Fabrizio Romano responds to Ange Postecoglou sack claims after slow Tottenham start

Tottenham have put together a less than ideal start to the season despite significant investment during the summer transfer window. Spurs have just four points from their first four games having narrowly lost the North London derby on Sunday, putting in a frustrating performance against a Gunners side that was not at its best.

With Ange Postecoglou being getting a number of big-money signings over the summer, including Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, while Timo Werner also returned on loan, there will be less margin for error for Postecoglou in his second season, with Spurs expected to compete for a Champions League spot.

There have been some murmurings of Postecoglou coming under pressure after the disappointing start to the season, but Fabrizio Romano believes such claims are very wide of the mark. He said on The Debrief: “[Is Ange Postecoglou in any danger?] Not at all, zero percent, no, no and no. Absolutely everything is under control at Tottenham, a slow start of course – a disappointing North London derby but at the same time they are not considering any shocking decision for the manager.

“This project [at Tottenham] is completely, completely involved in the idea, the whole plan, and the whole project is around Postecoglou.”

Postecoglou may not be close to the sack, but he and his side must turn things around quickly, facing Coventry City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night ahead of facing London rivals Brentford in a winnable home game on Saturday. After a Europa League clash with Qarabag, tough-looking clashes with Manchester United and Brighton then follow either side of a European date with Ferencvaros.

Spurs will need to find a way to compete better in those games, with the fixture list offering plenty of potential for Postecoglou to come under real pressure if he can’t get his men to pick up form over the next couple of weeks.

Postecoglou on Spurs issues

Speaking about the Arsenal defeat, Postecoglou said: “We held them well for the most part, and you switch off for one and you pay the price. They took their key moment, and we didn’t. There’s a bigger picture at play here that’s much more important than the finer details of us getting to where we want to.”

On his side’s apparent struggles defending set-pieces, the Spurs boss added: “I know, I know, for some reason people think I don’t care about set-pieces and it’s a narrative that you can keep going on for ages. I understand that. Like I said, we work on them all the time like we do for every other team. You know that they’re a threat, as I said, for the most part, we handled them really well today, but we switched off for one and we paid a price and you learn from that and you move on.”