Is time running out at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for Ange Postecoglou?
Social media can be a cesspit at times and it is no worse for football fans than when your team has lost. Badly.
But there are voices on there that deserve to be heard, as long as they are not abusive and unnecessarily expletive. And there are plenty of calls for the Spurs head coach to be sacked.
Tottenham Hotspur are a club with a vocal fanbase – positive or negative. Although the negative normally outweighs the positive.
Take a look on social media for supporters of a Spurs persuasion on Sunday afternoon and you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone with anything good to say. And who can blame them?
Tottenham have just lost 2-1 at home to Ipswich Town. Two weeks after Spurs turned in an insipid display against Crystal Palace, to hand the Eagles their first win of the season, Spurs did exactly the same for the Tractor Boys.
Yes they had a difficult night in the Europa League against Galatasaray and did not arrive home until early on Friday morning, leaving them little preparation time. But Postecoglou made seven changes from the team that started in Turkey.
And without being arrogant about it, Tottenham should have enough to beat a team like Ipswich, no matter the preparation. Particularly at home. Spurs were genuinely poor in N17 on Sunday, it was a lifeless performance from start to finish.
Another international break is now upon us and Spurs have once again sent us into it with a dismal defeat.
They sit tenth in the Premier League with 16 points from those matches. There have been five defeats in 11 games. Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked with 15 points on the board from 10 matches. The football back then was undoubtedly far harder to stomach, but how often this season have Spurs been genuinely good for a full 90 minutes?
Good for the most part against Newcastle but losing; good in spells against Arsenal, Brentford, West Ham and Aston Villa; good in a half against Leicester and Brighton.
Spurs have kept just two clean sheets in the Premier League this season – one against a dire Everton side and one against 10-man Manchester United – possibly the only occasions this season really where Spurs have been legitimately outstanding from start to finish.
Postecoglou’s team have been good in spells, without finding any consistency. And the poor defensive performances should be cause for concern, even with an attack-minded manager. You simply cannot focus on the attack and expect to score more than the teams you come up against. The lot down the road are pretty adept at going forward and being defensive when they need to be.
Spurs are regularly too narrow at the back, leaving wide open spaces for opposition wide men and offer up too many chances to opposition teams.
Postecoglou has money in the bank with plenty of Spurs supporters, myself included, but this season, after the joy of last year and the excitement that his brand of football brought, is running thin. Now is not the time to be pulling the trigger – who else is readily available to do a betgter job – but things have certainly got to improve, and fast.
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