Daniel Levy’s £130m Tottenham transfer failure as Ange Postecoglou risk backfires again
Daniel Levy’s £130m Tottenham transfer failure as Ange Postecoglou risk backfires again
At times, you really have to wonder: has anyone actually counted how many players Tottenham Hotspur are putting on the pitch each week? Watching them leave gaping spaces all over the field, you could be forgiven for believing they’re consistently a man down. And honestly, it would explain a lot.
This is, of course, a direct consequence of Ange Postecoglou’s aggressive tactical philosophy. From the moment Spurs regain possession, players surge forward with reckless abandon, stretching themselves so thin that it practically invites the opposition to pick them apart. Yes, Tottenham can flood numbers into attacking areas — but often they offer little tangible threat. Meanwhile, behind the ball, they are alarmingly vulnerable. The players might be spread across the pitch, but no one ever seems close enough to support or impact the game where it matters.
In a league like the Premier League, where margins are razor-thin and talent gaps are minimal, a strategy that sacrifices structure and discipline is a disaster waiting to happen. And for Spurs, it has been exactly that. Week after week, they appear like a team disconnected from itself — a mess that mirrors the larger dysfunction currently engulfing the club.
Postecoglou, for all his clear ideals about how football should be played, is simultaneously trying to douse fires and lighting new ones in public. He’s been unafraid to call out broader issues within English football, some justified, some misguided, while fans grow increasingly furious with chairman Daniel Levy and the club’s direction. This toxic atmosphere bleeds onto the pitch, where Tottenham’s players resemble lost souls rather than a cohesive unit.
Take their performance at Anfield as the latest example. It was a microcosm of their season’s dysfunction. Guglielmo Vicario could only throw his arms up in exasperation as the defensive shape collapsed around him. James Maddison, one of the team’s supposed leaders, drifted without purpose. Dominic Solanke fought thanklessly against multiple defenders, often alone, while raw teenagers were entrusted with gluing together the mess. Forget injuries for a moment — Spurs’ problems are structural and self-inflicted.
The question now becomes: Who exactly is benefiting from this system? Certainly not the defenders, who are routinely left exposed and isolated against superior numbers. Nor the midfielders, who often find themselves sprinting desperately back toward their own goal after being effortlessly bypassed. Under Arne Slot’s newly methodical Liverpool, Spurs’ chaotic brand of football was ruthlessly exploited. The Reds didn’t even need to hit top gear — Tottenham simply handed the initiative over.
It was embarrassingly reminiscent of their Carabao Cup semi-final collapse earlier this year. Spurs can run hard in spells and create some frantic moments going forward, but this sporadic chaos is not a substitute for control or quality. After nearly two full seasons under Postecoglou, the same problems persist — and the occasional flashes of brilliance are nowhere near enough to paper over the growing cracks.
When a system demands everything — pressing, belief, fearlessness — and then the squad loses confidence or suffers a few injuries, it leaves nothing to fall back on. No resilience. No pragmatism. Just collapse. Tottenham scoring first at Anfield and then capitulating spectacularly felt grimly appropriate for where the club finds itself today.
The performance against Liverpool demanded a level of spirit and discipline akin to their memorable display against Frankfurt earlier this season. Instead, what Spurs delivered was passive, disjointed, and disheartening. And honestly, the day was never going to be about them anyway — it was Liverpool’s celebration, their coronation. Tottenham were just unwelcome guests, swept aside with minimal fuss.
There is still a narrow path left to salvage something from this shambolic season, but it’s narrowing fast. A Europa League spot may yet be secured, but it will offer no real consolation for the embarrassment and decline that has unfolded.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou’s reputation is cratering. Once linked with moves to bigger jobs, he’s now being dismissed by Leeds United fans as a downgrade on Daniel Farke — and that’s despite Farke’s own lukewarm standing among the Elland Road faithful. If anyone needed further proof of why that perception is growing, this latest surrender provided it.
The midfield selection at Anfield encapsulated the broader mismanagement. Archie Gray, a teenager more accustomed to defensive duties at right-back, was thrown into a holding midfield role against Liverpool’s high-energy trio of Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Ryan Gravenberch — who, combined, cost over £130 million and play like it. Gray was predictably overwhelmed.
Lucas Bergvall, who thrives on receiving the ball deep and progressing play, was deployed higher up instead of operating where he could influence the build-up. The tactical choices left Tottenham’s midfield exposed and outclassed, a cruel mismatch exacerbated by their own disorganization.
Meanwhile, James Maddison was forced to act as an auxiliary left-back rather than creating anything meaningful, while Mathys Tel — another misplaced weapon — toiled in vain to cover defensive gaps rather than threatening the Liverpool goal. Maddison and Tel both contributed to the sequence that led to Mac Allister’s goal, encapsulating the broader pattern: careless play, no structure, punished ruthlessly.
Postecoglou’s post-match comments were sympathetic toward his young players — but they couldn’t hide the reality. “We knew it was going to be a tough day,” he said, pointing to the inexperience and defensive injuries. Yet these are not new problems; they are symptoms of a poorly constructed squad and a tactical plan that refuses to adapt to circumstances.
Rodrigo Bentancur’s absence from the squad — rested ahead of the upcoming Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against Bodo/Glimt — tells its own story. The season has devolved into patchwork planning and damage control.
Pape Matar Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski were thrown on at halftime to try and steady the ship, with Maddison and Gray sacrificed. In a more generous reading, it was “protecting” young talents ahead of Thursday’s match. Realistically, it was a mercy substitution after the midfield had been ruthlessly exposed.
The painful truth is that Tottenham are leaning far too heavily on young prospects like Gray and Bergvall, thrusting them into high-pressure situations without sufficient support. These talented players are being asked to fix a sinking ship — a ship built by Daniel Levy and director Johan Lange, and captained by a manager who refuses to deviate from his high-risk blueprint.
Instead of nurturing and protecting their brightest talents, Spurs are setting them up to fail — and doing long-term damage to their development in the process. No wonder these matches feel more like a punishment than a platform.
Ultimately, the blame is collective. Postecoglou has failed to adjust. The board has failed to build a proper squad. And Levy, as always, looms over it all — a constant reminder of years of mismanagement.
Liverpool barely needed to break a sweat to turn Tottenham into a laughingstock at Anfield. And unless deep, fundamental changes are made soon, this will not be the last time Spurs find themselves humiliated on the biggest stages.