Ange Postecoglou has accepted that Tottenham are starting a run of games that could make-or-break their season – and his own future as head coach.
Tottenham start a run of nine games in 30 days against Manchester City on Saturday night, a period during which they also play Chelsea, Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and Liverpool before Christmas, as well as Europa League games against Roma and Rangers.
Postecoglou’s team are 10th in the Premier League table and could drop into the bottom half if they lose to City. But they also start the weekend just three points behind third-placed Chelsea.
Tottenham will be missing centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero on Saturday, with Rodrigo Bentancur starting his suspension despite Spurs appealing the length of his seven-game ban for racism.
“Certainly for us I think it’s a significant period because I think you look at those games and we’ve got the league where we’ve got to improve our position and a couple of important European fixtures that can set us up for the back half of the year. Also, a Carabao Cup quarter-final,” said Postecoglou.
“At the end of that period, we could be in a decent position for a strong second half of the year, so for us it is an important period. You know there’s no more international breaks, so the full focus is here, so you can build some momentum through that, or if things don’t go well you could get yourself into a bit of a grind. So, for us, it’s going to be a really pivotal part of the season.”
Tottenham lost at home to Ipswich Town before the international break and Postecoglou added: “Obviously the table reflects where we’re at. 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.”
‘It could have been a whole lot worse’
Saturday’s trip to City will be Postecoglou’s 50th league game in charge of Tottenham and, asked to assess that period, he said: “You’ve got to look at it in totality of those 50 games, because your question probably would have been framed differently if we’d won the last game – it might have been ‘after 50 games would you expect to be third and still in the Carabao Cup and going well in Europe?’
“So because of one result, we look at it the other way. What I try to do is look at that totality and consider our starting point. And I keep going back to that because 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.”
