This was probably the most passionate Ange Postecoglou has been in a post-match press conference as he defended his Tottenham players and indirectly himself.

The Spurs boss had just watched his team exit the FA Cup, bringing an end to seven days on the road that began with a gritty win at Brentford, continued with a desperately disappointing display in Liverpool and then culminated in a tired and open performance at Villa Park.

Three days and two cup competitions exited. Postecoglou and Spurs finally have a group of injured players on the way back but despite initial hopes, none of them were available for this most crucial of weeks.

The remaining beleaguered Tottenham players were left alone to fight it out and again they spluttered to a defeat.

"That’s the timing of things. Just unfortunate for us that we couldn’t get a couple back, we were hoping to get a couple back for this last week and it didn’t happen," said the Australian.

"We could have risked a couple but with what’s ahead we went conservative on that. It is a bit of a reset. We'll get three, maybe four, players back this week, with the possibility of one or two others in the week or two after that.

"More importantly, this group that has been going gets a rest. They can go a whole week now without having to get up for another game. We got back from Liverpool at 2am on Friday, the early hours of the morning. So they can get some rest they desperately need physically and mentally."

When asked how damaging the two cup exits were for him, he did not hesitate in his response.

"It’s not damaging for me, it’s obviously disappointing for us in terms of our objectives, but for two-and-a-half months, this small group of players have given everything in multiple competitions," he said.

"I think they’ve been outstanding. We had 11 first-team players missing today. We started with four teenagers, a 21-year-old goalkeeper coming to one of the best teams in the country, away from home. After playing the best team in the country on Thursday night. After playing a Premier League game last Sunday, playing a Europa game [before that].

"The same group of players. No rotation, and they’ve been doing this since the middle of November. I think they’ve given everything they can and I've got so much respect and admiration for the players and how they’ve gone about that. We get a couple of midweeks off now, great for them to recover. We'll get some players back which is also great for this group that they’ll get some help. And we move on."

Postecoglou is not blameless and Sunday's defeat at Aston Villa showed that not only does his style of football struggle without the energy required to press, hassle and provide constant movement for attacking passing options, but it also requires far more discipline than his open team provided.

His team looked structureless in the first half especially. The midfield were anonymous, constantly caught out of position and failing to protect the defence, leaving a wide swathe of space through the centre of the pitch whenever they lost the ball. That's the kind of meandering display that hands Postecoglou's critics ammunition.

Then there was Pedro Porro. After playing a more successful, restrained game at Brentford behind 17-year-old Mikey Moore, this time either through fault or design, the right-back completely abandoned that solid base behind a youngster who is less likely to track back and put in a challenge.

The Spaniard instead flung himself forward and repeatedly exposed those behind him, leaving huge spaces like the one Villa's Jacob Ramsey ran into and scored just 57 seconds into the contest, albeit with plenty of help from Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky.

Postecoglou's point though is that any team would struggle if they take out so many of their key players, and he will feel his point was proved by Liverpool exiting the cup on Sunday at bottom of the Championship Plymouth, having also lost at PSV in the Champions League with a much-changed side.

The Spurs boss suggested trying that every three days for almost three months and seeing how the season goes.

"Take a back four of Vicario, Dragusin, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Odobert, Werner (and Richarlison)...take them out of any team... How did Liverpool go today? And they just did that for one game," he said.

"Do that for two-and-a-half months. Any team. Do that for two-and-a-half months in multiple competitions. I don't care about me. People will judge me. But you can't judge this group of players on what's happened. They've given everything, the performance.

"Like I said, two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 21-year-old goalkeeper starting against one of the best teams in the country at home. They've had a week off, they didn't play Thursday night against Liverpool. We did. Same group of players. Not a change. You can't measure this group of players on that and their performance where they're at.

"It's too easy for people to be critical of them. I just have huge admiration and respect for them. We kind of knew this game was going to be the finishing line because we knew what was coming ahead in terms of midweeks off and getting some players back. But they tried their hardest and that's all you can ask."

The problem for Postecoglou is whether chairman Daniel Levy's trigger finger, which gets itchy every 18 months or so on average, will twitch again and prevent him from getting the chance to finally work with the players he's been waiting weeks and in some cases months for.

Much depends on whether the long-serving chairman was reserving his judgement due to Spurs' progress in the cup competitions or because of the worst and prolonged injury crisis the north London club has gone through in recent memory.

There are also few options out there to come in right now and to turn to Ryan Mason for a third time would be an embarrassing admission of failure again for Levy.

There would also be a certain cruelty to denying the Australian the chance in the next couple of games at least to prove whether everything he's been saying is actually true. Giving someone else the chance to helm a bigger, fresher squad after his long wait and suffering is tantamount to football torture.

Postecoglou for his part played it cleverly in his passionate shots fired at pundits and the media in general, praising the players and saying they can't be judged, while indirectly suggesting through that that neither can he.

"I'm not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I've done a bad job, I'm not up to it or whatever. That's fine," he said. "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 nine 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."

He added: "Me [and my future], 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 ya. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they've given over the past two-and-a-half months has been outstanding, it's a credit to them, I can't speak highly enough of them."

It was the strongest attack he's made on the outside world, while protecting his players, keeping them onside and creating the kind of 'them and us' scenario that some of his Tottenham predecessors have used.

Postecoglou knows that not only are many casual observers tiring of him talking about injuries as much as he is, but a growing number of Spurs fans are so despondent at the results that they feel the 59-year-old is turning to those injuries to mask his own struggles.

