Just five wins in 11 games - Are Postecoglou’s tactics holding Tottenham back this season?

Tottenham’s difficult start to the season rumbled on at the weekend, when the London club were forced to accept defeat in an embarassing 2-1 loss to Ipswich Town in front of their own fans on Saturday. In what happened to be the promoted club's first league win of the season, two early goals from the visitors proved enough to claim all three points, despite Spurs scoring a consolation goal in the second half. The result now means that Ange Postecoglou's side sit tenth in the Premier League table, with just five wins from their first 11 league matches. 

Worryingly for Spurs, their problems don’t seem to stem solely from issues that have plagued the team this season. When we take a look at which Premier League clubs have picked up the most points since the start of 2024, Tottenham sit eighth in the league table - behind Manchester United, who opted to sack their manager Erik Ten Hag for picking up just 40 points from 27 league games over the course of the last 10 months - and considerably behind the top-four rival that Postecoglou was undoubtedly hired to catch. It won’t be lost on Spurs fans or indeed the club’s hierarchy that the team have notable dropped off and are now behind clubs like Newcastle, Aston Villa and Chelsea, who look better equipped to challenge for fourth place this season. So what’s gone so wrong for Tottenham and can their manager fix things before it gets too bad? 

Tactical struggles holding Tottenham back

Famed for his exciting, gung-ho football, Postecoglou has undoubted guided Tottenham to some impressive victories this season - 3-0 over Man Utd, 4-1 over Aston Villa or the recent 2-1 victory against Man City in the League Cup - but in just about each instance, Tottenham were allowed to exert their game plan onto their opponents and in the end won the contest through attacking football. The problems for Spurs arise when other teams don’t indulge them in such duels and instead sit deep or frustrate Postecoglou’s team enough that their Plan A simply doesn’t work. Whether it be the 1-1 draw with Leicester City on matchday one, the defeats to Newcastle, Brighton and Crystal Palace or indeed the weekend’s loss to Ipswich, Tottenham still seem to struggle when games are more cagey and far less open. 

"Hugely disappointing. We started slow and passively," said the Spurs manager after their most recent defeat. "We gave ourselves a mountain to climb. Second half we had chances but didn’t do enough to win the game." Although Postecoglou made a point of taking blame for the result, he also noted his frustration at Ipswich's tendancy to slow the game down and even bring it to a stop with players claiming to be injured. "It seems to be the way the Premier League is going," said the Australian tactician. "Clubs are taking strategic time-outs. We just have to cop it. It’s up to the officials not me." While Spurs fans may share his anger over the stoppages, they'll also note that this isn't the first time that their manager has used the stop-start nature of games as an excuse for his team's performances. Following a recent 1-0 defeat to Palace, Postecoglou said: "It was one of those games with a lot of stoppages and battles, and they ended up winning a lot of them and coming out on top. There was a lot of disruption and it was hard to get any fluency. They did better than us.”

Early goals continue to cost Spurs important points

This, undoubtedly, gives a crucial insight into the problems facing the Spurs manager and why his tactics seem to come undone against more defensive teams. When opponents attack Tottenham and leave space in their own half, Postecoglou's side seem well equipped to take advantage of that. Which is why we've seen the London club score 15 goals against Galatasaray, Villa, Man City, Brighton and Man Utd in their last 10 league games. But, crucially, in that same period of time Spurs only managed to score four goals in four games against lesser teams like Ferencváros, AZ Alkmaar, Palace and now Ipswich. And this inability to break more defensive teams down is clearly costing Postecoglou's team a number of points this season. 

For example, Saturday's defeat to Ipswich was the eighth time Tottenham have gone behind in a Premier League game this season. That wouldn't be an issue, if not for the fact that the team seem to notably struggle when it comes to scoring goals and coming from behind to win games. In those eight instances, Postecoglou's team have dropped a massive 15 points. And while that may only rank Tottenham ninth among all English top-flight clubs for points dropped in this manner, it places them firmly in the bottom half of the table and among clubs that are either fighting off the threat of relegation or very close to being dragged into said circumstances. What may also trouble fans of the club is the fact that only four clubs in this season's Premier League campaign have gone behind more often than Spurs this season and three of them are currently in the bottom three, while the fourth sits just three points above the dreaded drop.

The Dominik Solanke problem  

Perhaps the most obvious fault for this inability to score goals against deep defences comes from Tottenham’s star No.9, Dominic Solanke. Last season the England international thrived in a very direct system at Bournemouth, where he could run on to long balls over the top of defences, or spearhead fast counter attacks. While Solanke has shown that same capacity for Spurs this season, with two goals that came from counter attacks against Brentford and Man Utd, as well as an impressive brace in the recent win over Villa, the striker has seriously struggled to create chances in the aforementioned clashes that require a more patient approach in attack. Indeed, in stark contrast to his goals in end-to-end clashes with other top-half clubs, Solanke has somewhat embodied his team's deeper issues by failed to score a single goal against Leicester City, West Ham, Crystal Palace or Ipswich, despite starting in each game. As the graphic above illustrates, the striker has so far averaged 0.45 goals per 90 in the Premier League this season, which is a notable dip from last season’s career high with Bournemouth of 0.51 per 90. While that average certainly isn't bad, it will undoubtedly frustrate the player and his manager to no end that he hasn't been unable to improve on it with much-needed goals against team in the bottom half of the league table. 

Whether Tottenham can turn their season around anytime soon remains to be seen. The London club make the trip to Man City after the international break, followed by a Europa League clash againt Roma: two big games that should allow Postecoglou’s side to play their preferred style of football. But the real tests may intriguinely come in the proceeding double header against Fulham and Bournemouth - two clubs that will take great delight in frustrating Tottenham's style of play. If Spurs can win those games, there may be clear signs of progress under Postecoglou. But if not, fans of the club may be forced to acknowledge that their head coach and his tactics will only get them so far in their quest to get back to the top four this season.