It wouldn’t be an international break if there wasn’t a Tottenham defeat leading into it. Spurs have not won a match before an international break since 2023, when they beat Luton with 10 men in October that year. In all six since they have fallen to defeat, leaving everybody involved to stew in a fortnight of Spurs misery.
This latest defeat was one that Tottenham and their fans know far too well this season. Even Ange Postecoglou’s press conference after the final whistle at Craven Cottage felt like a cut and paste effort from previous disappointments.
This was a game that Tottenham should have won or at least come away from with a point. Instead they handed the victory to a Fulham side that now sits just four points off the top four, a position Spurs had envisaged improving on themselves this season all those months ago.
Neither team created much in a dull as dishwater first half that will never be used as an advert for the Premier League. The most interesting moment was Calvin Bassey pushing Cristian Romero away like The Incredible Hulk flicking away Ant Man. The Argentinian’s face as he flew through the air was a mixture of embarrassment and fury. Romero is used to being the pusher, not the pushee, and others’ ankles soon bore the marks of his revenge.
Yet it was the visitors who looked more likely to grab a goal in the second period, Postecoglou having hooked the dreadful Yves Bissouma and confidence-drained Brennan Johnson at half-time and injected the energy and positive movement of Lucas Bergvall and Son Heung-min into proceedings.
However, once again Postecoglou made a defensive change, what seemed another pre-planned one, and the opposition scored soon after – a theme of recent matches.
That’s now three games in a row in which a centre-back has come off and the other side has profited. Romero had started three games in a week after months out, and seemed to hurt himself in the first half, so this felt like a planned move to give him roughly an hour or so.
That it was Ben Davies alongside him made it awkward to bring on Micky van de Ven with two very left-footed players alongside each other so Archie Gray was put back into defence after his first midfield start for the club. Kevin Danso would have been the perfect substitute at this moment but the winter signing has become the latest player to be hamstrung at Tottenham.
The goal duly came 10 minutes later. Spurs substitute Wilson Odobert ran into a dead end with three Fulham players around him, the ball was predictably lost and after being half-cleared by James Maddison, Adama Traore poked it back towards the six-yard box and Andreas Pereira knocked it to Rodrigo Muniz to strike a clinical low shot inside the left-hand post.
Then all hope was extinguished when Davies, who had been solid enough on his return to the team until that point, made a complete and utter mess of dealing with a bouncing ball and Ryan Sessegnon came back to haunt his old team-mate with an excellent curling right-footed finish.
Postecoglou can only imagine how this season might have gone if he had been able to use Romero and Van de Ven in most games, rather than starting the Argentine in only 14 Premier League matches and the Dutchman in just nine.
Romero posted on social media after the game: “We’re not happy with our current situation, but this group will always stand up and take responsibility for everything that happens at the club. Let’s all continue to stand together. Once again fans, thank you for always being there.”
The problem for Postecoglou is regardless of missing players, individual errors, soft goals and the injuries that have since mostly cleared up, the huge number of defeats fall under his remit.
The record books state those many losses clearly beneath his name and his football and his management have not been able to find answers to the team’s problems.
This was their 15th defeat in the Premier League this season, the most losses in a league campaign in 16 years and there are still nine matches to go, with plenty of difficult ones among them. Only the bottom four have lost more games than Spurs and only Southampton and Leicester have lost more away from home.
“I get [the fans’] disappointment. It’s unacceptable to see 15 league defeats,” admitted Postecoglou. “It’s nowhere near good enough, nowhere near the level we need to be and I understand the supporters’ frustrations with that.
“Today wasn’t so much about performance, it was just another day when we let a game get away from us that we shouldn’t have. We weren’t played off the park and I felt that up until the point they scored, we were the team that was getting on top.
“We had a couple of good chances to go 1-0 up and that would have put the pressure on them but it’s happened too many times this year. We’ve given the opposition a lift into the game by conceding soft goals.”
Spurs did have chances in the second half, Dominic Solanke sending a couple of headers wide before knocking an effort over the crossbar from five yards out after Mathys Tel’s curling shot had been parried by Bernd Leno and Maddison chested it back to the England international. Solanke then had a late shot saved by the keeper.
Before that there was also a penalty shout when Lucas Bergvall was brought down in the Fulham box by Calvin Bassey.
Postecoglou was asked about it after the game and it was the loudest he got in a traditionally hushed post-defeat press conference from the Australian.
“I’ll leave that to the officials but I will say that we don’t carry on like a lot of other clubs and I think that hurts us for sure,” he said. “I don’t think there’s ever any noise around us and decisions. We get one slightly in our favour and there’s national headlines for a week. Things go against us and there’s not even a sentence on it.”
The problem with that statement is that taking the meek position comes from Postecoglou. He sets the tone when it comes to not questioning decisions. His position is not to complain about officials and he doesn’t like his players wasting time moaning about them on the pitch either.
