Ange Postecoglou looks ‘BEATEN’ at Tottenham and they have ‘fallen off a cliff’, claims Jamie Redknapp – as Spurs crumble against Chelsea and their manager loses his temper

Ange Postecoglou looks like a ‘beaten’ man at Tottenham with his side having ‘fell off a cliff’, Jamie Redknapp has claimed.

The Spurs boss cut a frustrated figure during and after the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea on Thursday evening.

A touchline outburst at his players and testy exchanges with reporters summed up his exasperation, with Chelsea winning thanks to goals from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson.

It leaves Spurs seven points behind the top four after three consecutive defeats and just two wins in seven games.

“I look at the manager and he looks defeated,” Redknapp told Sky Sports.

‘I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty damning.” I don’t like a manager like that. When you manage Tottenham – he hasn’t been there long – a lot of them become like that after a while, but that’s very early.

‘Players are no longer playing at the level of earlier this season. If you want to compete and have played as few games as Tottenham, you have to perform every week. That’s really disappointing considering how good they were early in the season.

‘They didn’t win individual battles, they didn’t win enough second balls, they were so passive, especially in the first half in a derby match where you have to win those battles, play forward and pass with a bit of urgency. . They haven’t done all the basics.

“When Ange took over, I watched the football and thought, ‘This is almost revolutionary.’ We’ve got two guys coming into midfield, the two full-backs are looking fantastic and people are playing at such a high level.

“But now they’ve fallen off a cliff. They have won two of the last seven since beating Aston Villa in one of the best performances I have seen this season.”

The 4-0 win away to Villa in March felt like a crucial day in the race for the top four, but Spurs have floundered since then.

With the prospect of a fifth-place finish in the Champions League gone, Spurs need to close a seven-point gap on Unai Emery’s side with just one game in hand and four matches remaining.

Redknapp believes Spurs have no excuses and believes the team will need to be strengthened in the summer to get through a European campaign and take on a new challenge.

He said: “The other thing is they have only played 37 games this year. They lost in the Carabao Cup in the second round and lost to Manchester City in the fourth round of the FA Cup. There is no fatigue.

‘That was a bit of a disturbing interview from Ange. I’ve been watching his interviews for a while now and slowly but surely it doesn’t seem like he’s enjoying them as much as he did when he first came.

‘I still feel that Tottenham have the players and structure there. But they definitely need to strengthen the squad. The subs that are coming are not at the level they need.’

Postecoglou raged against Pape Matar Sarr and Cristian Romero in the first half, shouting: ‘Stop passing it backwards’.

Although Tottenham are one of the most exciting teams to watch in the Premier League, their defensive problems are dismal.

Postecoglou’s men have leaked 54 goals this season, almost double Arsenal’s 28.

Several players have fallen into a slump at the wrong time, with Micky van de Ven making a mistake in the 4-0 defeat to Newcastle, James Maddison having less impact than before his injury (and falling against Chelsea) and Son Heung-min only scored twice in the match. his last seven games.

Afterwards, Postecoglou took the blame on behalf of his players, saying: ‘It’s up to me to solve the problem. We had bigger problems than set pieces tonight. We lacked faith and conviction in our game.

‘I don’t know if confidence is low, but we are not playing with the mentality we need to play the football we want. It wasn’t good enough and I have to take responsibility for that.

“If we performed like we did in the first half, it meant my message didn’t get through.”

When asked what that message was, Postecoglou said: ‘Come on buddy, we didn’t play well, do you want me to write you a file showing where things went wrong?

“I feel like we’ve lost a bit of faith and belief in our football and it’s up to me to change that.

‘It wasn’t about conceding the (first) goal, it was our way of playing football and we weren’t nearly good enough. That’s up to me.

‘We have been in trouble for a while, that is part of our challenge and our growth.

“We have to go out there and perform and sometimes you have to go crazy. We were poor today.”