Postecoglou UNCONVINCED that ‘unbelievable’ Salah would be as good for Spurs | OneFootball

Tottenham host Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final, in a repeat of the league game that happened just two weeks ago. In that fixture Tottenham suffered a 6-3 home defeat, a result that Ange Postecoglou will hope to avoid this time, as he continues his quest to deliver a trophy for his team.

Mohamed Salah has been enjoying a stellar season with the Reds and starred with two goals and two assists on their recent visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. With 30 goal involvements already tallied in the Premier League, the Egyptian has been one of the best players in the world this season. In contrast, Spurs star Heung-Min Son has been struggling for form, without a goal involvement in his last four.

In spite of this, Postecoglou argues:  “You’ve always got to keep context. Mo [Salah] is an unbelievable player but he’s playing in a fantastic team, flying at the moment.

“If you put Sonny in Liverpool’s team I reckon his goalscoring would be decent. It’s hard for our players at the moment.”

“When we’re at our best I still think you’ll see that Sonny’s return in terms of his ability to score goals and be real effective for us, I don’t think that’s diminished at all. He’s going through a tough time but we’re going through a tough time and I think that sort of goes hand in hand.

“Mo [Salah] is a world-class player, but you put him in our team at the moment, I’m not sure he would have the same impact because of the situation we’re in as a group.”

The Australian coach continues: “You need a team that’s in good form, creating opportunities, playing on the front foot, having a really solid foundation of a defence that is cohesive. None of these things exist at the moment.

“We’re relying really on individual moments. You can say the same thing about Dom [Solanke] and [Dejan] Kulusevski and Brennan [Johnson] because they’re the ones that are kind of playing all the time. They’re doing the best they can.

“You’ve got to cut these guys some slack, they can’t do it all on their own.”

Reflecting on the defeat suffered to Liverpool last month, Postecoglou concedes: “Not a great deal has changed. We’ve just got to deal with certain moments better so we don’t allow the game to get away from us like it did that night.”

Tottenham are without a major trophy in almost 17 years and their manager has reiterated his intentions to end that drought on multiple occasions. However, heading into the semi-final with their current injury situation, he now admits: “[if a] small group of players rise above and beyond to get there [the final], I think that will be as worthy of an achievement as actually winning it.”

Incidentally, just four days before their last major final, Spurs sacked their manager, then Jose Mourinho. Postecoglou found humour in this, joking with a reporter: “So just drop out the semi-final and you reckon I’m safe?”

Although a joke, the pressure on the head coach has risen in recent months and with Tottenham struggling down in 12th place in the table, his job could be under threat sooner rather than later.

Postecoglou admits: “The results are on me. It’s my responsibility to change that. If it doesn’t change then of course I’m the one that should take whatever ramifications there are to it.”

Despite this he remains confident in his position: “I don’t need greater security. Look, all I see is every person at this football club pushing hard every day whether they’re involved in football or not to try and help us through this situation. I don’t need anything more than that.

“Everyone at the club is totally supportive of what we’re trying to do and they’re trying to help me and trying to help us get through this and that’s all any manager really needs, I’m not interested in security.”