Tottenham exited the Carabao Cup last night in spectacular fashion, losing by four goals. They served up a historically poor performance. The beleaguered Aussie looked utterly exhausted by the time he faced the press, and struggled to make much sense. Of course, what could he say? This has been a slippery slope of injuries and losses since effectively the midpoint of last season. When the former Celtic gaffer joined the club, he was surrounded by plaudits and fans stating categorically that he was the man for the job and anyone who suggested he might be out of his depth, was, in fact, out of their mind.
Janie Redknapp unleashed his contempt after the game, stating that “…from the Spurs’ perspective, I cannot remember a team in my lifetime going down with less than a fight as they did today.” On his heels came Jamie Redknapp,”When do Tottenham ever win a big game and win against the odds and surprise? The odds are massively in favour of Liverpool. That’s not just me as a Liverpool fan, none of those Spurs fans would have believed they were going to Wembley.” For mainstream football pundits to openly bash a side of Spurs’ size is unusual, to put it mildly.
Spinight offers bettors a chance to kick back and relax, but that’s something that won’t be experienced at Hotspur Way this week. Big Ange has come under significant pressure in recent times despite Spurs’ lengthy injury list, and many had claimed the Liverpool clash, plus the weekend’s FA Cup trip to Aston Villa, were crucial for his future. It seems ambitious to believe that things can be turned around at any stage. Accusations of being toothless are across all the press this morning, and for very good reason. But there has been an embarrassing caveat to Tottenham’s campaign, that Ange Postecoglou “always wins” a trophy in his second season. A caveat that now looks much harder to achieve after they were dispatched with ease in the cup semi-final on Thursday. It seems laughable to even contemplate such a goal.
The future for Ange looks bleak, he lost frontman Richarlison to injury last night, who had only just returned from a prolonged injury. The increasingly injury-prone Richarlison was taken off in the first half of Thursday’s loss to Liverpool with a calf injury, one that Postecoglou immediately admitted he was worried about, so the Brazilian will surely sit out Sunday’s game. The last chance saloon at Spurs is officially open.
