JOSE MOURINHO is living proof that reaching a cup final will not save you as Tottenham manager.
But how Ange Postecoglou could do with replicating the Portuguese’s showpiece feat to dampen any doubts over his suitability to the Spurs hotseat.
The Aussie has a chance to make up for what he admits is some “very poor league form” in the Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool, with the first leg at home on Wednesday.
If he can somehow find a way past Arne Slot’s imperious Reds over the two ties, he will be the first Spurs boss to reach a cup final since Mourinho four years ago.
That feat did not prevent the Special One from a shock axing just four days before the day out at Wembley, which Tottenham lost to Manchester City.
Unlike with Mourinho back then, chairman Daniel Levy is understood NOT to have lost faith with Postecoglou despite him losing half of his league games this term.
There is a hope that the ex-Celtic chief will turn things around once his horrific injury list eases up.
Though Postecoglou is the last person who needs reminding that Levy’s trigger-happy history proves that goodwill will not last forever if results do not improve.
Reminded of Levy’s ruthless sacking of Mourinho, the 59-year-old was asked if he felt seeing off Liverpool would offer him any extra job security.
Postecoglou wittily replied: “So just drop out at the semi-final, you reckon? I don’t need greater security.
“Look, all I see is I’ve got a group of players who are giving absolutely everything they can.
“I see every person at this football club pushing hard every day, whether they are involved in football or not, to try and help us through this situation. I don’t need any more than that.
“It’s my responsibility, the results are on me. It’s my responsibility to change that. And if it doesn’t change, then, of course, I’m the one who should take whatever ramifications there are to it.
“But I don’t need any more security than seeing what I see every day that the club, everyone at the club is totally supportive of what we’re trying to do, trying to help me and trying to help us get through this.
“That’s all any manager needs, I’m not interested in security.”
In his first season, Postecoglou downplayed the significance of winning a one-off trophy as less important to his overall goal of turning Spurs into serial contenders.
That remains his perspective, but he has conceded that in this difficult second campaign winning some silverware could breathe new life – and belief – into the project he is trying to build.
His side are on an awful run of just two victories in their last 11 games in all competitions, while they have lost three of a winless last five in the league at home.
Injuries, illness and suspension have taken their toll, with up to ten players expected to be missing on Wednesday.
As a result, Postecoglou views the possibility of his absentee-hit, knackered team making the final as on a par with winning the competition itself.
He added: “We’re having a tough season. Our league form is really poor, we need to improve.
“But we are in a semi-final of a competition and with the group of players we’ve got at the moment, if we can achieve something where they are in their careers, I think it does set you up really well for what we’re trying to build here. I think it does.
“If we get a final and happen to win a trophy, we’ll look back on this period of where we are, a small group of players having to rise above and beyond to get there, I think that will be as worthy of the achievement as actually winning it.”
Liverpool won 6-3 at Spurs in the league just 17 days ago and at one point were 5-1 up.
It underlines the size of the task facing Postecoglou, who will not swerve from his attacking philosophy but has taken lessons from that battering.
He added: “When we did our review, we did some things really well on the night but we did some things really poorly.
“It was more about moments in the game that you can’t switch off against a team of that quality.
“There were learnings from it. And because it was so recent, you certainly use that as a foundation for the kind of game we need tomorrow in terms of addressing it a bit differently.”
Likely line-up: Kinsky; Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence; Bergvall, Bentancur, Kulusevski; Johnson, Solanke, Son.
