The competitions are slowly ebbing away from Ange Postecoglou as he looks to come good on his promise of winning silverware in his second season at Tottenham Hotspur.

The Australian doubled down on his message that he "usually wins things" in his second season after the defeat to Arsenal in September by saying: "I'll correct myself - I don't usually win things, I always win things in my second year. Nothing's changed."

Spurs were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in meek circumstances on Thursday night, losing 4-0 on the night to Liverpool and 4-1 on aggregate. They followed that up with a 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup fourth round to Aston Villa on Sunday.

READ MORE: The Tottenham warrior Ange Postecoglou needs most is about to return amid Son Heung-min question

READ MORE: Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham training plan laid out as rare opportunity arises ahead of Man Utd

Now, all that is left, given the Lilywhites are 14th in the Premier League and 29 points off the top, is the Europa League, with Tottenham already qualified for the last 16. By the time that last 16 encounter comes along Spurs should be clear of their horrendous injury issues. That will be a time to really judge the players.

The players, and Postecoglou himself, are being judged now though. And the head coach delivered a passionate speech following defeat at Villa Park, defending his players to the hilt.

"People can judge me. They can say I've done a bad job, I'm not up to it or whatever. That's fine. What I'm saying is you can't be critical of players or players' performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they've got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have, and have to play every week. And not for one game. I'm not just saying we had to do this today. We've been doing this since the middle of November and you can't judge performances of these players and critique them on what they've done.

"All they've done is given all they can and that's all you can ask for. Me, that's not of interest to me. My responsibility at this football club is this group of players and this team, to get them to play in the manner I want them to and bring us success. Whether people think I can do that or not, that's for others to judge. But there's got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months. It can't be that people think that's an excuse. That's just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That's just agenda driven stuff. If it's to get rid of me that's fine, good on you, go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they've given over the past two and half months has been outstanding, it's a credit to them, I can't speak highly enough of them.

"I don't know how else to explain it. 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. 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.

"Do you think they can press like [we would]. If we hadn't played Thursday night and I hadn't rotated that team do you think we wouldn't have been pressing aggressively today?

"Of course they're not playing anywhere near the levels that we want or expect, but that's not because they're not trying. It's because they can't. I think this group of players once we get the rest of the group in, will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that."

There are two words in that final quote that are a clear message to chairman Daniel Levy. "They can't." The players Postecoglou currently has at his disposal simply cannot continue to give what they're giving week in and week out. That has been clear for months now.

The strength in depth was a problem last season, after Spurs went 10 games unbeaten at the start of the season and then saw things start to unravel when injuries started to occur.

This were supposed to improve this season with additions to the squad in the summer transfer window. But instead of giving Postecoglou first-team ready players, Levy handed the boss teenagers in the form of Wilson Odobert, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall - with Dominic Solanke the only senior signing (if you exclude Timo Werner extending his loan spell for another season).

Those teenagers have actually shone in the first team, getting more minutes than they would have expected, and in the case of Gray, in positions he is not accustomed to. The senior players have been the ones to let Spurs down more than anything, although many, like Pedro Porro, like Son Heung-min, like Dejan Kulusevski are being asked to play every single minute of every single game.

It is not sustainable and the injury problems are well-documented and an extenuating circumstance. But it feels like Spurs have been in transition for years and there has to come a point when the club step up and spend some money to back a manager. It feels like that time is now, whatever the situation.