Ange Postecoglou’s first season at Tottenham Hotspur was, simply put, complicated and eventful. A dream start as the Premier League’s last undefeated team was quickly crushed as injuries and suspensions derailed their season, exposing a number of weaknesses that saw them find themselves in fifth place at the end of the season, performing better than expectations of the preseason and underperformed during the early season hype. As inconsistent as it was, it was also a job well done in terms of rebuilding the seasons. Spurs learned what worked and what didn’t, theoretically providing a clear picture of what needed to change over the summer to build on last season.
A few months after ending Postecoglou’s first season with a 3-0 win at Sheffield United, it feels like little has changed and with just one win to start the 2024/25 season, it feels like Spurs are in a special place.
Postecoglou will be working with a team that is similar to the one he had last season, and there are some advantages to that. Not only will he have the benefit of continuity with a group of players that actually showed great promise last season, the Australian can also boast that his squad is well rested. Only a handful of Spurs players played a significant proportion of minutes during the summer leagues: centre-backs Cristan Romero, Micky van de Ven and Radu Dragusin, as well as midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur.
There’s also no need to necessarily confuse consistency with stagnation, largely because Spurs were actually busy during a less-than-exciting summer transfer window. It’s just that they have made one ready-made signing this summer in Dominic Solanke, who scored 21 goals for Bournemouth last season and has the potential to impress for the club once he recovers from a short-term injury. The bulk of their summer funds were used on teenagers like 19-year-old winger Wilson Odobert and 18-year-old midfielders Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray, all of whom have already made their Premier League debuts but feel they have a choice for be the future. than the present.
This is not necessarily uncharted territory for Spurs, who have a history of betting on young players and did so successfully during Mauricio Pochettino’s impressive spell at the club. While summer signings shouldn’t be seen as the ultimate goal of a team’s ambition, the transfer strategy doesn’t just feel like a bet on the future; it also feels like a bet that Postecoglou’s adjustments will be enough to keep them competitive. now.
It’s still too early in the 2024-2025 season to actually suggest this is a bad bet, especially considering Postecoglou has already worked hard to build a tactical foundation that is effective at best. Spurs play with a clear, attacking identity, the first building block for any successful team. However, the problems that sometimes cost them last season are getting in the way again this season.
Despite being in the Premier League’s top four in the most possession, passing and attacking categories so far, Spurs have just one win in three games to start the season. Postecoglou’s side have shown signs of being wasteful at the start of this season: they had almost 70% of the ball in their 1-1 draw against Leicester City and took twelve shots, but generated just 1.18 expected goals, and in their 2 -1 defeat to Newcastle United had 65% possession and 13 shots, but only 1.26 expected goals. They have struggled somewhat to create meaningful chances despite their attacking skills, including Maddison and Son Heung-min, who started last season in very strong form.
Spurs’ failure to close out games early in the season goes hand in hand with a defensive debt that is a feature, not a bug, of Postecoglou’s attack-first system. His favored high line leaves the team perpetually susceptible, something a team could overcome through a combination of tactical changes or personnel. Postecoglou may have to find a solution quickly as the staff he has may not be up to the task. Although the actual back line feels resolved, the midfield has had a difficult start this season. The trio of Bentancur, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr are yet to impress and this season could reveal whether this is a temporary problem or whether new additions are needed. Tottenham’s strange deadline day deal involving Real Betis’ Johnny Cardoso could provide a solution, but the team is still months away from making a decision on that front.
As a result, Sunday’s clash with Arsenal will be an extremely important check-in on Tottenham’s unique bet on their current performance, especially considering the less-than-ideal results are no reason to write them off. They are much more than a plucky underdog against last season’s Premier League title runners-up, as their attacking potential shows. Spurs could have the advantage of playing a depleted Arsenal: Declan Rice is suspended for the match, while captain Martin Odegaard could miss due to an ankle injury. An almost identical version of this year’s Spurs team also played two competitive matches against a high-flying rival last season, drawing 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium last September, while in April they lost 3-2 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The latest edition of the North London Derby is therefore not a done deal. But even as underdogs, Spurs will have to prove they can go their own way against a team that is rightly comfortable in their own skin. The performance, more than the result, could be an indication of what we can expect from Spurs this season – and whether there is a dissonance between their forward-looking summer activities and the progression of Postecoglou’s vision of competing in the present.
