Ange Postecoglou’s ‘dossier’ and what has gone wrong at Tottenham

Ange Postecoglou asked an interviewer if he wanted a dossier of what had gone wrong for his Tottenham Hotspur team after their third successive defeat in Thursday’s 2-0 loss at Chelsea.

With that dossier not forthcoming – and assuming it does not include set-pieces given Postecoglou’s stance on them – Telegraph Sport has attempted to highlight what’s behind Tottenham’s drop-off that threatens to cost the club a top-four place.

Belief

Postecoglou delivered a touchline rant at his Tottenham players at Stamford Bridge, which perhaps offered a glimpse into the issues some of them are having with belief. The Australian seemed to be shouting at his players to stop passing backwards and to push higher up the pitch as too many of them went safety-first against Chelsea. Tottenham’s entire squad appeared to jump straight on ‘the Angewagon’ at the start of the season, but players naturally retreat back towards their comfort zones in adversity.

Asked on Friday why belief had become an issue, Postecoglou said: “There’s a number of reasons and they all may be individual, so it’s not a blanket. It’s not surprising either because it’s part of the nature of change. Change is difficult, it’s relentless, it’s uncompromising, it’s challenging, it doesn’t leave you a lot of leeway to feel comfortable. It’s part of that process and my job is to navigate through that.”

Midfield muddle

Postecoglou is adamant that Tottenham’s recent dip is collective, rather than individual, but he has chopped and changed his way through his team’s three successive defeats. That seems to have caused the most issues in the centre of midfield, where Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr had started the season so well. A combination of suspension, injuries and the Africa Cup of Nations disturbed that partnership and the centre of the Spurs midfield has not been quite the same since.

Postecoglou’s team selections would suggest he has his doubts, having paired Bissouma with Rodrigo Bentancur against Newcastle United, Bentancur with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the defeat to Arsenal and Bissouma with Sarr at Chelsea. Postecoglou would love to add Conor Gallagher to his squad in the summer, while Everton’s Amadou Onana is another player who has interested the club which points to more midfield changes in the future.

Kane reality bites

Tottenham have coped brilliantly with the departure of Harry Kane, but reality has bitten over the second half of the season when the going has got tough. The club did not directly replace him with another out-and-out striker last summer. Son Heung-Min has scored 16 goals for Spurs this season and has led the team superbly as captain, but the absence of another regular goalscorer has put a lot of pressure on the South Korean. That has been evident in recent weeks, when Son has found it harder to make an impact and looked frustrated.

Postecoglou said: “Look, it’s been a big challenge for Sonny this year on a lot of fronts. Not just the game, but the leadership also. It’s only natural there would be some point where [he would find it harder] and again he’s got to embrace this challenge because it’s not going to change. There isn’t a point if you want to be successful where the relentlessness of that changes. So, you need to embrace that, understand that and knowing Sonny, he will do just that. He will find a way to work his way through it.”

Maddison malaise

James Maddison won the Premier League Player of the Month for August and was a huge part of Tottenham’s brilliant start to the season. Sadly for Spurs, that was cut short by injury and he has not been quite the same yet, as proven by the fact he scored three times before his spell out and just once since his return. The 27-year-old was a passenger in the defeat to Arsenal and was dropped for the defeat to Chelsea, as Dejan Kulusevski was employed as Postecoglou’s No 10 at Stamford Bridge. Maddison is a popular character on and off the pitch at Spurs, and Postecoglou’s team miss his creativity when he is not performing at his best. The challenge for Maddison next season will be to stay fit and remain more consistent.

Ahead of dropping him at Stamford Bridge, Postecoglou said: “He’s another one that’s had disruptions. First 10 games, he played every game and he was going really well. Then he picked up an injury, missed a lot of football and he’s come back but we’ve had challenges as a team where we haven’t had any real fluency in terms of cohesion, games and starting line-ups. He’s had to battle through that like a lot of them. In the long term, you create a stronger and more resilient group, and Madders is one of those guys. He’s just got to fight his way out of it.”