What Ange Postecoglou did after Vicario mistake and his unusual decision after Tottenham defeat

Tom Jones claims it's not unusual, but Ange Postecoglou would beg to differ when it comes to Tottenham Hotspur.

"Unusual" - it was an unusual word for Postecoglou to choose to describe the individual errors that gifted Wolves four goals and three points on Sunday as Tottenham hover ever closer to that final place above the Premier League drop zone. It is an unusual place to find Spurs and they are fortunate that it would take a miracle for 18th-placed Ipswich to claw back 16 points from the 18 available in their final six matches to catch them.

It is unusual that Tottenham have lost 17 matches this season in the Premier League. Across Mauricio Pochettino's three peak seasons at the helm from 2015 to 2018, they only fell to 16 defeats in total across those years in the league.

It is unusual that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has not resorted yet to his go-to move of removing the manager to divert people's attention from the grey clouds that never seem to clear over Spurs for very long, regardless of who resides in the dugout.

Postecoglou will be well aware that his predecessors were pointed towards the exit door at the north London club for far, far less than this miserable Premier League season served up under the Australian's stewardship. A couple were in fourth place in the table when they got the boot rather than 15th and another - we know because he keeps reminding us - was days away from a cup final.

There was sympathy and understanding for Postecoglou midway through this season when Spurs were struck down by an unprecedented injury crisis which only seemed to worsen each week. Yet those days are gone. Postecoglou has a full squad and little has changed when it comes to results. Everything promised under the former Celtic boss has thus far failed to materialise to any lasting degree.

Complete rebuilds are painful affairs and Postecoglou's one has been huge in the post-Kane era, both on and off the field with Spurs' teenage transfer policy and the reduced wages that come with it, but there need to be more green shoots of recovery than this.

Sunday's defeat at Molineux, where the Lilywhites have not won since 2021, was all about calamitous defending and individual errors. Postecoglou called them unusual but they are anything but, as mistakes have blighted his Spurs tenure. For as many goals as Tottenham have scored under the 59-year-old in the Premier League since he arrived - 134 - they have conceded 108.

To refer back to those peak Pochettino seasons - when the clouds did seem to disperse for longer than normal - Tottenham conceded fewer in total across three campaigns, with 97 let in. They also scored more across whichever two of those three seasons you choose to pick.

Once again on Sunday, as has been said so many times this season, this was a rudderless Tottenham team lacking leadership. Son Heung-min was excused on this occasion through a foot injury but Guglielmo Vicario and captain for the day Cristian Romero were the biggest calamity culprits. James Maddison looked to be trying to change matters in the first half only to fade from view in the second.

That 19-year-old Mathys Tel was chosen to speak on the club's channels after the game spoke volumes. World Cup winner Romero doesn't do post-match interviews for Spurs because four years into life in north London he has not yet grasped enough English to do so.

Judging by his occasional, brutally honest interviews for the Argentinean media, the club are probably delighted that Romero's language skills have not reached the required level to also lay into the medical department or Tottenham's hierarchy in English.

Errors are certainly not unusual at Spurs this season and one could only assume that Postecoglou was trying to defend his players, particularly Vicario and Romero who looked like nervous debutants at times rather than experienced players.

The opening goal just over a minute in began the calamity. Vicario only half-punched a free-kick away and Tottenham had left two Wolves players completely free just inside their penalty area.

One was Rayan Ait-Nouri, who had all the time in the world to strike a bouncing volley back past the Italian.

The visitors started to get a foothold back in the game with the otherwise dreadful Yves Bissouma having a shot saved and Brennan Johnson firing another effort over.

Yet the story of this game and Tottenham's season is that the moment they look to be finding their feet, they shoot themselves in one of them.

Calamity goal number two arrived before half-time when Johnson deflected a Wolves cross up into the air and it bounced inside the Spurs box where neither Romero nor Ben Davies felt they needed to be defending.

The ball was meekly headed on by Marshall Munetsi and Vicario dived sideways to inexplicably push it against Djed Spence and both of them could only watch it bounce into the net off the left-back. Postecoglou watched the goal back on a dugout monitor with his assistant Matt Wells and his bewildered and then frustrated reaction showed exactly what he thought of it.

Once again Spurs thought they had a way back when Tel grabbed a fortunate goal 15 minutes into the second half.

Substitute Lucas Bergvall drove up the pitch, sent Johnson down the right and his cross bounced into the net off the unsuspecting Frenchman after Nelson Semedo messed up his clearance in front of him.

Calamity needed only five minutes to reappear when Romero appeared to have the ball at his feet when running back with Ait-Nouri, only to completely lose control of it, presenting it to the Wolves man who ran into the box and squared it for Jorgen Strand Larsen to score.

Once more Tottenham found another foothold when on 85 minutes Ben Davies headed Bergvall's corner across the six yard box and Romero powered it towards goal where Jose Sa tipped it on to the crossbar and Richarlison headed in the loose ball.

It felt like Spurs might find an unlikely late equaliser but this time calamity needed but a minute to reveal itself.

