‘Begins and ends with the manager’ – Pundit puts Spurs red card blame on Postecoglou

Tim Howard has said that Ange Postecoglou has to put his foot down to fix Tottenham’s disciplinary record, calling on the Spurs head coach to introduce a hefty fine for the players who get sent off.

Tottenham have picked four red cards so far this season, with Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie both being sent off once while Yves Bissouma has seen red on two occasions.

The second of those for the midfielder came in Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest last Friday, with the Mali international losing the ball and then producing a desperate lunge in an attempt to win it back, catching Ryan Yates on the ankle with his studs.

Ange Postecoglou did not have too many complaints about the decision but he did publicly defend Bissouma, insisting that the tackle was not malicious and that the midfielder does not have a discipline problem (Football.London).

Postecoglou needs to clamp down on red cards

Howard believes that the Tottenham head coach needs to lay down the law to his players and make it clear in stern terms that it is not acceptable to be sent off.

The former Everton goalkeeper called on Postecoglou to fine two weeks’ wages for any player who picks up a red card.

When asked about Bissouma’s red card, Howard told The 2 Robbies podcast: “Certain players need to get it out of their game. Yves Bissouma, there’s no place in the game to go strongly and recklessly into a challenge when the ball’s on the floor – it’s different if the ball’s bouncing – and you go right under the guy’s knee with your studs. It’s uncalled for.

“But the discipline part of it, we saw it with Tottenham’s North London rival Arsenal. They had a horrific disciplinary record under Mikel Arteta. And I was one to say look, he’s a former teammate of mine, Arteta, but this begins and ends with the manager. 

“You tell your players undoubtedly everyone stays on the pitch. If not, two weeks’ wages, I’m going to fine you. We are hurting the team. So it begins and ends with the manager.

“And so when I look at Postecoglou, he doesn’t bat an eye in the face of adversity and gives his players free will to press and to make mistakes. 

“That’s all fine and well. But at a certain point, you have to bring everything back in, settle everyone down and say, listen, this is going to hurt us in the long run. We have to get our discipline under control.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I am not sure that fining players is the way to go as you do not want to be doing anything that disincentivises players from making strong tackles.

However, I do think Postecoglou would have a word with Bissouma and impress upon him the importance of not losing his head when he makes an error.