‘I love it’ – Postecoglou is enjoying the criticism levelled at his Spurs tactics

Ange Postecoglou has said that he is enjoying the fact that his style of play is now being challenged by parts of the media but insisted that he will not veer away from his tried-and-tested approach.

Things were all rosy for Postecoglou at Spurs until the start of November but over the last few weeks, there is a sense that the Australian’s honeymoon period is over, with some pundits taking aim at him after the last three results.

The likes of Jermaine Jenas (BBC Sport) and Richard Keys (his personal blog) have accused the 58-year-old of being naïve, opining that he has to adapt and be a bit more pragmatic, given the injuries that Tottenham are dealing with at the moment.

Jenas even warned Postecoglou that Spurs might be humiliated at the Etihad Stadium and that the Tottenham fans would turn on him if he does not change his ways.

When asked about his approach being questioned, the Spurs head coach has told Football.London: “I think I enjoy [the questioning] after it when you come out the other side! But nah, I love it, mate. I love it.

“I don’t think anyone goes into management, or anything you do in life, thinking it’s going to be smooth. There’s going to be some rough moments and you’ve got to be prepared for that, you’ve got to enjoy that.

“The alternative is I’m not in a job and I’m sitting on my couch with no pressure on me and no one questioning anything.

“I’m at a fantastic football club, I’m in the best league in the world, getting challenged every week.

“Why wouldn’t I be enjoying it? In these times, the reason I think I really relish them is because my belief gets tested on a daily basis, whether internally or externally, because invariably even internally people will always ask those questions.

“‘Can you do this?’ ‘Are you able to continue playing this way?’ ‘Is it working or is it not working?’ All those kind of things.

“When I lay my head down at night, I just believe in it. I get up the next day thinking I feel strongly about it. Maybe I’ll end up in a heap, mate, I don’t know, because there are no guarantees, but my gut tells me that I won’t. I enjoy it.”

Postecoglou needs to keep heads high at Tottenham

Perhaps a more immediate concern for Postecolgou is his players losing confidence after three straight losses.

The Aussie coach acknowledged that while some of his troops might start to question his methods if results are not favourable, he insisted that the feeling in the dressing room at the moment is that their performances have been decent.

When asked if it is difficult to get players up for games after three successive losses, he responded: “Not much harder but when you get scrutinised internally and externally I’m sure the players are thinking ‘is this really going to work against Man City?’ and those are justifiable questions that they need to ask.

“My role is to show them that this is still the way forward for us as a group if we’re ever going to bridge that gap to being a successful side. We have to believe in the football we want to play. Even though the last few results haven’t been great I don’t think the players have felt like they struggled out there.

“They still felt there were parts of the game when we were dominant. So they can see when we’re on it and we’re doing things right, even with so many absences, we’re still a very good football team. I don’t feel like it’s at a point where I’m losing people.

“The challenge comes if it stays that way, if we’re not getting a change. If you look at the first third of the season there are a couple of areas where we can be better and if we were better we wouldn’t have had the adverse results we’ve had in the last few games.”

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Based on the effort level and the attitude of the players on the pitch, it is clear that they fully believe in Postecoglou’s methods. The fact that the Australian does not throw his players under the bus after losses (like some of his predecessors did), probably helps in getting a buy-in from the squad.