When Mauricio Pochettino was asked about Ange Postecoglou’s surprisingly high line at nine, he wasn’t too willing to get into it. The Chelsea manager instead pointed to his side’s own impact on proceedings, how proud he was. He probably wasn’t the only one unwilling to indulge too much praise of Tottenham Hotspur, after a 4-1 defeat Postecoglou’s side unnecessarily lost control of.
There is already that sense of rival fans, if for rather obvious tribal reasons, bristling at the regular appeals to “mate”. The explanation of that high line was probably extreme Postecoglou, the Australian in his ultimate form.
“It is just who we are, mate, it is who we will be for as long as I am here,” the Spurs manager said on TV. “If we go down to five men, we will still have a go.”
And yet the last six words are why there was a sense of pride around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, almost because of a 4-1 defeat where they went against the grain to their own cost. Postecoglou was willing to abandon himself to the “purity of the game”, as he actually said later about VAR. It is so different to what Spurs fans feel they have had to put up with over the past four years.
As incredible as the sight of eight outfield players at the halfway line was, going against most football convention, it’s obviously more invigorating than just keeping 11 back as both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte did.
It wasn’t all self-defeating purism, either. There was some pragmatic logic to it, in the calculation that an inexperienced Chelsea weren’t guaranteed to take advantage. This wasn’t Manchester City, for all the post-game discussion of how Pep Guardiola’s side might have scored around nine in that situation.
That appreciation could be sensed in the loud applause that went around the stadium after Nicholas Jackson’s first goal, and Chelsea’s eventual second. There was the feeling they’d made the best of a bad situation, and given themselves the best chance of victory. Spurs did waste one big chance at just 2-1, and it could have been very different had Eric Dier delayed his run for that offside goal by a millisecond.
That doesn’t mean discussion should stray too far into describing this as a moral victory. It was a largely self-inflicted defeat. There’s even an argument that is Postecoglou’s very excitable approach with a young team maybe played into a certain recklessness. Spurs were in complete control at 1-0, only for an inexplicable series of rash challenges to see them lose the lead, two players and - eventually - the game. Through that, they have also lost crucial momentum, that had felt like it had been elevating what would still have been an encouraging start to the season even without the winning run. It’s difficult to argue Spurs haven’t been overperforming now.
Within that applause was also the awareness this was also about to get a lot more difficult. As well as that emotional momentum, they won’t have Cristian Romero, Micky van der Ven, Destiny Udogie or James Maddison for a time. That is going to take some adjustment. It might represent the start of a period where things start going the other way.
That doesn’t mean discussion should go too far the other way, mind. One temptation from Postecoglou’s line was to dismiss it as typical Spurs, all talk about romance and no victories.
It’s abundantly clear that the Australian is changing things here. They have just been markedly overperforming, and ahead of schedule.
They shouldn’t now be overly criticised for that, as they probably face up to a trickier period that was always going to come.
Postecoglou’s approach will bring more wins than they would otherwise achieve. His willingness for adventure shouldn’t be confused with tactical naivety. There is a serious coaching mind underneath.
That is something that has also become clear to everyone at the club. It was why the players, after the game, were only too content with the approach. They weren’t questioning it.
Postecoglou, after all, has far more answers than just that high line.
