If points were awarded for irritability, Tottenham wouldn’t be mired in mid-table. Not with Ange Postecoglou setting the tone.
He is increasingly irascible, quick to take offence and apparently horrified that there has not been more glowing reviews of his team’s performance.
On Saturday, after beating Brentford, he was annoyed to find himself answering questions about his goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who handled the ball outside the area and got away with it.
“Okay, look, I guess we were lucky to get the result,” he sighed with the kind of intense sarcasm that Pep Guardiola likes to use when press conferences aren’t to his liking.
Spurs had scored three goals and deservedly won so Postecoglou would have preferred to talk about how well they had played, basking in the praise for their exciting brand of football after a week with arrows fired in their direction in the wake of defeat in the north London derby.
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou has been looking increasingly irritated in recent weeks
Tottenham players such as James Maddison have admitted that their form has fluctuated this season.
This weekend’s north London derby showed the difference between having an attacking philosophy and a more pragmatic approach to finishing games.
Losing at home to Arsenal always has a way of sharpening the senses in N17. Postecoglou fumed afterwards that he “always wins trophies in his second season” and woke up the next day to headlines declaring Ange Ball’s honeymoon was over and the sound of Tottenham supporters fretting over his unwavering commitment to such an attacking style of football.
However, at the training camp they felt very badly treated. They had not played badly and had lost by a very narrow margin against a very good team.
Cristian Romero felt it necessary to alert the world via a social media post to the fact that Spurs had not seen fit to hire a private jet to bring him home ahead of his international engagement in South America.
Whether this was Romero’s excuse for being pushed aside and punched into the air by Gabriel Maghalaes to score the goal, his contribution to the player welfare debate or simply him marking his long career to try and sign for Real Madrid remains to be seen.
None of the Spurs players had been willing to talk after losing to Arsenal, but after scoring his first goal of the season against Brentford,
James Maddison told Australian broadcaster Optus Sport: “We lost to Arsenal and we dominated the game. They were resilient, they played long balls, they went for short balls. The basics of football, as I say.”
Maddison also said he had been pleased with his performances all season, although he received no recognition because he had not scored and the team had not won. He was not complaining, he was making the point, and the point was fair.
Ultimately, everything is analysed based on results. Increasingly, there is a race to the post-match valuation as part of a never-ending cycle of analysis across many different platforms.
It must be a more confusing time than ever to be sitting in the Tottenham manager’s office, where attacking style is supposed to be decisive in everything, based on something that happened decades ago, albeit only to a certain extent.
But is Tottenham’s attacking style of play viable in the long term? Does Postecoglou have a plan B?
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has shown the club how to be resilient and win strongly
Only if you win and win and win. And that kind of form is very difficult in the Premier League, especially if you are committed to playing open football without paying the wages required to sign the best players in the competition, which is to say the best players in the world.
If you don’t win consistently, that all-out style of attack is fine, but where’s the plan B? That’s what people demand to know. And the demand for a plan B is, in effect, code for demanding that you give up your principles and put winning above all else.
For years under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal played some of the most fluid and attractive football of the modern era.
He made them one of the most popular teams in the world and created their huge international fan base, but when billionaire owners changed the face of the Premier League, beautiful football was not as well received without the same degree of success.
Now under Mikel Arteta they may be easy on the eyes, but they are also a team that wants to win and is prepared to do whatever it takes to get the result.
In big games, they might be closer to George Graham’s Arsenal than Wenger’s and few hardcore fans will complain that they are no longer City’s top choice if they win something big.
The best ticket to see the game is to see Postecoglou’s Spurs, because they are capable of turning any seemingly trivial match into a nerve-racking adrenaline adventure. It’s no wonder he looks exhausted when the final whistle blows, and for that we can forgive his irascibility.
The best ticket in town is to see Postecoglou’s Spurs because they can transform any mundane-looking match into a nerve-racking adrenaline ride.
Five things I learned this week…
The new Champions League format remains lukewarm
UEFA has successfully captured the essence of pre-season friendlies with its new Champions League format. A succession of matches, difficult to follow because they appear at different times, on different days and on different channels, with an almost complete absence of danger. As for first impressions, this is all a little lukewarm. It may peak sometime around Christmas, but don’t expect all these extra games to amount to much more than the same old names come spring.
West Brom’s Maja could finally fulfil his potential
Josh Maja is shining for West Bromwich Albion with six goals in six games. London-born Maja is 25 and has never quite reached the potential he showed when he made his debut for Sunderland.
He moved to Bordeaux in France, had loan spells at Fulham and Stoke, and his first season at The Hawthorns was cut short by injury. This season he has not looked back since scoring a hat-trick on the opening day. He scored the only goal against Plymouth on Saturday and Carlos Corberan’s side are top of the Championship.
West Bromwich Albion’s Josh Maja could well be fulfilling his potential after enjoying an excellent start to the season.
Clemence enjoys his role as coach at Barrow
Stephen Clemence is making a splendid start to his new job as manager of Barrow, who are top of League Two after seven games and have a couple of interesting fixtures ahead of them this week.
Clemence will take his side to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday and then to Gillingham on Saturday, the points-level club that sacked him in the summer after less than six months in charge.
Stephen Clemence is having a splendid start to his new job as manager of League Two leaders Barrow
Family matters for England interim manager Carsley
England interim manager Lee Carsley took a break from his scouting duties to watch his son Callum make his debut for Nuneaton City, the latest incarnation of the club formed following the recent demise of Nuneaton Borough. They are playing home games at nearby Bedworth City and won 7-0 against Allexton and New Parks in Midland League One.
England manager Lee Carsley took time out to watch his son play football at Nuneaton City
Roy Hodgson’s (right) longtime assistant Ray Lewington (left) has immersed himself in his third spell as MK Dons caretaker manager.
Hodgson’s former lieutenant Lewington returns to help his son at MK Dons
Former England manager Ray Lewington is back on the touchline. Roy Hodgson’s faithful assistant in various roles until his departure from Crystal Palace in February is helping his son Dean, who is now a player-manager and was thrust into his third spell as caretaker manager of Milton Keynes Dons when Mike Williamson abruptly left for Carlisle last week. The Lewingtons were in tracksuits on the touchline during Saturday’s draw with 10-man Doncaster Rovers at Stadium MK.
