Ange Postecoglou remains bullish about being able to salvage Tottenham’s season and create something special at the club.
Spurs enter their final fixture of 2024 at home to Wolves in poor form and battling an equally bad list of absentees with eight players definitely ruled out of Sunday’s Premier League match.
Tottenham were sixth and only three points off Chelsea and Arsenal after a fine 4-0 triumph away to Manchester City on November 23, but have since been ravaged by injuries during one of the busiest months of the campaign.
A 1-0 loss at top-four hopefuls Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day means they trail Nuno Espirito Santo’s men by 11 points after a fourth defeat from their last five league games, but Postecoglou has Spurs into the Carabao Cup semi-finals and on track to secure a place in the Europa League knock-out phase.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
It gives the 59-year-old reasons to be positive after a gruelling December.
Postecoglou said: “I get where people kind of look at my situation and think ‘jeeze, he needs to do something or else he is in trouble’ but I don’t think that way. It’s not how I am wired.
“I’m not concerned about that aspect of this role. Like I said, what excites me about this role and what I love about doing what I do is the possibilities you can create something special and that’s what I am going to try and do.
“Our league position is not great but it’s super tight and we’re not that far off. We’re in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup and still in a great position in Europe and there’s the FA Cup.
“There’s still everything to play for, for us this year to make it a season where we can have success, but we need some help. The players need some help more importantly and the club is working really hard to try make that happen.”
While Tottenham continue to lose ground on their domestic rivals, Postecoglou has largely retained the support of the fanbase with frustration aimed at chairman Daniel Levy in recent weeks in the form of various songs about the long-serving director.
Postecoglou was involved in a heated exchange with a minority of supporters after the 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth on December 4, but his name was being chanted at 5-3 down during a chaotic home loss to Liverpool a week ago.
Given the rebuilding job the Australian walked into 18 months ago and the unavailability list, there appears patience for the under-fire head coach, but he could be without all four of his senior centre-backs for Wolves’ visit with a late call required on Radu Dragusin due to an ankle injury.
Nevertheless, Postecoglou has no interest in discourse over whether he feels under pressure.
Ange Postecoglou’s side lost at Nottingham Forest last time out (Mike Egerton/PA)
“My motivation for what I do is try to create teams who win things and have success and make an impact. That doesn’t really change,” he insisted.
“I will keep doing what I am doing. It doesn’t add any pressure or I don’t feel any extra anxiety about anything.
“I firmly believe we will get through this and come out stronger and create the team we want to be.”
Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Ben Davies, Djed Spence, Mikey Moore, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison are definitely unavailable for the visit of Wolves.