Ange Postecoglou has accepted he will be under pressure if Tottenham are still mid-table at the end of a run of nine games in 30 days, starting with Saturday’s visit to Manchester City.
The 2-1 home defeat to Ipswich before the international break left Spurs in 10th, with five wins and five defeats from their first 11 Premier League games of the campaign.
The trip to the Etihad – Postecoglou’s 50th League game in charge – is the start of a “pivotal” period of games, according to the head coach, also including meetings with Chelsea and Liverpool and a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester United.
Postecoglou accepts that he will be facing “a lot of scrutiny” if Spurs’ league position does not improve by the end of the next month.
“If we’re still 10th then people won’t be happy, I won’t be happy. But we might not be 10th,” he said on Friday.
“Of course. If we had beaten Ipswich, we’d be third and I reckon this press conference would be much different, wouldn’t it?
“I’m not going to let my life be dictated by one result, I’m sorry. I take a wider perspective on these things because I know how fickle it can be. But we need to address our position for sure. And if we’re 10th at Christmas, yeah it won’t be great, for sure.
“Rightly so, there’d be a lot of scrutiny and probably a lot of scrutiny around me which is fair enough but that’s not where I plan for us to be.”
Postecoglou took responsibility for Spurs’ inconsistent form following the loss to the Tractor Boys – their second reverse against a previously-winless side this season after the 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace. They also collapsed from 2-0 up to lose at Brighton but have impressed in other games.
The Australian said he will adapt his message to his Tottenham players after they “got stuck” in their recent defeats.
“I know people try to paint me as one-dimensional, there are certain beliefs that I have that I won’t waver on, but within that process, there’s always things [to adapt], because there’s different challenges wherever you go,” he said.
“I just think the games we’ve really got stuck in this year, where we’ve really struggled to find solutions in games, I’m thinking about Brighton second half, Palace and Ipswich…The solutions do exist, they exist within our football but maybe the way I’m messaging that – that’s the reflective bit for me.
“To say, ‘how can I become even clearer’, or find a different way of showing the players that when we do get stuck in these moments, because obviously currently how I am doing it hasn’t had the impact I’d hope it would have.
“So there’s always self reflection. I am steadfast and I am clear that I have some really strong principles that I just won’t budge on. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel at times I need to adapt in the way I deliver things or the way I work.”
Postecoglou has taken 73 points from his first 49 games – roughly 64 extrapolated over a full season – after a fifth-place finish last term.
Asked if his side were where he expected as he approaches a half-century of League games, Postecoglou added: “I think people forget our starting point.
“I took over a club that finished eighth. I didn’t take over a club that finished second, third, fourth, fifth. Finished eighth.
“No European football. Significant player turnover. Significant. Change of playing style. Where did I think we’d be after 50 games? God knows.
“It could have been a whole lot worse. But when you look at it in the current prism of we’re 10th, you’re going ‘it doesn’t look good’ and I understand that and we have to improve that. But over the 50 games I think there’s enough there that shows we are progressing as a team and we are developing into the team we want.
“The key is the next 50 games, if they can be in totality better than the first 50. First, that means I’m here but second, I think we’ll be in a good space.
“I look at the totality of what we’re trying to do. I firmly believe we’re on the right path. I firmly believe in this squad of players. I firmly believe we will have success. Those things are still there but I can see why outwardly, if you put a pin in it right now, it doesn’t look that way.”
