Tottenham defender Cristian Romero has backed Ange Postecoglou, while his manager insists he will not change his approach after a hugely disappointing 4-3 defeat by Chelsea.
Spurs led 2-0 within 11 minutes but ended up losing with Cole Palmer netting two penalties – both for fairly needless fouls by Tottenham players.
Postecoglou’s side have only won one of their past seven games in all competitions, losing four of them.
They are in the bottom half of the Premier League table, sitting 11th after 15 games.
Postecoglou is the fifth manager, including caretakers, that Argentina centre-back Romero has played under since arriving in 2021.
The Australian manager has had success at most clubs he has been at – including Celtic – but Tottenham have not won a trophy since the 2008 League Cup.
Romero told Telemundo: “He’s a great coach. We saw it in the first season. In this second one we’ve suffered a lot of injuries.
“Players are the first one to be criticised, then if we lose 10 games, the staff can be changed, but nobody talks about what is actually happening.
“We are very happy with this staff, me and my colleagues. We love how they work and the football they try to play. We’ll try to move on quickly.”
Tottenham, whose chairman has been Daniel Levy since 2001, started last season brightly under new boss Postecoglou but ended up fifth.
Spurs players’ desperation ‘cost us’ – Postecoglou
Postecoglou always stands by his attacking philosophy even though it often costs his team goals.
It is an approach that has seen him win trophies with South Melbourne, Brisbane Roar, Yokohama F Marinos, Celtic and the Australia national team.
“It was good enough to get us ahead in the game so I am not sure why we should change our approach,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live of their quick start on Sunday.
Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski goals had them looking in control until Jadon Sancho started the comeback in the 17th minute.
Palmer scored twice and Enzo Fernandez also found the back of the net.
“It was a game of big moments. If we score at 2-2 and go 3-2 ahead then the pressure is on them and they have to open up like we did when we conceded,” the Spurs manager continued.
“Their penalties were poor from our behalf. We didn’t need to make those challenges and it was hard for us to claw it back.
“I think sometimes when you are in this position we are, you are desperate to do the right thing.
“You probably need a calmer approach. The guys are desperate to do the right thing and unfortunately it cost us.”
‘We’ve got to stick together in such difficult moments’
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min, who scored an injury-time goal to make it 4-3, says the players need to “step up”.
“We’ve got to stick together in such difficult moments,” the 32-year-old South Korean told Sky Sports.
“It’s very important and it’s why we need big support. The players are very young and they need support more than before and more than we had.
“The fans were always supporting amazingly but I think it’s time the players also need to step up. We need some big support and big cheering up.”