Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has come under increasing pressure following two cup exits in the space of four days, but an Australian Premier League legend believes his fellow countryman has every right to stand firm in his beliefs.
Despite injuries to key players like Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, James Maddison, Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie, Guglielmo Vicario and Brennan Johnson, Postecoglou has continued to employ an attacking, expansive style of football at Tottenham. That has drawn plenty of criticism from pundits and fans alike, who are calling for a more pragmatic approach from the Australian boss.
But Postecoglou won't succumb to that pressure, even with Tottenham currently sat 14th in the Premier League. Instead, he will continue to trust his young and relatively inexperienced squad to continue with his principles.
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou right to remain stubborn with tactics
Mark Schwarzer retired from the Australia national team around the same time Postecoglou became the Socceroos' manager in 2013, with the former Premier League goalkeeper failing to play under the current Tottenham boss.
While he recognises the legitimacy of concerns around his fellow countryman's stubborness to change tactics, Schwarzer highlights that that style is why he has managed to make it to Tottenham in the first place. For Schwarzer, Postecoglou is staying loyal to a system that he truly believes in and has had great success in, while still gaining some benefit by teaching the fringe players of his squad how he wants to play in real, pressurised situations.
"It’s a really interesting conversation because most managers today have a distinct way they want to play football," Schwarzer told Betway. "Some are more extreme than others, some are relentless in the way they want to play and they’re going to make no compromises – they’re going to play their system regardless of whether they have the players at their disposal right now, whether they’re injury ridden like Spurs are.
"Ange will not change, he will always play this way. His players are trained in the way of playing this method. Every session is built around playing the way that they want to play. It’s also a longer term vision with the more that you play it, the more you ingrain it in the players you’ve got, even the fringe players.
"It’s all a learning curve and about making them better and trying to reach a certain point whereby each experience is going to make them a better player. And giving them the belief that they can continue to do what they’re doing – even if they are making mistakes, learn from the mistakes, don’t make the same mistake again but you need to keep doing what you are doing."
Postecoglou has previously admitted that he won't change his approach in matches, even with the amount of high-profile injuries he currently has to deal with. That, for Schwarzer, is completely reasonable.
"I mean, people will say its stubbornness and I understand that," Schwarzer said. "I sometimes go, ‘Oh come on, just change it a little bit, be a little bit more pragmatic'. But I get his argument. His argument is I’ve got to where I’ve got today playing this style of football, whether its in Australia, in Japan to Scotland at Celtic and now at Spurs. They bought me here to Spurs because I play this style of football – why am I going to change it? So it’s a valid argument but you do open yourself up to criticism.
"And for him, I get the frustration because he keeps getting asked the same question, are you going to change? And his argument is tell me any team that can have as many key players as we have missing and have success. The players that he’s bringing through, when you look at Archie Gray - who ranked at no.22 in FourFourTwo's list of the most exciting teenagers to watch this season - when you look at Bergvall in midfield, the fact that Tel has come into the side. You’ve got all these young players that are thrown into the mix that are now playing so many games when normally they wouldn’t, but they’re going to learn from it and become better players from it.
"The problem is is how do you balance the expectation, the demand from the supporters and results. And that’s where there is a real difficulty at the moment."
Andoni Iraola has emerged as the favourite to replace Postecoglou at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in recent weeks, but it seems that is all just conjecture at the moment, with the Spurs hierarchy now putting their focus beyond this season under Postecoglou.
"I also agree with him that there seems to be a little bit of a campaign of he’s not going to change, he’s relentless and he needs to go," Schwarzer said. "It all depends on what Spurs want for the long term future of the club.
"They’ve tried everything else, why wouldn’t they continue? You’ve bought players based on the way he plays football. He plays good football – we know it, we’ve seen it. Okay, at the moment they are not necessarily but he has played good football when he’s had his full team at his disposal. You’ve got to be patient enough to allow that to come into place again. Get those players back, build on it and then judge him."
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