Ange Postecoglou has faced plenty of criticism during his Tottenham Hotspur tenure. The Australian head coach has a set philosophy and is unwilling to stray from that attacking path.

Spurs were both praised and condemned last season in a 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea. Tottenham ended the game with nine men, following red cards for Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie. Yet they continued to play the Postecoglou way, with a high defensive line that led to chances aplenty for the Blues, which they eventually took with two late goals to wrap up the victory.

That was a sign of things to come. While Tottenham were winning and impressing last season, the style was widely acclaimed, but this season, with results not going Spurs' way and the club languishing in 12th place, the reaction has not been quite so effusive.

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Following a 6-3 defeat at home to Liverpool just before Christmas, Postecoglou spoke out. "I have been really patient the past 18 months sitting up here answering the same questions over and over again," he said.

"If people want me to change my approach, it is not going to change. We are doing it for a reason. We are doing it because we think it will help us to be successful.

"I get the idea that people think I should just flip a switch and change, and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team. It is what it is. I'm just going to continue, stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want.

"In the interim, we are going to accept there are going to be challenges along the way."

The 2024/25 season has been one long challenge. Injuries and unavailability have hit Tottenham hard, with the likes of Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Ben Davies, Richarlison and Wilson Odobert out for long periods, while Destiny Udogie has also been sidelined for some matches and Rodrigo Bentancur was suspended for seven matches.

Postecoglou has staunchly refused to change his ways despite the adversity, although there was a hint of pragmatism in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool on Wednesday night.

When asked if he had learned from the 6-3 defeat to the same opponents in the league in setting up his team with a midfield of Lucas Bergvall, Bentancur and Yves Bissouma, Postecoglou chose to make a joke. "We only had three midfielders to choose from, the others weren't available," he said.

That may well have been the case, but the Australian could have made the choice to play Dejan Kulusevski in the No.10 role, with two more defence-minded midfielders behind him and Brennan Johnson on the wing instead.

As it happened, Spurs did have to do that following an early injury to Bentancur. But the approach remained the same despite the midfield changing.

You could see throughout the match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that Spurs were more pragmatic than usual. Full-backs Djed Spence and Pedro Porro did not invert as much, there were fewer options in the midfield to play forward and for long periods in the second half, Spurs allowed Liverpool to have the ball.

There were more long balls forward than usual, bypassing the midfield on occasion and it was from one of those that Spurs got the all-important only goal to take back to Anfield for the second leg.

It is not in Postecoglou's nature to be defensive and it was not a defensive performance, per se, but it was more balanced and strategic than anything we have seen from the Spurs head coach before.

Spurs had just 40% possession on the night and 377 passes. This is in stark contrast to the 52% possession they enjoyed in the 6-3 reverse last month and the 589 passes they attempted that day.

Perhaps Postecoglou was forced into it, given his unavailable players, but the same could be said of many other games this season and he has not changed his ways. He has openly admitted he does not plan to change, but there was a difference on Wednesday night and one that he could do well to take forward and implement more often.