So he can hardly then complain if nobody else really bothers to complain on his behalf. The big clubs always make a point of drawing attention to what they perceive as mistakes or grave injustices, it’s just a way of upping the pressure. Call it the dark arts, gamesmanship or simply experience, it seems to work.
Regardless, there are more pressing problems for Postecoglou than such frivolous matters. For all the good work he did in bringing Tottenham together as a club more than 18 months ago after the fractious final months of Antonio Conte’s reign, so it currently feels like a club taking one step forward only to tumble down another three in the next breath.
Watching 19-year-old Mathys Tel feeling the need to go into the away fans at the end of the match – and being allowed to do so – and trying to tell them “we need you, we need to be together”, shouldn’t have to happen. A teenager who joined the club a matter of weeks ago should not need to be the explaining face of a dreadful campaign.
While the fans showed their anger, there at least appeared to be an appreciation that the young Frenchman had tried to speak with them while others gave a cursory clap or thumbs-up and walked away, knowing full well what they were going to hear.
Because this was yet another frustrating day for the north London side. The midweek victory against AZ that propelled Spurs into the Europa League quarter-finals brought a big sigh of relief around the club and it felt like the perfect moment to belatedly kick-start a horrible season into life so it could still deliver something.
Postecoglou then made seven changes to his side and a lot of that momentum vanished. He had tried to bring a freshness to his team after only two recovery days while Fulham had enjoyed eight days between fixtures.
He also needed to protect some players who were at risk of injury if they started again, like Micky van de Ven, Wilson Odobert, Son Heung-min, Pedro Porro and Lucas Bergvall, who had ended Thursday night’s game with cramp.
The decision to bench Maddison again appeared to have far less logic to it unless he was carrying a knock. The midfielder has played under half an hour in three of Spurs’ past four Premier League games so should not be tired or in the risky red zone for injury.
He was needed from the start on Sunday. Postecoglou’s system does not work without a playmaker like Maddison or Dejan Kulusevski in it. It becomes more hopeful and reliant on wing play rather than the ability to create something out of nothing and it’s far easier to defend against.
Yet had Spurs not spontaneously combusted in the final 12 minutes then the Australian might have got some credit for using his squad, but he was not helped by the performances and confidence levels of some of those coming in.
Yves Bissouma has been, without putting too fine a point on it, dreadful in recent weeks when called upon. The experienced Premier League midfielder has been taken off at half-time in three of his past five matches and there’s been little reason for him to complain about it.
On Sunday afternoon, the 28-year-old flitted between looking like he was playing in a meaningless pre-season friendly to trying to control the ball like a nervous teenager with little awareness of the speed of a Premier League game.
Bissouma lost five of his seven duels and was woeful in possession in the first half whenever Spurs tried to move up the pitch, playing panicked passes which were either too powerful, misplaced or put team-mates under pressure. Sometimes he just didn’t have any radar of where the Spurs or Fulham players were around him.
The Bissouma who made a name for himself at Brighton appears to have left the building and for the odd unplayable performance in a Spurs shirt, he’s making himself unplayable nowadays in a very different way.
Postecoglou was asked why the Mali international has been taken off on so many occasions at half-time in recent games.
“I just feel Biss can sometimes let the game drift by him. He needs to be a little bit more dominant in the way he gets on the ball. At times I think the game gets away from him and today we needed more in that position,” said the Spurs head coach.
“I needed him to play though, because he hasn’t played a lot. At the same time you’ve got to perform. It’s fair to say, Biss and a few others are probably lacking a bit of confidence. That’s affecting him but we’re at the point of the season now where we need guys to get out there and put those things to one side and perform.”
He added: “It’s not about getting through to him or a lack of effort. I just think with players sometimes they go through these spells and he needs to find a way to break through that and we need to find a way to get that out of him.”
Brennan Johnson was another who is lacking in confidence and that’s clear in Tottenham’s top scorer with his lack of belief in his movement or his runs with the ball. It’s now back-to-back half-time hookings for the Wales international in the Premier League along with Bissouma.
“I felt we needed more going forward and I thought we started the second half a lot more positively,” Postecoglou told football.london. “I felt it was going to be a kind of a game where there wasn’t going to be a lot of openings but even within that in the first half I thought we could have been a lot more positive with our play on the ball.
“I think that happened in the second half but again, irrespective of that, if you concede soft goals like we do then you make the game really difficult.”
It could have easily been either Johnson or Tel or both coming off at half-time. The Frenchman probably got the nod to stay on thanks to a couple of strong runs, one of which ended with a ball played across the face of goal that needed to be sent to either Solanke or Johnson.
Tel improved on the right in the second half, curling in a couple of dangerous crosses and testing Leno with that effort from outside the box.
It seemed a logical change though to bring on the dangerous midweek match-winner Odobert for him in the 77th minute after his performance against AZ, but within a minute the 20-year-old had given Fulham the ball for their opening goal and brought little else to the party after that.
