Postecoglou in trouble – Tottenham’s nightmare Premier League season explained in five graphics

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15th in table 

©IMAGO

Tottenham’s Premier League season plunged to its deepest depths on Sunday, when a 4-2 defeat to Wolves saw Ange Postecoglou’s side drop back down to fifteenth in the league table. Remarkably, this is now the third week of the season in which Spurs have sat so low in the English top-flight, having now spent seventeen consecutive match days in the bottom half of the table. The last time Tottenham were in the top half of the table was on December 15, following a 5-0 victory over Southampton. And very little suggests that they’ll be climbing back up the league table anytime soon. 

Although Postecoglou continues to put on a brave face and holds out hope of success in the Europa League, pressure continues to mount on the Australian tactician. Tottenham have won just three of their last 10 games in all competitions and excuses are running thin for the club’s diehard fans. So what exactly has gone wrong at Spurs this season and how much of it is really down to bad luck or poor preparation and performances from the club’s coaching and playing staff? Let’s find out. 

To kick things off, we must first provide the necessary context to Tottenham’s dreadful form in the Premier League. As we can see in the table above, which shows Tottenham’s points tally in each of the last 15 seasons at this stage of the league campaign, Postecoglou’s side are comfortably the worst Tottenham team in the club’s recent history. In fact, to find a team that has done anywhere near as bad as this current iteration of the Spurs squad, fans would have to go back to the 2008/09 season, when Harry Redknapp’s team sat on 41 points after 32 games. And the season before that saw Juande Ramos’ doomed spell at the club be summed up by just 39 points from 32 games. However, rather remarkably, both of those seasons went better for the club than this current one. Which just goes to show how bad Postecoglou’s team really have been. 

Another way of looking at Tottenham’s dreadful form this season is by considering how much money has been poured into this squad and how little the club has received in turn. In total, Postecoglou’s team cost €746.6 million in transfer fees, making it the fourth most expensively assembled squad in the English top-flight. As such, that then means that the North London club have spent €20.2m on each point won in the league this season. That, unremarkably, is one of the worst returns in the Premier League, with only Southampton (€21.4m per point won) and Manchester United (€21.9m) underperforming to a larger degree than Tottenham. Which is certainly food for thought the next time Spurs fans question the club’s commitment to spending money in the transfer window. 

One reason behind Tottenham’s dreadful form in the Premier League this season is their complete inability to defend their own goal mouth – particularly in the first half. So far this season Postecoglou’s side have conceded no less than 26 goals in the first half of games, which is the fifth worst return among all clubs in the English top-flight. To no great surprise, that has translated directly to how many times the club have gone behind in the league this season. After 32 league matches, Postecoglou’s team have gone behind 22 times and as we can see in the graph above, the only clubs with more porous defences are Leicester, Southampton and Wolves. If Spurs want to figure out why they’re heading towards the bottom of the league table, they may want to consider why they’ve got the defensive form of a team destined for relegation. 

The club’s dreadful defensive record also hurts Tottenham in other ways too. As we can see in the graph above, Postecoglou’s side routinely let hard-earned leads slip in the Premier League because they simply can’t defend properly. Over the course of 32 league games, Spurs have taken the lead on no less than 19 occasions but then gone on to drop 21 points after that. Only three clubs have conceded more points from winning positions than Spurs this season and, again, it’s largely clubs near the bottom of the table that Tottenham are rubbing shoulders with in this regard. 

But what about the injury list? Indeed, Postecoglou has been lamenting the injuries to his team for much of the season and using it to excuse his team’s performances. But, as we can see in the graph above, while Tottenham do sit top among the top six clubs for injuries, their run of bad luck in this regard isn’t actually that unusual. Certainly, 153 games missed due to 18 players picking up injuries in the league campaign is a major burden for Postecoglou’s team to contend with, but it’s only slightly worse than what Arsenal have had to contend with. The Australian tactician has certainly had a lot to deal with when it comes to injuries to his first team players, but that alone can not excuse what has been a historically bad season for Spurs.