Two cup exits in a three-day span have left Tottenham staring on the prospect of one other trophyless season and supervisor Ange Postecoglou dealing with the largest disaster in his time on the membership.
A 2-1 loss at Aston Villa within the fourth spherical of the FA Cup on Sunday got here on the heels of an exit from the English League Cup semi-finals after a 4-0 second-leg thrashing at Liverpool on Thursday.
With Tottenham languishing in 14th place within the Premier League, the crew’s solely probability of a primary piece of main silverware since 2008 lies in successful the Europa League. Spurs have superior to the final 16 of the second-tier European competitors.
In September, Postecoglou put strain on himself by saying in an interview: “I do not normally win issues, I all the time win issues in my second yr (with a crew). Nothing’s modified.”
He was referring to spells at Australian golf equipment South Melbourne and Brisbane Roar, Japanese facet Yokohama F. Marinos, Scottish giants Celtic and likewise with the Australia’s nationwide crew, who gained the Asian Cup in his second yr as coach.
Postecoglou has just a few months left of his second marketing campaign at Tottenham, the place he began so promisingly – the crew was undefeated and high of the Premier League after 10 video games of his first season – however has imploded, leaving query marks over the Australian’s fashion of play.
Tottenham has been ravaged by accidents this season because the video games got here thick and quick in quite a lot of competitions, and at the least now has gaps within the schedule for extra relaxation earlier than recovering key gamers like Cristian Romero, Dominic Solanke and Micky van der Ven.
“This group of gamers has carried out an unbelievable job for 2 and a half months. An unbelievable job,” Postecoglou mentioned. “Cannot reward them extremely sufficient for the hassle they’ve put in — a small group of gamers enjoying twice per week because the center of November.
“They are going to get some alternative to get well now, we’ll get some gamers again over the following couple of weeks and we’ll stay up for resetting and ending the season strongly.”
Postecoglou will hope for extra targets from Mathys Tel, a 19-year-old French ahead who joined on the final day of the winter switch window and scored a late strike towards Villa to arrange a tense finale.
Finally, Tottenham was undone by a giant error from goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who let a shot from Jacob Ramsey squirm by his grasp after simply 57 seconds. Morgan Rogers added a second for Villa within the sixty fourth.
“Wasn’t an awesome begin — it is the very last thing you need,” Postecoglou mentioned. “That gave them some momentum for the primary 45 minutes and we struggled to get some management.”