Some of the frustrated travelling fans at Villa Park sang for Mauricio Pochettino, one of the many previous Levy fall guys who had come the closest to managing to achieve something with a club that nobody has been able to for decades.

More loudly sung was the chairman's name throughout the game, whether during the popular Kulusevski chant or the simple 'we want Levy out' one amid the gallows humour from the supporters about the quality of their own team.

When asked whether he was worried that his team are just not playing the football he wants them to, Postecoglou put his hands to his face and shook his head with an exasperated laugh.

"I don't know how else to explain it," he said before repeating. "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. I'll keep going for two-and-a-half months and if you think that is not at all a factor of how this team is performing then there's nothing else I can say. There's nothing else I can explain."

But should some strands of Postecoglou football still be visible?

"No, because they're tired mate. 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? Fair chance, unless you don't think they're human beings?" he asked.

"Unless you're super human and you think no, after playing Liverpool on Thursday night they should be flying tonight. It doesn't happen. They're human beings. Why do you think Liverpool and others rotate 11 players? Why? There's a reason and I wish I could do the same. So you can bring a freshness to the team.

"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. Whether other people can't see that, that's of no interest to me.

"If you want to measure anything on what they're doing at the moment, other than the extreme situation they're dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed and it's not objective. That's my opinion."

Postecoglou has battled through this ridiculous stage of the season and it would be a brutal decision from Levy to allow someone else to take the side for the home game against Manchester United next weekend when three or four players are finally set to return.

With what could end up being the biggest protest against the chairman and the powers-that-be planned for Sunday's game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, some more cynical might suggest that a change in manager might be a strategy to deflect some of the attention away.

That is unlikely to succeed. There are only so many times you can change the doormat and paint the door without improving what actually lies inside the house.

Many have come and failed to change the philosophy and culture within Tottenham Hotspur, but how possible is that to actually do in the first place from a midway vantage point? Can middle managers really transform something so entrenched.

There were a couple of small positives from Sunday evening and it's no coincidence that they came from the fresher players, those not beaten down at this point.

Kevin Danso looks to be a good purchase with his aggression, strong personality and ability on the ball. Mathys Tel looked better through the middle later on than he did as a winger and was rewarded with a well taken goal on his full debut, touching home Dejan Kulusevski's curling cross.

However, Morgan Rogers' close range finish into the roof of the net after Porro fluffed a clearance in front of his own goal had already doomed Spurs to failure after a better second half on the whole, albeit still open to counter attacks.

Tel's added time strike continued the unexpected stat that only Liverpool have beaten Spurs by more than a single goal this season.

"Again, it’s been a situation where we’ve had to throw [the new signings] in, unfortunately," said Postecoglou. "It would have been nice to ease them in and get them used to it. I think Kevin’s been brilliant since he came in, great for Mathys to get his goal today.

"He hasn’t played a lot of football recently, so, for him to get 90 minutes at this level and score a goal will do him the world of good."

The other January signing Kinsky began the game with that handling error which immediately put Spurs on the back foot and his confidence was shot for the next 15 minutes or so. Credit to the young Czech though, he regathered and made a string of saves throughout the remaining minutes to at least keep Spurs in the contest.

Elsewhere, the midfield mostly spluttered, Djed Spence tried to provide energy but is yet to forge a connection with Tel.

Moore looked like a 17-year-old thrust into a bad situation, as he did at Brentford, and his physique will improve. In a normal situation, he would be being gently introduced into matches late on to increase his exposure in a gradual way.

The youngster's quality is clear and was shown in the moment when he teed up his captain Son Heung-min for a huge chance late in the first half. The South Korean did not take it, hitting the ball in the one area of the goal where Emiliano Martinez could comfortably get it.

Archie Gray was again asked to fill in for the absent centre-backs and made one great last-ditch tackle on Marcus Rashford that earned him an unpleasant looking kick to his leg, which hopefully did not result in anything more serious.

Rashford's arrival along with the pirouetting Marco Asensio summed up the tale of the two benches. Both sides have issues with Unai Emery only naming seven substitutes and ending the game without a recognised centre-back, but in the two new arrivals he had major attacking experience to change the game.

Spurs' sole attacking option on the bench - which featured two goalkeepers - was 19-year-old academy winger Damola Ajayi, who only has a handful of Europa League minutes and that debut goal to his name.

Tottenham's players now have the next couple of days off and they will return on Wednesday to find a number of their team-mates back in training alongside them. That naturally should increase the morale within the jaded camp.

Postecoglou's counterpart Unai Emery was sure that Spurs' fortunes would change as their squad does.

“Of course when they are going to recover players, they will perform again like they were doing," said the Villa boss.

For Postecoglou, he's going to keep on trying to improve the club's fortunes unless told otherwise.

"I'm just going to keep on working like I have. The ones who have been playing we've got to give them some time off. We've got the early part of the week and we'll give them some time off," he explained.

"The boys who are coming back, we'll get the opportunity to give them a whole week of training which is great. So come Tuesday we should have three or four who have been missing, we can give them a full week of training instead of a couple of sessions and then throwing them in.

"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."

The question now is will Postecoglou be allowed to get the chance to see his own team in a better shape or will someone else get the opportunity to profit from the pain he and his players have gone through.

The Australian will feel that if he and the team can get through this week together then they will come out the other side. As always though, the choice lies with the beleaguered and under fire Levy.

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