Heraldo de Madrid - Defiant Postecoglou says Spurs can salvage season despite FA Cup exit

Postecoglou is under intense pressure as he fights to avoid the sack following Tottenham's latest low moment in a wretched campaign.

Just three days after losing 4-0 at Liverpool in the League Cup semi-final second leg, Tottenham conceded inside the first minute against Villa and eventually slipped to a 2-1 defeat in the fourth-round clash.

Languishing in 14th place in the Premier League and with only the Europa League left as a potential chance to end the club's 17-year trophy drought, Tottenham are in turmoil once again.

Tottenham fans at Villa Park called for chairman Daniel Levy to quit and expressed frustration at Postecoglou and his underachieving team.

The Australian remains defiant, claiming his injury-hit team could finish the season strongly if his walking wounded return in time.

"Nothing really changes. We have a couple of weeks now where we don't have midweek games," he said.

"We had 11 first-team players out today. Take that out of any team for one game and they would struggle. We've been doing that for two and a half months.

"The players are going out there and giving everything they can. It would be a lot better if they had some help."

- 'A chance to reset now' -

Tottenham have lost five of their last eight games in all competitions, dealing a huge blow to Postecoglou's boast earlier this season that he always wins a trophy in his second campaign.

They are through to the Europa League last 16, but whether Postecoglou will still be in charge when they return to European action remains to be seen.

Denied the services of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, James Maddison and Brennan Johnson among others due to injury, the former Celtic boss is adamant his players still back him.

"This group has done an unbelievable job for two and a half months. I can't praise them enough, playing twice a week since November," said Postecoglou, who saw Mathys Tel score his first goal for Tottenham following his deadline day loan move from Bayern Munich.

"They'll get the chance to reset now and finish the season strong.

"Europe is still very important to us, we're still in a great spot there, and we'll hope to get some players back over the next two weeks."

Tel's stoppage-time goal was too late to rescue Postecoglou, who has come under fire for refusing to ditch an attacking game-plan that often leaves Tottenham exposed at the back.

Bemoaning Tottenham's sloppy start, which featured a weak attempted save by Antonin Kinsky for Jacob Ramsey's opener and a woeful missed chance to equalise by Son Heung-min, Postecoglou added: "It wasn't a great start, that's the last thing you want.

"We really struggled to get some control. Then we had an enormous chance at 1-0 we didn't take to equalise.

"We got a better grip of the game but unfortunately fell short. When you go a goal down it gives the opposition momentum and confidence. You want to wrestle control early and we didn't do that.

"The second goal sort of made it a bit more difficult but I always felt we were a threat. Unfortunately just not enough."

R.Alba--HdM