Time up for Ange Postecoglou? Tottenham's sleepwalk into a relegation battle can't be ignored - but replacing the manager will not change their new reality

No matter which strategy Tottenham have pivoted to in the post-Champions League final era, it seems to wind up proving an unsuccessful venture. They went down the 'serial winner' route with Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, only for them to both leave the club in a worse state in which they found it. Nuno Espirito Santo, who took Wolves to unprecedented Premier League heights and is now third in the table with Nottingham Forest, was quickly deemed a failure and misstep.

Now is the turn of Postecoglou, who was meant to be the face of a revolution. To give the affable Australian some credit, he played that role superbly in his first season in spite of the massive challenges facing him. Harry Kane, the club's all-time leading scorer and arguably best-ever player, played a full pre-season before being sold to Bayern Munich a couple of days before Spurs' Premier League campaign kicked off, and a direct replacement for him wouldn't be signed for another year.

That was on top of already finding the club on its knees and at their lowest ebb since Harry Redknapp steered them away from a relegation battle to an eighth-placed finish in 2008-09. Any connection between the team and fans had completely evaporated, but both parties seemed willing to resolve that issue.

Postecoglou's first home game, a 2-0 win against Manchester United in August 2023, was among the loudest atmospheres sampled in Tottenham's new billion-pound stadium. Three months into the season, Spurs sat top of the league and were the neutral's favourite for their buccaneering and uncompromising style. Even when that house of cards collapsed with a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea having been reduced to nine men, fans were energised and applauded the squad's efforts. There was something meaty enough to work with.

Tottenham ended the season in fifth - several positions above many doomsayers' predictions - and were only a whisker away from qualifying for the Champions League, while the enthralling style of play was completely unrecognisable from the last five years. Postecoglou had probably hit the ceiling with what was available to him after 12 months and spirits were high heading into his second campaign, where everything has come crashing back down again.

As with many of his predecessors, Postecoglou hasn't quite kicked on in year two with that same upward trajectory. At this point, that's no coincidence.

On the whole, Tottenham don't have a terrible squad, rather it has some nice players without any of them being truly elite. Dejan Kulusevski has gone to another level as a midfielder this year, while Spurs' back five on paper ought to be among the Premier League's best.

It still, however, is missing dynamism and ingenuity. All of the wingers, bar 17-year-old Mikey Moore and summer recruit Wilson Odobert, are extremely one-dimensional. Those in central areas prefer to take risks in the defensive or middle thirds rather than in the attacking one. This lack of creativity has manifested into 11 of their 12 Premier League defeats being by one goal, with 10 of those coming at the end of matches where Spurs could hardly fashion a chance.

That's the added factor of losing Kane, while also moving into a different phase of Son Heung-min's career at the age of 32. No one available to Postecoglou can conjure up magic when all seems lost. There is no taking a game by the scruff of the neck and winning the hard way. Spurs are trying to walk the ball in but all the while getting overrun. It's a recipe for disaster.

The saving grace Postecoglou can turn to is he has not had a full squad to choose from all season long. Even at their peaks this term - maulings of Manchester United and Manchester City away from home, as well as an impressive cup win at home to Liverpool - he has had to patch the team up in some way. Spurs at their free-flowing best are definitely top-four contenders.

Alas, the injuries have piled up and Postecoglou has had to sift his way through a squad unable to meet demand. Again, he is not the first Tottenham manager to suffer from a stark gap in quality between first XI and the rest.

At present, Tottenham's cohort of 10 injured first-teamers - Guglielmo Vicario; Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie; Odobert, Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur, Timo Werner; Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke - could very well give the team that started Sunday's trip to Everton a run for their money.

The finger of blame has been pointed in Postecoglou's direction, yet this is an inconclusive assumption. We do not know what happens at their Hotspur Way training complex, what data is available to them and if this is a matter of the coach simply pushing them too far from the off. What definitely hasn't helped has been a lack of rotation mixed in with the high intensity of their pressing, but that's part of a self-fulfilling cycle here.

Postecoglou has always stressed his stubborn nature is down to his belief it will benefit the team and the players in the long run. There's method to that madness, and you could even find yourself defending that notion if Spurs were, say, 10th and fighting in the competitive upper-mid-table pack. After eight losses in 10 and languishing in 15th, that doesn't fly. You can't keep losing and expecting to get better without acting on it.

Tottenham cannot buy a win, which can be attributed to the make-up of their squad. All of their victories have been deserved and emphatic, while the defeats have been limp and equally as justified. If Spurs are losing with 20 minutes to go, you already know they're not salvaging the game. If the advantage is slender, it's fair to assume it will be wiped out. If this team doesn't sprint into leads, they stand little chance of taking the three points.

In Postecoglou's recent career, he hasn't had to deal with a situation like this, as he is usually more accustomed to battling at the other end of the table. Good for him, but now he needs to show some survival instincts.

Unless Tottenham's entire sick ward magically recovers overnight, then Postecoglou is staring down the barrel of the firing gun. The trip to Everton was meant to be the start of a more forgiving run of fixtures, yet they failed that test within 45 minutes. In their next four games, Spurs will travel to Hoffenheim and Brentford, with Leicester and Elfsborg their opponents back in N17.

Then comes what is being tipped as judgement day for Postecoglou - the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Tottenham fought hard to take a slender one-goal advantage to Anfield, though that is infamously an unhappy hunting ground past and present. It's difficult to imagine them reaching Wembley, and such an elimination may prove the nail in the coffin.

By all accounts, Postecoglou has not lost the dressing room. Those fit enough to play are still running the hard yards, taking the same risks and carrying out orders. That wasn't the case with Mourinho, Nuno or Conte, and is why this dynamic is so strange. Regardless, this is a results business and it's hard to disagree with anyone saying Postecoglou deserves the boot.

Changing the head coach will not drastically transform fortunes. This is an institutional failure as much as a footballing one. Every decision the club has taken since reaching the 2019 Champions League final has backfired sooner or later.

The squad heading into the season was threadbare enough already, only amplifying concerns over Spurs' recruitment. Levy has sought to diminish his power and hand out responsibilities with the hirings of Munn and sporting director Johan Lange, yet still Tottenham are following the same old script.

Mourinho and Conte demanded more players for the here and now, which proved catastrophic to their fortunes in both the short and long term such was the half-measures which were actually implemented. Postecoglou was supportive in lowering the average age of the team, but perhaps not in such an extreme a manner as has been carried out. It has left Tottenham with a team primed for the future yet which neglects the here and now.

To start with, Spurs need more senior players through the door before the January window shuts. As Postecoglou has stressed, that's not even to save his own skin, rather to help the current squad burden the enormous load weighing down upon them. That's the key to reversing the immediate decline, but issues still run deeper.

Postecoglou could be sacked and have few complaints. There's no point debating that anymore despite the extenuating circumstances. It would be extremely tough to lure a ready-made replacement at this juncture, mind you. This is a less attractive job now to 18 months ago when the Australian was sworn in, and an uber-competitive Premier League threatens to tarnish their status as a 'big six' club. The optics of firing the man tasked with leading long-term change would also make it tough to sell the perks to whoever is next in line.

Reports claim he will be given further time and the board want to help him clean up this mess, but do not appear to have actively offered a solution outside of that word. If the club really wants change, it can't just be about the person in the dugout. This is a culture which has failed to improve itself since expanding their ambitions on an infrastructure scale. The Premier League has caught up with Tottenham and they haven't done enough to move forward on any other front.