Tottenham’s Downfall Continues, But Is It All On Ange?

Tottenham’s Downfall Continues, But Is It All On Ange?

Chandler Milligan

Tottenham Hotspur are having an unforgettably disastrous season.

Currently 15th out of 20 teams, and the only thing keeping them out of a relegation scrap is the fact that this year’s newly promoted sides have been so subpar that they’ve damned themselves straight back down to the Championship.

In fact, there is a very real chance that Ange Postecoglu’s men could end the season as low as 17th by the end of this cursed campaign.

At least the Spurs’ faithful can find solace in the fact that Manchester United stands side-by-side with them in mediocrity, only one point ahead in 14th place.

So, what has happened to Spurs in the last year that has seen them drop ten places on the Premier League table? And can anything be salvaged from this nightmarish campaign?

It was an utterly humiliating performance on the weekend that saw Tottenham battered 4-2 against 16th-place Wolves.

90 seconds was all it took for Ange’s men to fall behind, before a painfully Sunday-league level own-goal, a far-too-relaxed defensive lapse, and another example of pure ball-watching from kick-off saw the Wolves cruise to a crucial three points.

This result was Tottenham’s 17th league defeat of the season and the most they have suffered in a league campaign since the 2003/04 season, where they lost 19 times.

Before Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019, his Spurs side was a perfectly modest and admirable team.

A miracle 2019 Champions League Final run was the masterpiece of his five-year tenure, and a second-place finish in the 2016/17 Premier League season stands as the club’s most successful campaign.

Jose Mourinho took over Tottenham in 14th place, filmed a documentary for Amazon Prime, and was sacked unexpectedly just days before an EFL Cup Final against Manchester City.

Then came Nuno Espírito Santo for less than six months, and Antonio Conte stepped in to guide the side back into the top four and back into the UEFA Champions League.

Following their eliminations from the UCL and the FA Cup, it was announced that the club had parted ways with the Italian manager by mutual consent.

His infamous press conference rant about the mentality of the Spurs’ players was the most memorable part of his unsuccessful spell.

Next came Ange Postecoglu, a Greek-Australian manager who became a cult-hero in his two-season stint at Celtic.

Another coach who won silverware everywhere he went until he found himself in the Hotspurs’ colours.

If you look at where Tottenham stands today, you might think Ange Postecoglu is the worst manager they’ve ever had. But what can one man do?

As ‘Big Ange’ was arriving in North London, their star player and three-time Golden Boot-winning striker, Harry Kane, was packing his bags for a move to Bayern Munich.

Despite that early setback, Ange Postecoglu hit the ground running, winning the Premier League Manager of the Month award in August and September.

In the process becoming the first manager to win the award in each of his first two months.

With seven wins in nine games, he broke the record for the most points won by a manager in their first nine games in charge, and went on to win a third consecutive Manager of the Month award in October.

His side failed to make an impact in the EFL Cup or the League Cup, but a strong Premier League campaign and a clear identity on the field saw his Spurs’ side return to European competition with a fifth-place finish.

If the 2023/24 season was a strong start, the 2024/25 season has been a complete nose-dive.

Strangely, Ange’s side isn’t struggling to score goals and are the third-highest scoring in the Premier League this season with 60 goals.

More than Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, and Aston Villa.

But their fragility lies in their inability to defend and their ability to fight the tough battles when they’re under pressure.

When you consider Conte’s quotes about mentality and quite a few of the comments Ange has alluded to in his weekly press conferences, it’s clear that one of the major issues that has hindered Tottenham over the last decade and beyond is the mentality of the club and the players on the field.

This season, Tottenham have dropped 21 points from winning positions and have conceded 49 goals.

They have taken the lead on 19 occasions before surrendering those points.

While every club deals with their fair share of injuries, Spurs really can’t seem to catch a break in that regard.

They lead the injury lists for teams in the traditional top six, with 18 players missing a total of 153 games this season alone.

Most notably, their first-choice back four of Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie have hardly been able to share the pitch, and even their starting goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario, missed eleven games through injury.

In saying that, Arsenal sit marginally behind them and have been hindered all season with injury setbacks, but that hasn’t stopped them from smashing Real Madrid 3-0 in their UCL tie while holding down second place on the Premier League table.

Their performance in the transfer market, too, doesn’t suggest Ange was given much backing.

They paid a hefty sum to bring in Dominic Solanke from Bournmouth as their new nine, but there were no other signings of note aside from some young blood to flesh out the squad.

And the tactics this season suggest a failure to adapt to their reality.

Ange certainly plays an exciting brand of attacking football, but without the players to fulfil those demands, and with injury setbacks making things more difficult, the experienced manager has refused to adjust his approach and instead fielded players out of position or in roles that they blatantly aren’t built to occupy.

Whether or not Ange Postecoglu can take total blame for this catastrophic second season in charge, it looks agonisingly clear that if his Spurs side can’t mount an inspired Europa League run, his time at the club will be over.

It also doesn’t help that there’s an alleged leak within the club.

Given their disastrous performances this season, it’s possible Daniel Levy has only stuck with Ange for this long to use him as a scapegoat against the increasingly frustrated and disenchanted fanbase.

He’s no doubt failed to deliver this season, but their cataclysmic results this season paint a far bigger picture at the club than just the poor performance of their manager.