Tottenham fans tag Ange Postecoglou the worst manager they have had as they want the Australian coach to be sacked after Palace loss.

‘Worst manager we’ve had in last 15 years’ – Tottenham fans insist Ange Postecoglou ‘deserves to be sacked’ after dismal Crystal Palace loss as Australian coach is branded a ‘one trick pony’

WHAT HAPPENED?

Spurs suffered their fourth loss in just nine Premier League outings on Sunday, losing 1-0 to Crystal Palace. After the defeat they currently find themselves eighth in the league, 10 points behind leaders Manchester City. The disappointing result did not go down well with the fans who now want the Australian coach to be removed immediately.

WHAT THE FANS ARE SAYING

An X handle named ThfcFtbl wrote, “I’ll repeat myself over and over until I get an actual answer. Why on earth does Ange get such large amounts of backing from our fanbase when he is the worst manager we’ve had in the last 15 years? It makes absolutely no sense.”

Brucey called the former Celtic coach an overrated manager as he wrote, “Ange Postecoglou is one of the most overrated managers out there One Trick Pony Your called Overreactive Spurs fan if we lose cause he cannot win an away game We are stuck with Ange cause Levy is the idiot that sacked José Mourinho & Conte.”

Sam wrote, “He deserves to be sacked based on so many things, including that performance alone. Only positive from today is that we’re a game closer to never seeing Ange Postecoglu ever again. Every cloud.”

A fan named Lewis McCullagh made it clear he does not like Postecoglou as the club’s manager as he wrote, “I’m done with it Ange needs to go.”

Charles was enraged with his team’s disappointing show as he wrote, “Embarrassing performance, Ange needs to f*ck off, I’m bored to f*ck with him now.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE

The 59-year-old moved to north London last year after winning back-to-back Scottish Premierships with Celtic. His maiden campaign in England did not go as per plan, as the Lilywhites narrowly missed out on securing a Champions League slot and were ousted from the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup in the initial stages. While the fans are infuriated by the team’s dismal form, Postecoglou, too, is aware of his squad’s shortcomings and recently warned his players that he is ready to give them an earful for the team’s poor start.

WHAT NEXT FOR TOTTENHAM?

Tottenham will be back in action in midweek when they take on reigning English champions City at home in an EFL Cup round of 16 clash.

Four things we learnt from Tottenham’s abject defeat at Crystal Palace

Spurs could have played another 90 minutes and still failed to find the back of the net. Where are they going wrong?

Tottenham’s troubles away from home continued as Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal earned Crystal Palace their first Premier League victory of the season.

Ange Postecoglou’s side arrived at Selhurst Park having won seven of their last eight matches in all competitions yet were devoid of the type of confidence that such a run would usually spawn. It was the winless Palace who brought the swagger.

They needed only to strike once, Mateta dealing what proved to be the fatal blow on 31 minutes. Daniel Muñoz pounced on a Micky van de Ven error before delivering a cross which Eberechi Eze flicked expertly for the French forward to power home.

There was no riposte. Despite fielding – and replenishing – an offensive cast, Spurs failed to lay a glove on their hosts, who might have had a second had Eze timed a second-half run fractionally better.

Spurs have already accrued three away league defeats this season, a record Postecoglou must resolve if his side are to fulfil their potential.

Away hoodoo continues

Postecoglou’s first six away trips with Spurs in the league delivered four wins and two draws. His next 18 saw the team win four, draw five and – most worryingly – lose nine. This season, they sit 13th in the away league table having lost three in five.

For a club with pretensions to Champions League football and more, these are bona fide causes for concern. Speaking to the media post-match, Postecoglou pointed to his side’s inability to adjust to the stop-start nature of the game.

He said “We ended up doing some silly things, giving away silly fouls and just losing our composure, which just adds to that sort of [stop-start] game. And you just can’t get any traction.”

There is a school of thought that the midfield three of Yves Bissouma, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski is simply too offensive for attritional matches such as these. Whereas the set-up has worked at home against sides willing to absorb pressure, it has struggled to contain opponents’ preferring the gung ho approach.

Rewind a year and one day. There were emotional scenes as Rodrigo Bentancur made his return from an eight-month-long ACL injury in a 2-1 win at Selhurst Palace. The Uruguayan was introduced with three minutes remaining on Sunday but Spurs looked far more comfortable playing into midfield with him in the six position. Perhaps a more balanced starting 11 is required.

Frazzled full-backs

Oliver Glasner deployed the elusive Eze and Ismaila Sarr as inside forwards behind Mateta and the pair worked smartly to create overloads on the wings before drifting into central areas.

Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie were handed the unenviable task of curbing their influence and were pulled from pillar to post, with the additional threat of Tyrick Mitchell and Muñoz bombing forwards too much to handle. The Spurs full-backs were afforded precious little respite.

Advanced full-backs have, in fact, become something of a Postecoglou trademark during his time at Spurs but Porro and Udogie had their work cut out on this occasion. Their heat maps showed a far deeper average position while the pair, who had managed five shots in Spurs’ previous league outing against West Ham, fired goalwards just once.

It bears mentioning that Palace lost the impressive Michael Olise to Bayern Munich in the summer. Quite how Spurs would have fared against the Frenchman is a question best left unanswered.

Do Spurs have a difference maker?

Selhurst Park will have seldom seen better goals than Dele Alli’s mesmerising swivel and volley in 2016. And while Harry Kane’s late header to snatch three points two years later was rather less spectacular, it characterised a player who had made a habit of showing up when his team needed him most.