On the other flank, Destiny Udogie defended well on the whole, making nine ball recoveries, winning 10 of his 14 ground duels, succeeding in six of his seven tackles, making two clearances and one interception but going forward he struggled to bring much to the game. There were a couple of times when Son could clearly be seen berating the Italian with plenty of arm flinging for making the wrong decision at key moments in the final third.
Djed Spence had some good moments running with the ball during the game but remains unable to shake the suggestion that he looks better on the left, because it suits his game to come inside on to his stronger foot.
There were very few positives to take away from the match by the time the final whistle had blown.
Archie Gray’s debut in midfield bore all the hallmarks of someone who hasn’t played there in a long time. He had a 94% pass success rate and succeeded in both of his tackles on the afternoon, made three ball recoveries, while making two clearances and one headed one.
However, he only won three of his seven duels and perhaps needs to join in Bergvall’s trips to the gym with Kulusevski to up his own strength. There were little signs in there though that he will get sharper in the role if given the chance. He was certainly no worse than Rodrigo Bentancur, who put in another performance that was all bluster and far from dominant.
For once the international break has come at a good time. People in and around Tottenham need to clear their heads and enjoy a change of environment, including Postecoglou.
The Australian once again reacted to someone goading him in the crowd. He was mocked by someone shouting: “Ange, what the (insert swear word) was that?”.
He bit back, telling the person who was presumably a Fulham fan judging by the location of the exchange. to behave themselves. Spence and Tel put a protective arm each around the head coach, trying to lead him away to the dressing room, the latter telling the fan to have some respect. Postecoglou kept biting back though, despite seeing it was all being filmed on a phone’s camera.
Football is an emotional game but the 59-year-old can’t be telling his players to remain focused if he’s reacting to any person in the crowd that shrieks a swear word at him. For a manager who has been in the game for 26 years, he’s reacting far too regularly to anyone who curses at him.
For someone who acts like things are water off a duck’s back to him, he often contradicts that with his next action.
On Friday, he told the media that criticism doesn’t bother him, before launching into a lengthy monologue that showed it does get under his skin. Much of what he said rang true but in a season in which Spurs are 10 points off the top half, it’s just not the time to be hitting out at critics after one good win.
Postecoglou is fortunate that the bottom three are cut so far adrift because otherwise there would be more jeopardy to this dreadful Premier League season. That Spurs’ remain the competition’s joint second-highest goalscorers yet sit 14th in the table says everything about the mistakes taking place under the Australian’s watch that aren’t being fixed.
Leicester lost again on Sunday, this time to Manchester United. The Foxes haven’t won a single point or scored a single goal since beating Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. There’s just no excuse for defeats like that and only the bottom three have picked up fewer points than Spurs in the past 15 matches in the competition.
With all eyes on the Europa League, the league season holds little to bother about for either Spurs or their supporters. It harks back to the old days before Mauricio Pochettino when there was nothing to play for from March onwards, and Postecoglou was asked whether it is a challenge to motivate his players for the league games.
“No, I don’t think so. I hope not. Obviously I made a lot of changes today because when we get back this is going to be our sort of schedule. We have already seen we can’t do that with 11 players,” he said.
“We need to make sure we have as many up and running and in good condition. I thought Mathys, Archie, Bentancur, Bissouma and Brennan, they needed to play today to make sure we are topping them up. We had to rest a couple as well but I said to the players I’m not going to allow anyone to think about Europa and nothing else.
“We can’t let this league season go the way it has. We have lost way too many games. Unacceptable. Today was another day where it’s not like the opposition have blown us off the park.
“We should have got something out of the game. We have had too many games this year where the opportunity to get something out of the game was there and we haven’t done that. I don’t want there to be an acceptance of us just losing games like that.”
Fulham became only the second team after Liverpool to beat Spurs by more than a single goal in any competition this season, yet all that matters is another mark in the defeat column.
Tottenham announced last week that they are freezing season ticket and matchday ticket prices next season. Some might have quickly suggested a big yellow reduced sticker should have been placed on them after this torrid campaign.
Whether it’s the lack of current viable mid-season alternatives, in terms of experience or playing style, or everything being hedged on the Europa League, Postecoglou has received more patience than ever dished out before by one of the Premier League’s most impatient clubs.
Others have departed north London for far less and perhaps it would entirely suit the absurd and chaotic nature of life at Tottenham Hotspur if they were to end up winning the silverware they crave so much at the end of one of the most rotten seasons in recent memory.
Watching Newcastle ending their trophy drought at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday against Tottenham’s semi-final victors Liverpool would have brought plenty of longing looks from N17, but everyone is as responsible for this season’s struggles as each other.
Postecoglou, the players, the medical department, Daniel Levy and the powers-that-be have all allowed another mess to unfold on their watch. Can this season still be saved? It needs to be, because otherwise the pain was all for nothing and that’s unforgiveable.
Wilson Odobert’s starring role and how is Djed Spence not in the England squad? – Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham
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- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
