Postecoglou: 'There's no tricks, it's hard work. I'm not a magician, I'm a football manager'

HARD WORK: Ange Postecoglou has no tricks up his sleeves to get his team back to the early season for just 'hard work'.

PREMIER LEAGUE

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Kulusevski 46) 

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 2 (Gomes 42, 63) 

HAS ANGEBALL been found out, with coaches as smart as Gary O'Neil now able to overcome Tottenham with a superior tactical plan, or do Spurs simply need to “work harder” as Ange Postecoglou said after his side's dismal defeat by Wolves?

The answer may be somewhere in between, given that Postecoglou is not for turning and also the fact that simply plugging away will not reverse a worrying trend from this Tottenham team in 2024.

Saturday's game followed the pattern of recent games, particularly at home team against a team that the Tottenham of early season form – eight wins in their first ten games – would be expected to beat.

In their previous home games, against Brentford and Brighton, Spurs started slowly, fell behind and rallied after the break, to snatch victory with a high-energy burst against the Bees and then a stoppage time winner against the Seagulls.

The pattern continued on Saturday as Wolves started brighter, took control of the game and a deserved lead through a Joao Gomes header, and then were brought back to parity soon after the break, when Dejan Kulusevski equalised within a minute of the restart.

Instead of pushing on, however, Spurs could not find a way past Wolves' low block of five at the back and three men in front of the defence, and were caught with a sucker punch on the break, as Gomes scored again. It could have been worse as two other swift counter-attacks were foiled, but Wolves left with the spoils and Postecoglou was left to reflect on where it had gone wrong.

Asked if he had anything up his sleeve in order to get his players back to their early season form, the bluff Aussie said: “There's no tricks, it's hard work. I'm not a magician, I'm a football manager.” But he did recognise the need for Tottenham to start strongly, get an early goal and then force the opposition to switch tactics in search of an equaliser. A high-energy start was working for them at the start of the season, not so much now.

“In the last couple of home games we haven't (started strongly), in the beginning of the year we did, we're not doing anything different,” he added.

“Sometimes it's the mindset going into games, sometimes it's the opposition, or just the context of the game. Certainly for us to dominate games like we want to, we need to start aggressivelyand try to put the opposition on the back foot, and we haven't really done that the last two or three games. “When we were doing that, it gave us a foothold in games that we're not getting at the moment. If you get a foothold and put them under pressure that limits the opportunities that they have the other way.

“Ultimately when you're not successful everything looks like it's garbage . That's not the way I look at football, the same way I didn't think we were super great leading into this game. We're still trying to build something as I keep saying, lay some foundations.” One lesson could be learned by looking across at their neighbours Arsenal, who were caught in a similar trough before Christmas, struggling to break down opponents who set out with a defensive gameplan. But since the turn of the year, the Gunners have started games with all guns blazing and blitzed teams with 21 goals scored in five straight wins.

Tottenham have a similar playing style and personnel to emulate Arsenal, but their big names need to step up now. James Maddison, Heung Min Son and Yves Bissouma, all recently returned from injury or international duty, were particularly poor against Wolves, and Postecoglou knows he needs more from his players, collectively and individually.

“What's got us to this point is the collective, we work really hard as a team, we've been really committed to something, and that's what's got us to the point we are now.

“We are not a team that's got individuals in it that can win games of football on their own, we don't have those players, we're not that kind of team.” The same could be said of Wolves, who have risen from the relegation zone to the fringes of European qualification on the back of some fine team performances. They memorably beat Manchester City in September, and have now beaten both Spurs and Chelsea twice, their recent win at Stamford Bridge inspired by a hat-trick from Matheus Cunha. The Brazilian, their top scorer, was absent with injury on Saturday, but Gomes stepped up with his first goals of the season to secure victory that O'Neil described as “almost perfect, tactically.” Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta will be the obvious contenders when this season's manager of the year award is made in May, but O'Neil needs to be in the conversation for the work he has done at Wolves, having been harshly discarded after keeping Bournemouth in the top flight last season. After the final whistle at Tottenham he celebrated with his players in front of the travelling fans, fist-pumping and whirling like Klopp does with Liverpool's fans.

“I love the fans dreaming,” said O'Neil. “I’m not allowed to get carried away and think about things that might happen, but I love them being able to think about it. If we were on 22 points right now, they’d be worried about how we get our next win, so the fact we’ve got to 35 already, they can talk about a title charge for all I care. I’m delighted they’re enjoying themselves and got to share another fantastic moment with them today which is special. You can see the connection between the players and fans, and we need to keep trying to push it.” 

Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Vicario 7; Emerson 5 (Hojbjerg 86), Romero 6, Van de Ven 7, Davies 6; Sarr 6 (Bentancur 71), Bissouma 5 (Johnson 71); Kulusevski 6, Maddison 6 (Lo Celso 86), Son 5; Richarlison 5 (Werner 71).

Wolves (5-3-2): Sa 7; Semedo 7, Kilmer 6, Dawson 7, Toti 6, Ait-Nouri 7; Sarabia 7 (Bellegarde 73), Lemina 7, Gomes 8; Hwang 7 (Traore 87), Neto 7 (Doherty 90+1) 

Referee: Anthony Taylor 6