After the excitement of emphatically beating Champions League-chasing Aston Villa in the Premier League last weekend, Tottenham Hotspur went on to lose their following two games.
Ange Postecoglou has been able to turn his Spurs side into one of the most exciting and entertaining teams to watch in the entire country, but he has yet to be able to drill their inconsistent streak out of them.
The North Londoners can look near enough unstoppable one day and easily beatable the next, and if the Australian doesn’t do something about this soon, he could be in trouble.
Fortunately, there is something he could try, something Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta did a few years ago when his position was under increasing scrutiny.
Spurs' up and down season
So, it’s quite challenging to decide whether this season has been a good one for Spurs just yet, as following a poor start in which they drew to Leicester City and lost to Arsenal and Newcastle United, their form has been a little all over the place.
Games
11
4
2
Wins
5
3
2
Draws
1
0
0
Losses
5
1
0
Goals For
23
8
4
Goals Against
13
5
2
For example, in the Premier League, the North Londoners have hammered the high-flying Brentford, tore Manchester United to pieces at Old Trafford, thumped West Ham United and Villa 4-1 and yet, they have also handed Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace their only wins of the season and managed to throw away a 2-0 lead in their game against Brighton & Hove Albion last month.
This inconsistency has even followed the Lilywhites into the Europa League, as last week they came away 3–2 losers from their clash with Galatasaray.
Moreover, with the chances the Turkish side had in that game, the final score was really quite flattering to Postecoglou’s side.
What makes the whole situation even more confusing is that while some players have been notably poor this season, like Radu Dragusin, who was sent off on his Europa League debut for the club, and Timo Werner, whose only positive contributions so far this season has been his performance against Manchester City in the League Cup, it’s hard to determine just why the team cannot maintain a good run of form.
The most straightforward answer may just be that the side are still adapting to Postecoglou’s style and philosophy, and therefore, fans should expect more teething problems as the season progresses.
However, if that’s the case, the manager may want to copy something Arteta did a few years ago, something that could both get more fans back on side and pay dividends in the coming campaigns: start Mikey Moore.
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Why Postecoglou must start playing Moore
Yes, one of the ways Postecoglou could get a reaction out of his team and potentially please some unsure fans at the same time is to involve Moore in much more football this season once he gets over his current illness.
Now, we don’t mean bringing him off the bench every few games or starting him in the cup competitions.
Instead, the manager should be giving the highly-rated, hungry and “fearless” youngster, as dubbed by James Maddison, the opportunity to start a considerable number of games this season.
There may be some who’ll argue that he’s too young, but as the old adage goes, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, and based on his sensational performance against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League, for which he won the Man of the Match award and was compared to Neymar by Maddison, he’s certainly good enough.
Moreover, while it is only junior football, his form for the Lilywhite’s youth teams is simply staggering.
Games
24
4
5
Goals
19
1
0
Assists
13
2
0
Goal Involvements *
1.33
0.75
0.00
In 33 games for the various junior sides, the up-and-coming “superstar”, as dubbed by journalist Fabrizio Romano, has scored 20 goals and provided 15 assists, so keeping him at that level feels entirely pointless.
Lastly, for the fans who are unsure, you only have to look down the road at your bitter rivals, as when Arteta was under immense pressure a few years ago, he and the rest of the team were dragged out of the depths by a 19-year-old Bukayo Saka and 20-year-old Emile Smith Rowe.
They were both massively inexperienced in the 2020/21 season, yet Saka ended the campaign with a haul of seven goals and nine assists from 46 appearances, and Smith Rowe racked up seven goals and seven assists in 37 games, but perhaps more importantly, they helped to get fans back on side and were shaped by the manager.
Ultimately, it is a lot to ask of Moore, but given the esteem in which he is held by so many in the know, it feels more like a matter of when and not if Postecoglou starts handing him more and more game time and, given the pressure he currently finds himself under, why not now?
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