Celtic hero Ange Postecoglou is under serious pressure at Tottenham.
On Sunday, Spurs let a 2-0 lead slip to lose 4-3 against London rivals Chelsea, only days after they were beaten 1-0 at Bournemouth.
It wasn’t so long ago that Postecoglou was being lauded for beating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad in one of Tottenham’s greatest-ever Premier League performances.
But fast forward to the present and Celtic’s Treble-winning manager is being questioned in England’s top-flight and even coming under fire from the Spurs supporters.
Postecoglou was involved in an angry confrontation with a Tottenham fan after losing to Bournemouth and now matters are far worse for him.
Losing to your London rivals doesn’t help matters, but perhaps the DNA of Spurs needs to be looked at because, in 66 Premier League meetings, Chelsea have won 37 to their opponents eight, so that’s what Postecoglou has to deal with.
But Paul Merson feels the Tottenham manager’s style of play is an issue, as he used Celtic as an example and what he was up against in his previous job.
Paul Merson tells Ange Postecoglou Tottenham ‘don’t have the best players’ like at Celtic
The pressure of managing Celtic is far greater than the pressure at Hotspur Way.
Yes, it’s a much tougher league, with more eyes on the prize and people talking about your every move, but it’s all about trophies at Celtic.
Paul Merson highlighted how, at Parkhead, Postecoglou had the ‘best players’ and it allowed him to dominate, as he told Sky Sports Premier League (08/12/24 at 6:45 pm).
Added to that, he was critical of the 59-year-old for continuing to play an open game when Spurs were 2-0 up inside 11 minutes by highlighting that he isn’t playing against ‘St Mirren’ or ‘Kilmarnock’.
“I like Ange, I like him and I like watching Tottenham play because, as a neutral, I know what I am going to see,” said Merson.
“I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but I am watching the game and it’s like ‘we are 2-0 up against Chelsea, oh, let’s just keep on going’. It’s like ‘we are playing against Kilmarnock or St Mirren and I am the Celtic manager. I have the best players’. I don’t have the best players at Tottenham, so I have to change it. I can’t be like Manchester City where you saw, ‘you have a shot and we have a shot’. They will destroy you like they have over the years.
“You have to be cute. ‘We are 2-0 up here, sit back and let’s counter-attack’. Solanke was ruining the centre-halves. He was holding it up and bringing people in. They couldn’t live with it. They were charging all over the place – it was so naive. I don’t want to have a go at Ange because I do like him, but it’s too easy for Chelsea. That’s why I said at half-time that there is no doubt Chelsea will win this football match because I just know what Tottenham are going to do.”
Postecoglou returns to Glasgow ahead of Celtic v Rangers League Cup Final
Postecoglou returns to Glasgow take on Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday night and it’s a chance for his Tottenham side to bounce back.
It’s days before Celtic’s League Cup Final showdown against their rivals at Hampden and Ange could do a favour by further weakening Philippe Clement’s men.
But, after Spurs’ loss to Chelsea, Postecoglou vowed to turn things around and, hopefully, it starts with beating Rangers.
“Every time we have sort of seemed like we are on solid footing, something has come along and sort of become impermanent for us to do that,” said Postecoglou in his press conference.
“It’s just the way our season has gone so far. It’s not like I have been here it has been unusual territory. My role is now to focus on the things I can control and keep preparing the team the best we can to keep progressing as a football team and turn our season around.”
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