Spurs Upset Media By Winning A Quarter Final

It has suddenly occured to me today what Ange Postecoglu's biggest problem is, and its as plain as the nose on his face. Apart from the obvious one, that he's the manager of Tottenham Hotspur which brings its own internal problems when trying to create a winning team, its the fact that he's Australian and Australia as we all know is not a 'proper' football country. If only he were German, Italian, Spanish or Portugese.

Second top scorers and joint third best defence (despite not having one)

For me, then can be no other conclusion given the unbelievable reaction to our 4-3 win in last nights League Cup quarter final tie with Manchester United. Now you don't have to be a genius to know that the broadcaster (Sky TV) and the current sponsors (Carabao, whatever that is) would much rather have preferred United to get through, especially given the subsequent semi final 'draw' that paired Spurs with Liverpool. But for them to show such open annoyance at the end of the game I think has set a new precedent.

If you'd have fallen asleep just before the kick off and woken up at full time (after the adverts obviously) you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Spurs had lost the tie, even worse after being three goals ahead. 

In reality, until just before United's first goal Fraser Forster never had a save to make. At this point, Solanke had fired Spurs into a 14th minute lead following up a Porro long range shot after Uniteds £4.3m reserve goalkeeper pushed the shot forwards instead of away from the goal. 

Bissouma sees the pound he dropped last time out as Spurs celebrate

Shortly after half time, good work on the left by Son and Maddison led to Martinez half clearing the cross that Kulusevski emphatically crashed into the net with his right foot. Twelve minutes later Solanke latched onto a lofted through ball, cut inside his marked and finished brilliantly into the corner to make it 3-0.

Two great finishes. Amazing what happens when you buy peak age players for top money

Spurs eased off a little as they'd done in the second half aginst Southampton at the weekend and United saw more of the ball. Unfortunately two horrendous errors from the up-to-that-point-excellent-since-Vicario-got injured-Forster allowed them back into the game, firstly selling Dragusin short with a pass that was intercepted allowing Zirzee to score and then dallying on the ball long enough to allow Diallo to charge down a clearance that went straight into the net.

Two individual errors that got the away team back into the game and the post game pundits are calling it as final and definitive proof that the Postecoglu methos will never work and cannot be allowed to carry on. The genius that is Jamie Redknapp came out with this:-

A "masterclass in how not to see a game out" would surely not involve still winning without ever being behind in the match? The clue is in the final score Jamie, its just above your quote. Or maybe its just me. 

Anyway, after some end to end stuff with a couple of minutes remaining, Son scored direct from a corner. Of course the goalkeeper protested but if they'd have disallowed that Arsenal might never score another goal this season from a set piece. Plus if Spurs ever got to the stage where they're putting someone forward to intimidate the keeper, its really not going to be Lucas Bergvall.

Obviously, four minutes into stoppage time United scored when Johnny Evans who's old enough to remember when other teams dreaded playing United, scored from a corner when the otherwise excellent Bissouma left him free a yard out. Even that went through the unfortunate Forsters hands.

So on a night when Spurs scored four goals (yet again) but conceded three all through goalkeeping errors despite having 80% of the first choice back five missing and an 18 year old midfield player at centre back against a striker that cost United a minimum of £64m in reality we lost because this system will never work.

I wonder how Conte or Mourinho would have approached last nights match, give the circumstances? Obviously, the last few weeks press conferences would have been whinge-fests about the squad depth despite both men taking the job knowing that the owners will never under any circumstances spend the required money to make the team genuinely competitive at the top end of the table. Both happy to take £12-15m a year in salary though. They both had peak Son and the clubs greatest ever goalscorer to lean on and still tried to bore the opposition and ergo the fans to death so I dread to think how they'd have handled last night. Badly I expect.