Ange Postecoglou has given his shattered Tottenham Hotspur players two days off as he attempts to hit the reset button on the club’s season.

Tottenham were knocked out of the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup over four depressing days for the club’s fans, but now have a week off before restarting their Premier League campaign against Manchester United.

That has given Postecoglou, the Spurs head coach, the opportunity to give his players a rest before starting his preparations for the United game on Sunday, when he hopes to have some absentees back.

The majority of Tottenham’s players were given Monday and Tuesday off after the Villa defeat, and Postecoglou hopes to see his squad boosted when they start work again on Wednesday.

Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, left-back Destiny Udogie, midfielder James Maddison and wingers Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert are expected to be among the first group of injured players to return for Postecoglou.

Postecoglou’s message to his players is likely to be that the two days off and the return of some absentees gives Spurs the chance to reset what has been a challenging season.

The Australian also hopes that morale, as well as fitness levels, will be boosted by the return of players and having a short rest.

Tottenham now have two weeks in which they do not play a midweek game, before the fixture list becomes more congested once the two last-16 legs of the Europa League take place in March.

Tottenham must climb the league table and have the chance to leapfrog United by beating them on Sunday. Following the United game, Postecoglou’s team travel to Ipswich Town.

The Europa League represents Tottenham’s only chance of winning silverware and qualifying for the Champions League and the competition will also be important to Postecoglou’s long-term job prospects.

Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, and the club’s board have been sympathetic to the challenges Postecoglou has faced, and have held off rushing into a decision over his future.

‘We’ll be in better shape for Europe’

There remains a belief that the club can come out of this period stronger if they stick together, although that is increasingly being tested by results and Postecoglou knows that the return of players will also increase pressure on him to secure some much-needed victories.

“The boys who are coming back, we’ll get the opportunity to give them a whole week of training, which is great,” Postecoglou said. “By the time we get to the back end of the week we should have something resembling a squad of players to prepare for a big game. That then folds into the following week when, again, we’ve got seven days and no midweek game to prepare for the next game.

“So that gives us a real good opportunity to get some work into the guys who have been out for quite a while and give some rest to the guys who have been going at it. So by the time we get back to being in Europe and having midweek games we’ll be in a much better shape.”

How Postecoglou can salvage Tottenham’s season

Ange Postecoglou still believes Tottenham Hotspur’s season can finish positively with him in charge.

Here, Telegraph Sport picks out three key factors to Postecoglou getting to the end of the season as head coach and turning around Tottenham’s fortunes.

Prove he is right

This is perhaps the most short-term of the goals Postecoglou needs to achieve, as some of Tottenham’s absentees gradually start to return.

There has been understanding from chairman Daniel Levy and the Spurs board over the challenges with injuries the Australian has faced. But as players start to return, results and performances must improve.

Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, left-back Destiny Udogie, midfielder James Maddison and wingers Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert are expected to be among the first group of injured players to come back and that needs to correspond with an upturn in results.

If Postecoglou can offer proof that he has been right that Tottenham’s slump can be largely attributed to injuries and the knock-on effects of player absences, then he will stand a fighting chance.

But if Spurs do not quickly pick up as players start to return, then the pressure on Postecoglou will quickly increase and potentially leave Levy with no option but to act.

Tottenham’s walking wounded will need to hit the ground running if they want to be sure of Postecoglou remaining in charge.

Europa League progression

Out of the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, and 14th in the Premier League table, the Europa League offers Tottenham a chance to save their season.

Not only would a first trophy since 2008 be a huge achievement for the club, qualification for the Champions League, through winning the Europa League, would pretty much make up for all of this season’s struggles.

First up for Tottenham in Europe is a last-16 clash in March, when they will face one of Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, AZ Alkmaar and Midtjylland. Failure to get past one of those teams and into the quarter-finals could be terminal for Postecoglou.

Spurs started the Europa League as tournament favourites and Postecoglou could go from zero to hero with his critics if he can pull off what now looks a more unlikely success.

Anything less than reaching the semi-finals will feel like underachievement in Europe.

Unify the fans

This may be the toughest of Postecoglou’s tasks, particularly between now and the end of the season as Levy is once against public enemy No 1 with most supporters.

