come with a health warning even for the club’s young fans”.

Meanwhile, The Times’ James Gheerbrant believes Postecoglou is now stuck in an awkward position in his Tottenham tenure.

“Right now, they either win in style or fold under duress, an unhappy binary for any team, and one which leaves them in the bottom half at the year’s end, and their head coach Ange Postecoglou in an uncomfortable limbo,” he wrote.

“At the start of 2024, Tottenham were fifth in the Premier League, Postecoglou’s win rate stood at 60 per cent, and the energy around his project felt buoyant. The past 12 months have featured a slowdown in results and a dissipation of that positivity.

“A significant cluster of injuries and absences has hurt them this season, providing some partial mitigation for their poor form, and what must be beginning to feel to Postecoglou like a relentless inundation of bad news…”

Postecoglou made the bold call to play Radu Dragusin despite the centre back clearly not being match fit after sustaining an ankle injury in Spurs’ Boxing Day loss at shock second-place sitters Nottingham Forest.

It is an example of things going from bad to worse with Postecoglou justifying the decision to send the Romanian onto the pitch by saying “we had no choice. If Radu doesn’t play I don’t know who plays”.

First choice centre back pairing Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven have been sidelined with injury for Tottenham’s past six matches in all competitions, while other option Ben Davies has been out of action since their trip to Bournemouth earlier this month.

As a result, 18-year-old Archie Gray, who has mainly been a midfielder or right-back during his young career, has been trying to hold the fort in the central defensive positions alongside Dragusin, and even with the support of midfielder Yves Bissouma when Dragusin went down at Forest.

To add further pain, left back Destiny Udogie also picked up a hamstring injury and Bentancur’s late booking rules him out of Saturday’s match at home against Newcastle.

The selection headaches make for “fragile foundations”, as Postecoglou famously said of the club after their fans were cheering for their side to lose to Manchester City in the penultimate match of last season to prevent rivals Arsenal from winning the league, that only grow the Australian’s frustrations.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re getting a smooth run at anything,” Postecoglou said post-match. “As soon as we get one back we lose one. We have to get through it. There’s still a hell of a lot for us to play for. With what’s on the horizon, we have to give the players all the support we can to perform at their best.”

Speaking on Sky Sports post-match, former Tottenham and England striker Darren Bent expressed his belief that most of Tottenham’s issues stem from what is happening at the club during the week, rather than on match day.

Bent, who scored four goals from 13 appearances at international level, is adamant that Spurs’ current playing group’s conditioning is not at the level required for Postecoglou’s high octane style of play.

“The medical department, surely Ange is saying ‘what is going on here?’ because I do feel for him in that regard, that he’s getting so many injuries, but they’ve got to look at that,” Bent said.

“You can’t keep having the same players breaking down with the same injuries.

“When you look at the way that they play, the intensity that they play at, clearly they’re not training at the same level that they’re playing at cause that’s where the injuries come from.

“Usually, if you train a lesser tempo and you’re expected to go out on a Saturday and play at this Angeball pace that’s 100 miles an hour, you’re going to break down all the time.

“Also, the recovery situation. They have players that keep getting the same injury has got to be a concern as well, van de Ven, we know how quick he is. He changes the whole dynamic of the back line, but you can’t keep having the same injury, hamstring, over and over and over again. At some point, someone’s got to go. You know what, he may be ready now but let’s give it another two weeks, three weeks, just to make sure.”

In the same panel discussion on Sky Sports, former Tottenham midfielder and manager Tim Sherwood agreed with Bent that more of the heat needs to be directed towards Spurs’ medical staff.

Sherwood, who captained Blackburn Rovers to the Premier League title in 1995, also believes that Postecoglou needs greater support from the club in the form of spending more money to build greater squad depth in the upcoming January transfer window.

“He’s going to stick to what he’s doing. What he knows best and that’s playing this way. He just needs a little bit of help in the transfer market in January, I’d suggest,” Sherwood said.

“I’m not sure what sort of quality of players they can bring in, or get some players back. Udogie gets injured today, another hamstring, so something must be happening.

“I thought in the world of sports scientists, that was all eradicated but it seems to be increasing. I don’t think they’re overtrained, players these days, I think they’re undertrained.

“I don’t know what goes on day-to-day at the training ground, but to continually pick up muscle injuries, there must be something they need to look at.”

As for how Postecoglou is managing this incredibly difficult stretch, Sherwood believes he is simply doing what he can.

“I don’t think he’s running out of ideas because he’s got clear ideas of how he wants to play. I think what he is struggling with is the depth of the squad. He’s not being able to rest his squad,” Sherwood said.

“I made a point during the game of, they’ve got the two centre backs missing, Micky van de Ven and Romero, and Vicario, the goal keeper.

“Other than that, it’s a full strength side.

“What the problem is, is when he wants to make the changes, he doesn’t have the quality off the bench to make the changes, and everyone is having to play all of the minutes, all of the time.

“He’s trying to rest them. He’s trying to juggle it up to keep them fresh.

“Talk about sharpness in the final third, they haven’t got a problem scoring goals. We all know they can score goals. It’s trying to keep the opposition out.”

Tottenham fans have recently protested against club chair Daniel Levy for his reluctance to spend more to build a deeper squad.

It will fascinating to watch in the January transfer window how proactive Spurs are, but before any reinforcements can be brought on, Levy will be demanding better from the existing troops.

“Levy had a face like thunder in the stands and may well fear the worst ahead of a run of games that include Newcastle United next, Liverpool in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup and a trip to Arsenal,” the UK Telegraph’s Matt Law wrote.

“The way things are going, Spurs might not even be particularly confident about their FA Cup trip to Tamworth.”