Isak extends Newcastle hot streak to increase heat on Postecoglou’s Spurs
Share:
Ange Postecoglou stood, as he always does, hands in pockets, at the edge of his technical area. It had been another frustrating afternoon, a defeat that means Spurs have now won just one of their last eight games. There was general grumbling rather than targeted fury, but the clear sense of another season drifting away for Spurs. For Newcastle, meanwhile, a fifth successive Premier League win means Champions League qualification, which seemed so unlikely when they lost at Brentford a month ago, seems a suddenly realistic target.
![[Thomas Tuchel in the stands ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c904014d8b6eb26be71c3e72043317a720d7893f/0_93_2721_1633/master/2721.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Of course it was going to be like this; how could it not have been? This is just the way Spurs do it, mate. There stands Postecoglou; he can do no other. But there also stands Radu Dragusin, and there stands Pape Matar Sarr, mystifyingly far apart. This is about philosophies, but it’s not only about philosophies. There is no system in which the opposition should be allowed to wander through the spaces in the way Newcastle did at time towards the end of the first half. That is not anybody’s process, and Eddie Howe’s side, particularly before half-time, took full advantage.
And it’s not to say it’s untrue to point out that the focus on Postecoglou and his dogmatism deflects from far deeper issues. Tottenham’s wages to turnover stands at a startling 47%, the lowest in the Premier League. That could be construed as the sign of a well-run club, but it also hints at a lack of ambition. Maybe if they pushed that to 48% they wouldn’t have begun the season with only three front-line centre-backs. It is unfortunate – or perhaps a result of the intensity of the Postecoglou style of play – that all three are injured at the same time, with Dragusin additionally forced off at half-time, but equally a squad that is thin in certain areas inevitably opens a side up to just that sort of bad luck.