Bergvall showed his inexperience by trying to dribble unnecessarily in his own half and was dispossessed by Matheus Cunha who had no obstacle, other than Davies' lunge in vain, in running towards the Spurs goal to score.

Postecoglou was asked after the game if he still had full confidence in Vicario ahead of Thursday night's all-or-nothing Europa League tie at Frankfurt.

"Yeah, 100 per cent confidence. Obviously we made some individual errors today which was a bit unusual for us, fair to say. They all happened in one game and unfortunately we got punished from it," said the Australian.

No, not unusual. It's more unusual when a Spurs match does not feature an individual error and Postecoglou's style of frantic football creates more opportunities for mistakes as he asks his players to be brave on the ball.

Nothing though was brave about Sunday's gaffes. They all came from momentary switching off of brains.

"It's not like they're doing it on purpose," Postecoglou said of his key men Vicario and Romero. "Those two in particular are pretty reliable in those kinds of situations but today it was a collection of events which were unusual which makes it really difficult to get an outcome from the game."

Still not unusual Mr Postecoglou, and the thousands of poor away fans - Spurs had a big allocation of 3,010 - who subjected themselves to yet another horror show on the road can testify to that.

Tottenham have lost 10 of their 16 away Premier League games this season, with only Leicester and relegated Southampton having lost more. To be fair Spurs have also lost seven of their 10 home games so perhaps losing just isn't that unusual.

On that away form, Postecoglou said: "There's various reasons for it, but today there's a specific reason for it, we made errors that conceded goals, so that's all you can analyse and that's what happened today."

football.london put it to Postecoglou that conceding soft goals and early ones was something that has been an all too common theme this season.

"It was a bit different today. The goals we conceded weren't lapses, they were just individual errors which, like I said, is unusual for us to give goals away like that. But that's what happened, we got punished today and it makes it very difficult to get an outcome."

There's that 'unusual' word again. Postecoglou may well have just been protecting his players, particularly those senior ones, but it all made for one of his least convincing press conferences since he took charge. Unusual equalled unconvincing in this circumstance.

The Australian's biggest gift is his ability to communicate but even that failed to hit the target on Sunday.

The supporters are growing weary, bored of losing but also seeing through the continuous cycle at Tottenham that brings constant rebuilds tinged with hope that last 18 months to two years before someone else comes on board and finds that Spurs are like no club they have worked for before.

"Once again it’s Spurs’ loyal away fans who suffer, as well as all of us watching or listening at home, in this country and around the world. Every game matters to us, every point dropped hurts," read a statement by the supporters' trust.

"The current performances and results fall way short of the standard we should expect. Another defeat in an unacceptable domestic season which threatens to become our worst in the Premier League.

"With six difficult matches to come, and a lowest league finish highly likely, what assurances do we have that these performances will improve? Where’s the will to win?"

Thursday night's match in Frankfurt offers the only chance of salvation this season so were all of the players' eyes on that game rather than focused on this one?

"I don't think so," said Postecoglou. "When you look at those things in isolation, they're just things that are unusual for us and for those players in those moments. It happens. It might happen once in a game or a season, and for us it happened multiple times in a game.

"I don't think it's any lack of focus from the players and from my perspective, I don't think that's a major concern."

Yes, he said 'unusual' again. As for Frankfurt, they won 3-0 at Deutsche Bank Park on Sunday against struggling Heidenheim, a far better way to enter the big European tie.

The German side will know that Tottenham are allergic to away trips, rocked to their core by a little bit of stadium noise, as will the Frankfurt fans, and football.london asked Postecoglou how he was going to get his players into a different headspace for this latest journey to someone else's stadium.

"Well, they shouldn't be in a bad headspace, and the game on Thursday is massive for us," he said.

"I thought we played well on Thursday night against them and probably should have got a win out of that game. We know that when we play our football like we did on Thursday night, we can certainly make an impact.

"So we just recover today, physically, mentally, make sure that the players are in a good space. We rested a few today which I think will help us come Thursday as well."

Postecoglou rested Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Pedro Porro, Son Heung-min, who had a knock, Wilson Odobert, who seems to be a pawn in Mole-gate, while Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall only played half an hour.

He also has the returning Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison, who both got 20 minutes or so in their legs, the latter scoring.

Barring any disasters this week, Postecoglou will have a near full and mostly fresh squad available to him in midweek. Making six changes for Sunday's fixture could end up being a masterstroke or all done for nothing, because the Spurs head coach simply has to win in Germany if allowed the chance to do so.

There are no more reasons for failure to be found, nothing to point to or excuses to be had. His team must win otherwise Postecoglou's Tottenham will only be known as one of, if not the worst ranked of the Premier League era.

The Australian used the word 'unusual' four times during his post-match press conference at Molineux and what would be truly unusual at Tottenham in this modern era would be to win a trophy.

Yet even silverware, despite being the holy grail at Spurs - along with record revenues - may well not be enough to save Postecoglou's job. At the least though, it would allow the 59-year-old to walk away with his head held high as someone who achieved something so many others couldn't and not be remembered solely for the most miserable of Tottenham Hotspur seasons.

Sinking Saints and preparing for Frankfurt - click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham

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