Nothing could have better accustomed Ange Postecoglou to the ill-fated nature of Tottenham Hotspur than the events of Thursday evening; a thumping defeat so big it managed not just to slash Spurs’ trophy hunt by a third but drain much of the optimism that arrived with their deadline-day moves.
But Postecoglou knows the club pretty well by now and knows, too, that three new signings in January is unlikely to be enough to lift Tottenham out of the bottom half.
If he didn’t, well, after watching the ghost of his marquee signing Mathys Tel haunting the Anfield turf, and after watching his team go down without a fight, he does now.
Hope rests entirely on their performance in the Europa League and FA Cup, on Postecoglou fulfilling his promise to win a trophy in his second season in north London.
The odds on that are low, albeit marginally higher after Kevin Danso and Tel arrived to join goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky as Daniel Levy’s three January gifts to the manager.
Kinsky has already proved to be a smart signing and adequate cover for Guglielmo Vicario, although of course therein lies the problem: a Spurs team in 12th needs players who can improve the team, not just replace those on the sidelines.
Danso falls into this category too after news of Radu Dragusin’s ACL injury, which only leaves the loan signing of Tel as a genuine upgrade, and in fairness to Levy and Posteocoglou here is real hope, real ambition.
Putting to one side his Anfield debut (a hospital pass enforced by Richarlison’s injury), Tel looks very talented, his ruthlessness in front of goal at Bayern Munich matched by vision and intelligence.
Throughout his career, and across all competitions, Tel is averaging a strong 0.78 goals or assists per 90.
That’s the kind of consistency Spurs have craved in the final third. Dominic Solanke, currently injured, has managed 17 goals and assists in all competitions, at 0.68 per 90, but he could do with some help and he’s frankly unlikely to get it from Richarlison, whose angry reaction upon going down on Thursday suggests he will be out for some time.
But even with Tel there are caveats.
He might need time to settle and to get up to the pace of the Premier League, and not only because 19-year-olds generally do.
Tel has started a grand total of 16 senior matches in his career, just nine of those coming in league games for Rennes and Bayern. He is very raw, very inexperienced.
Tel will undoubtedly grow into a top player. But Spurs are taking a calculated risk he is ready to cover for injury and that the external pressure, not least from excited supporters thrilled to beat Premier League rivals to his signature, won’t undermine the need for time and patience.
But hidden in that analysis is the crux of the issue: it’s impossible to talk about Tottenham’s season or the impact of new signings without referring to injuries.
And these will not stop. There is a growing evidence base that Postecoglou’s exhaustingly-constant pressing game – Spurs top the Premier League charts for PPDA (9.4) – is causing all of these soft-tissue injuries.
It is a fatal flaw in his tactics.
Injuries haven’t always followed Postecoglou around, but then again he has never managed in a division of such unrelenting intensity.
The pace of English football, the absence of a winter break, and its sheer competitiveness takes a huge toll on players.
At Celtic, for example, the disparity in quality between top clubs and those at the bottom of the league meant Postecoglou’s team had possession and territory for longer, allowing rests on the ball, whereas in the endlessly-transitional world of Premier League football his full-throttle approach is causing players to break down.
From that perspective, what good can three new players – at least two of which were signed just to replace those on the treatment table – really do?
Postecoglou faces the contradictory dilemma of needing fewer games to avoid the injury crisis deepening further while simultaneously hoping for Spurs to go all the way in the Europa League and FA Cup, adding more matches to the pile.
The Carabao Cup always looked like the best shot.
To lift silverware at Wembley next month would have been vindication of the Postecoglou project, as well as a crucial lifeline that would have allowed rotation across the remaining three competitions and bought patience for another crack at the top four in 2025/26.
Instead, Spurs hope to play 26 more matches over the next 16 weeks with everything on the line, every single time.
No matter how quickly Danso and Tel settle, that is far too many games for Postecoglou’s uncompromising tactics.
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