Ange Postecoglou has said he will not make any excuses over the coming weeks despite being without some key players, insisting that the team is focused on winning matches.
Tottenham’s injury list has grown considerably on the back of the London derby, with James Maddison, Micky van de Ven and Richarlison joining the long-term absentees, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon and Ivan Perisic, on the treatment table.
To make matters worse, the Lilywhites will also be without Cristian Romero for the next three games while Destiny Udogie is also suspended for this afternoon’s clash at Molineux.
However, Postecoglou does not expect the team to use that as an excuse for not emerging with all three points from the Black Country.
Tottenham have an injury crisis on their hands
The Australian told Football.London: “To be fair we’ve had plenty of excuses already we could have used. I know people seem to think it has been a fairly smooth ride so far, but I can assure it hasn’t been. We’ve had plenty of reasons not to be where we are, plenty of excuses in terms of the disruptions we’ve had already and some of the challenges we’ve had to face.
“Fair to say we won’t be using any kind of reason for us not to perform at our best tomorrow. Tough opponent, Wolves are a very good side and Gary O’Neil is an outstanding young manager. We’re going to get really tested, but we’ve been tested in every game and it is up to us to match that.”
A lot was made of the fact that Postecoglou stuck with a high defensive line and continued to press Chelsea even after going down to nine men, with some suggesting that he was naive to stick to his principles rather than being pragmatic (ESPN FC).
However, the 58-year-old has now insisted that the reason he adopted such an approach was to give his side the best chance of winning the game.
He said: “I don’t try and lose games purposefully, trust me. I’m very much set on trying to win a game of football. I get it’s slightly unconventional, that I kind of understand, but you don’t get from Australia to the Premier League by being conventional and trust me, this isn’t the first time people have questioned my madness.
“It’s got me to where I am and I continue to do it because I believe we can win that way, not because of any other reason. There were times on Monday night where it went to an extreme, only because the players felt like that was our best way to stay in the game and try to get the equaliser we needed.
“There were some aspects of it which probably made it a little bit easier for Chelsea to break through. The flip side of that was I really liked the players’ mentality and intent. They wanted to get back in the game trying to play our football, rather than revert to some other methods, which, you know, can work as well.”
Postecoglou scoffed at suggestions that Tottenham face their first major challenge of the season against Wolves, pointing out that the club have had to cope with plenty of adversity.
When asked if this afternoon’s game presents Spurs’ first real test, he responded: “The first test? Losing the greatest-ever player in this competition the day before the start of the season? Nah piece of cake. We lost players to almost season-ending injuries. Nah don’t worry about it.
“Mate there are tests all the time in my whole career, I figured out there are only two states of being as a manager – under siege, or it’s coming. I’m well aware that every day nothing runs smooth. There’s always challenges out there.
“I just try to make sure I don’t change my state of being. It is what it is. I try and focus on what’s important – we’re still building a team and an environment where people want to win. It’s not going to change from week to week.
“It’s fairly extreme even for a person of my experience to lose five players in one game, but that doesn’t mean it’s any worse than anything we faced so far, and it’s being a bit disrespectful to this group of players to say that everything has gone their way, because it hasn’t. From day one there’s been a real resilience and character in the group and they’re going to have to show it again. It’s already there.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The system that we now play means that we are much less reliant on individual quality to bail us out than we were under Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho.
Having said that, losing so many important players at the same time is far from ideal, and Wolves will certainly be smelling blood.
We need to take the sting out of the game early and scoring within the first 20 minutes will go a long way towards calming the players’ nerves.