As Postecoglou reiterated at Villa, it is not just that Spurs were missing 11 first-teamers, it is that their remaining players are exhausted, mentally and physically, by the relentlessness of the new calendar, and unable to play at anything like the levels he demands.
His argument, though, was not helped by appearing to get the team wrong at Villa, and Spurs improved with Yves Bissouma's half-time introduction while goalscorer Mathys Tel and Heung-min Son were both more comfortable when they swapped roles, with the Frenchman going up front and Spurs' captain returning to the wing.
Postecoglou also pointedly accused his side's critics of being “skewed”, “agenda-driven” and lacking “objective judgement” - possibly a nod to the damning Sky Sports studio analysis of Spurs' performance at Anfield, which he had previously insisted "doesn't bother me".
But the worse the club’s situation gets, the more defiant and animated Postecoglou seems to become and, at Villa Park on Sunday, he delivered one of his most spirited and spiky briefings yet, which boiled down to a passionate defence of his players and, by extension, himself.
Ange Postecoglou's post-match press conferences have tended to be morose, low-energy affairs during Tottenham's winter slump, the Spurs head coach often mumbling his way through short answers while staring dejectedly at the floor.
