Tottenham sticking with Ange Postecoglou despite poor run of form

It is business as usual for Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham despite the club’s poor form.

The pressure increased on Postecoglou after a 2-1 home defeat to Leicester on Sunday, but the Australian is primed to face the media again on Wednesday afternoon before Spurs’ midweek Europa League tie with Elfsborg.

While Tottenham are 15th in the Premier League and only eight points above the relegation zone, Postecoglou was again without 10 first-team players last weekend, which has been a regular occurrence over a two-month period where they have played 17 fixtures.

Postecoglou has repeatedly called for his depleted squad to get more help, but Tottenham have only brought in goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky since the January transfer window opened.

However, with a week to go until the deadline, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy looks set to stick with under-fire Postecoglou and the club will ramp up efforts to sign at least one outfield player before February 3, the PA news agency understands.

Several questions were put to Postecoglou about his future after the loss to Leicester and despite six defeats in seven in the league, the 59-year-old believes Tottenham can still enjoy a strong second half of the campaign with the club one match from Wembley in the Carabao Cup.

“It doesn’t really come into my consciousness about trying to convince people. I have been around long enough to know that some will just judge on where we are at at the moment and rightly so in some respects. It’s not good enough,” Postecoglou explained.

“If people want to put context to that, they can. If not, so be it. From my point of view, I’m still very much stuck on the fact that the players are just giving everything they can.

“They did on Thursday night (against Hoffenheim), they did today. There are probably at least two who shouldn’t have been out there. They were just desperate to try to turn our fortunes around.

“Hopefully over the next 10 days to two weeks we should get some significant players back which I think will help this group a lot. It will give them the boost they need.

“We have still got some fantastic opportunities this year to make an impact in the second half of this year and I’m sure that will happen.”

Postecoglou lost James Maddison to muscle soreness on the morning of the Leicester match, which meant he had to turn to Pape Sarr, who had been a major doubt to feature.

Sarr only lasted 54 minutes before he was forced off along with Richarlison, who has only recently returned from a long-term calf injury, but was also required due to Dominic Solanke’s knee issue and the Brazilian will need to be assessed before Thursday’s visit of Elfsborg.

“The players are going out there and giving everything they can because we can’t call off games,” Postecoglou admitted.

“We’ve got another game in three days time that these players have to front up for.

“The injury situation will ease and I’m confident they will sort of help us. Even one more player coming in, just in the short term, will give us an opportunity at least to navigate these last 10 days to two weeks of what’s been a really hard slog for this group of players.”