Two cup exits in a three-day span have left Tottenham staring at the prospect of another trophyless season and manager Ange Postecoglou facing perhaps his biggest crisis in his time at the club.
A 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday came on the heels of an exit from the Carabao Cup semifinals after a 4-0 second-leg thrashing at Liverpool on Thursday.
“Obviously disappointed we don’t progress,” Postecoglou told the BBC.
“It wasn’t a great start, that’s the last thing you want, and we really struggled to get some control. Then we had an enormous chance at 1-0 we didn’t take to equalise.
“We got a better grip of the game but unfortunately fell short. When you go a goal down it gives the opposition momentum and confidence. You want to wrestle control early and we didn’t do that.”
With Tottenham languishing in 14th place in the Premier League, the team’s only chance of a first piece of major silverware since 2008 lies in winning the Europa League. Spurs have advanced to the round of 16 of the second-tier European competition.
In September, Postecoglou put pressure on himself by saying in an interview: “I don’t usually win things, I always win things in my second year [with a team]. Nothing’s changed.”
He was referring to spells at Australian clubs South Melbourne and Brisbane Roar, Japanese side Yokohama F. Marinos, Scottish giants Celtic and also with Australia‘s national team, which won the Asian Cup in his second year as coach.
Postecoglou has only a few months left of his second campaign at Tottenham, where he started so promisingly — the team was undefeated and top of the Premier League after 10 games of his first season — but has imploded, leaving question marks over the Australian’s style of play.
Tottenham have been ravaged by injuries this season as the games came thick and fast in a number of competitions, and at least now has gaps in the schedule for more rest before recovering key players like Cristian Romero, Dominic Solanke and Micky van de Ven.
“This group of players has done an unbelievable job for 2 1/2 months. An unbelievable job,” Postecoglou told a post-match news conference. “Can’t praise them highly enough for the effort they’ve put in — a small group of players playing twice a week since the middle of November.
“They will get some opportunity to recover now, we’ll get some players back over the next couple of weeks and we’ll look forward to resetting and finishing the season strongly.”
Postecoglou will hope for more goals from Mathys Tel, a 19-year-old forward who joined on the last day of the winter transfer window and scored a late strike against Villa to set up a tense finale.
Ultimately, Tottenham were undone by a big error from goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, who let a shot from Jacob Ramsey squirm through his grasp after just 57 seconds. Morgan Rogers added a second for Villa in the 64th.
“Wasn’t a great start — it’s the last thing you want,” Postecoglou said. “That gave them some momentum for the first 45 minutes and we struggled to get some control.”