Postecoglou claims criticism is agenda-driven as he lives to regret trophy claim

Spurs were dumped out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa on Sunday following a 2-1 defeat - their sixth loss of 2025 from 11 matches.

Their exit means that two avenues of success have closed within just a few days after the north London outfit bowed out of the Carabao Cup semi-finals to Liverpool.

With the club sitting 14th in the Premier League table, their only hope of ending their 17-year wait for silverware lies in the Europa League.

For Postecoglou, the recent defeats at Anfield and Villa Park have come back to bite him following his defiant trophy vow in September.

The 59-year-old, who was appointed at Tottenham last summer, insisted that he 'always wins things' in his second year at a club.

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And for Postecoglou, it remains to be seen whether he will have his chance at securing Europa League glory with the Australian under intense pressure amid fan calls to sack him.

But despite the club's woes, the ex-Celtic manager believes criticism aimed at injury-hit Spurs, who were missing 11 first-team players at Villa, is unjust - insisting they shouldn't be judged on their performances.

Pressed on whether he would get given time to turn things around, Postecoglou remarked: "I'm not talking about me.

"People can judge me, they can say I've done a bad job, I'm not up to it or whatever, that's fine.

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"What I'm saying is you can't be critical of players and players' performance during this time.

"If you do, then do that with everyone else when they've got nine or ten or 11 players out - none of them have - and for every game.

"I'm not just saying we had to do it today. We've been doing this since the middle of November.

"You can't judge the performance of these players or critique them on what they've done. All they've done is give all they can and that's all you can ask for.

"My responsibility at this club is this group of players and team to get them to play in the manner I want them to that will bring us success.

"Whether people think I can do that or not is for others to judge but there's got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months.

"It can't be that people think that is an excuse. That's just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That's just agenda-driven stuff.

"If it's to get rid of me that's fine, good on you, go for it a million times.

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"But in terms of this group of players, what they've given over the last two and a half months has been outstanding.

"It's a credit to them, I can't speak highly enough of them."

Commenting on why fans haven't seen his free-flowing attacking football in recent weeks, Postecoglou said: "Because they're tired, mate. They can't.

"If we hadn't played on Thursday night and I had rotated that team, do you think it would have been pressing a bit more aggressively today?

"Unless you don't think they're human beings. Unless you're super-human and think after playing Liverpool on Thursday night they should be flying today. It doesn't happen. They're human beings.

"Why do you think Liverpool and other teams rotate 11 players? There's a reason. I wish I could do the same to bring freshness to the team.

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"Of course, they're not playing anywhere near the levels we want or expect but that's not because they're not trying, that's not because they can't. They can.

"I keep saying this group of players, once we get the rest of the group in, will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that. Whether other people say that or not is of no interest to me.

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"If you want to measure anything on what they're doing at the moment other than the fact of the extreme situation they're dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed, it's not objective."

Attention for Tottenham will now turn towards next weekend's clash with Manchester United, with a defeat to potentially see them drop down into 16th spot.