Ange Postecoglou has repeatedly insisted he would rather his Tottenham side played their football and showed progress on the pitch than won ugly.
So what could the head coach take from Wednesday’s late show at Coventry, as an abject Spurs scraped into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup with two late goals despite one of the limpest performances of the Postecoglou era?
Before substitutes Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson struck, Spurs were heading for a disastrous result, which would have heaped pressure on the Australian and severely dented supporter confidence in his project.
For the first time under Postecoglou, there were signs of mutiny from match-going fans, with some boos from the away end when he hooked Lucas Bergvall moments before Coventry deservedly took the lead. If Spurs had lost, there would have been some ugly reactions.
The hope is that Postecoglou, who made eight changes from Sunday’s north London derby, takes the win and a lesson from the game: heavily-rotated Spurs teams have struggled against supposedly weaker opposition in the cups, and last night not only felt familiar to three of their first four matches of this season but so many historic knockout defeats down the years.
Spurs were knocked out of last season’s competition at Fulham after he made nine changes, and yet he still chose to shake-up a struggling side, with a first start in more than a year for goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
“We were always going to play these guys because we’ve got Europe starting next week,” Postecoglou said. “Some key players got some good minutes that mean that when we do need to make changes moving forward, they’re ready.”
