Ange Postecoglou: Is Tottenham manager's style to blame for injuries?
2025-01-21
Category: sports

There is silence from Tottenham on the future of manager Ange Postecoglou, but that's not unusual for the club and chairman Daniel Levy.With an injury-ravaged squad â and with Levy also in the firing line from disgruntled fans - there is a big decision to make on backing Postecoglou in the January transfer window, which would speak more loudly than any 'vote of confidence'.Spurs need reinforcements. Yet again they top the Premier League 'injury' table for the most players currently unavailable, with 11, after Dominic Solanke, Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson joined the raft of defenders already missing.Postecoglou - who will at least be in charge for Thursday's Europa League trip to Hoffenheim - said after Sunday's defeat to Everton that there "will be urgency" in the transfer market. He added: "These players need help... the club are trying hard."But why do Spurs get so many injuries? Is it down to Postecoglou's style of play? And what is he like to work for?BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club spoke to sports scientist Anton McElhone, who worked for Postecoglou at Celtic and for Tottenham under Mauricio Pochettino.
Working with Postecoglou
McElhone was the head of sports science at Celtic between 2021 and 2023 while Postecoglou was manager."Ange is very clear 'This is how I do it at each club.' "The players will adapt to it over the months. It was a collaboration. He wanted us delivering the philosophy of 'football first' - everything must start and end with the ball."Ange is very good at giving players time off, time to reflect. The training volume is good. "Ange has been noted for his tactical style, and he's a very strong leader on how he gets things on to the pitch. How he does it at different clubs without the same staff is incredible."
How hard is it to train for such an intense style?
McElhone was a fitness coach at Tottenham between 2011 and 2017."We know the Premier League is the most dynamic league in the world," he said. "It has 20 teams at all the same level and physicality - it's the best league in the world for that."Mauricio Pochettino brought in front-foot football at Spurs. But to get that style, it probably took six to 12 months. The intensity was through the roof."It's survival of the fittest for players. You need to be young, you need to be healthy, you need to have a certain physicality about you, and a mentality to get through that."To get that in the Premier League, you do have to train quite extensively for it. But you need the right tools, by that I mean the right players. They need to be robust enough, and I don't know at the moment at Tottenham if they've got these players. They've got a very young squad behind the senior squad as well."With Ange, what we saw last year, that was against the grain. That's normally season two, that peak. I think that's the difficulty they're having at Tottenham. They've had so many non-contact injuries [and] it can be very difficult."
Does Postecoglou take risks with fatigued players?
Some Spurs fans have criticised Postecoglou for not resting players and came under scrutiny when first choice centre-backs Christian Romero and Micky Van de Ven both started against Chelsea on 9 December, returning earlier than anticipated from injury. Both players were substituted â and remain injured - with Romero coming off after 20 minutes of the 4-3 defeat."Ange is all about the numbers, [he'll say] 'Give me the facts'. Top managers will make the decisions," said McElhone. "It's not up to us to dictate, our job is to support, give the information."In year one at Celtic, Kyogo Furuhashi was injured going into the Scottish Cup final: a grade 2B hamstring injury. The manager asked 'Can we get the player available for the game? Is it a big risk?'"The player wanted to play, we took the risk, we did the right strategies to try and get the player there, but it was the manager's choice."Ange is his own man, he's an exceptional leader and very strong and understanding, and has a good background in sports science and education from Australia."
Why are Spurs getting so many injuries?
PremierInjuries.com ranked Tottenham as having the third highest volume of separate injuries (21) up to 15 January, with the second highest days lost to injury (655) this season. Brighton were first with 23 injuries costing 914 days."At Celtic after six months Postecoglou could rotate the front five at 65 or 65 minutes to keep the freshness for the 60-game season," reflected McElhone. "At Tottenham he's probably found that a lot more difficult because I don't think the strength in depth is the same as other Premier League clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea."Look at the evolution at Celtic under Postecoglou, we had a three-month period of sustaining injuries every week, mostly hamstring injuries. We had to get to the winter break to reset.""As the players adapted to the demands of the system, the game fluctuation changed rather than that constant 'basketball' up and down the pitch, the team was able to control one half of the pitch more. So that stopped the centre-backs having to run in behind as often. "As the game model and philosophy settled, that reduced injuries."At the moment, that is the problem at Tottenham. He has not got the squad."They have had a change of medical staff in the background in the last year as well, on top of all the other issues."
How is Ange dealing with the pressure?
"What's really interesting about Ange is everyone that works with him realises this is a very strong manager. And I don't mean this in a critical way, but he's his own guy," said McElhone. "He has a Sir Alex Ferguson type mentality: this is how I do it, this is how I work. He doesn't have a network of staff. "Every club that he has been to, he does produce. But again, it's never an easy ride. So he will always predict that there is going to be real rough patches in it."I think he has the resiliency, understanding and experience to overcome these things. He is a very relentless and preserving manager; very strong mentally. Probably one of the best I've worked with."He's not going to worry about the outside noise. He's going to focus on how do we win, how to we play our style, our way of doing it. He will be focused on that in one way only."