It is never a good sign for the long-term job prospects of a Spurs head coach when the fans turn on Levy, and Postecoglou somehow needs to get their attention back on the football.

Tottenham’s stadium resembled a nightclub at times last season thanks to the party atmosphere at the end of games, but that seems a long time ago now.

The protests against Levy could reach fever pitch against Manchester United on Sunday and Postecoglou and his players will need to block that out as they chase what would be a crucial win.

A good end to the season could help quieten some of the mood against Levy, but it will take more than just a few wins and a mid-table finish to stop the protests.

Ultimately, this may be an achievable task for Postecoglou, and anything he can do to ease some of the pressure on Levy will certainly do him no harm.

Postecoglou also needs to silence those who have taken to mocking their own players during games, as that will also cut deep with Levy and Tottenham’s decision-makers.

The charts that prove ‘objective analysis’ rant is right

Following Sunday’s FA Cup defeat at Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou delivered a passionate defence of his exhausted players, in which he called for “objective analysis” of the club’s current situation.

Postecoglou said there must be a “better appreciation” of what his squad have produced over the past few months, amid a seemingly endless injury crisis.

“I don’t know how else to explain it if you can’t see that this team is just trying to play its hardest in the most extreme of circumstances,” he said. “Two-and-a-half months of asking 18-year-olds and 17-year-olds and senior players, with no rest, to play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday.”

Postecoglou added that Spurs have been “doing this since the middle of November” and the statistics prove him to be right about the remarkable physical demands that have been placed on his players. In terms of workload, with rotation effectively an impossibility, these have been extraordinarily demanding times.

On the other hand, it could be argued that Postecoglou should have rotated his squad more earlier in the season. The Spurs manager opted to continue with the same centre backs each game, and was reluctant to turn to squad players like Djed Spence. Although it is impossible to know for sure, perhaps the severe nature of the crisis could have been averted – or at least lessened – if more rotation had been implemented early on.

Nevertheless, since November 22, three Spurs players – Pedro Porro, Archie Gray and Dejan Kulusevski – have played more than 1,700 minutes in all competitions. No other outfield player at any Premier League club has reached such a total in that time (the closest is Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes, on 1,659 minutes).

In the top five European leagues, too, those Spurs players stand almost alone on the sheer amount of competitive football they have played over the past few months. Since November 22, Porro has played more minutes than any outfielder in Spain, Italy, England, France and Germany. Only Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde has played more minutes than Gray and Kulusevski.

For Gray, especially, it has been an enormous challenge both tactically and physically. The 18-year-old has mostly played out of position, at centre-back, as a result of the injuries to his team-mates, and he has played significantly more senior football than any other teenager in Europe’s top five leagues in recent months.

Including goalkeepers, Gray ranks fourth for minutes played by players in Europe’s major leagues since mid-November. He is by far the youngest of those in the top 10 – the next-youngest player on the list is 23-year-old Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber.

Overall, Spurs have 10 players who have played more than 1,000 minutes since mid-November and five players who have played more than 1,500 minutes (Porro, Gray, Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Radu Dragusin). No team in Europe’s top five leagues has more players on 1,500 or more minutes, with Arsenal and Real Madrid also having five.

Gray is not the only young player at Spurs to be pushing himself to his physical limits. Fellow teenager Lucas Bergvall has played more than 1,000 minutes since mid-November, starting eight of the last 11 matches in all competitions. New signing Antonin Kinsky, meanwhile, has started eight of the last 10 games. The goalkeeper is only 21.

Since mid-November, Postecoglou has given 4,200 minutes to players aged 21 and under. That is the most of any Premier League club, ahead of Manchester United (4,122 minutes).

It could still be argued, of course, that Postecoglou is failing to get the best out of the players he has at his disposal. There is also an argument to be had about whether any of the injuries have been triggered by the training methods at Spurs. On that front, we can only speculate.

But there can be no debate over the physical effort that the remaining Spurs players have put in over recent months. Those who have stayed fit have kept working and kept running – more than any other set of players in Europe. It is no surprise that Postecoglou believes they deserve more credit.