Ange Postecoglou brands Tottenham 'unacceptable' after 15th Premier League defeat | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has admitted that 15 Premier League defeats is "nowhere near good enough", vowing not to let the domestic campaign become a write-off.

Losing against Fulham on Sunday means that Spurs have been beaten in more than half of their 29 league fixtures this season. They are ten points adrift of the top half, were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage and are already out of the FA Cup.

The only realistic way to save the season – and ensure that European football is on the calendar in 2025/26 – is to go all the way in the Europa League. With European qualification effectively out of the question via the Premier League, that would deliver an automatic Champions League berth.

It would also see Postecoglou maintain his record of always delivering silverware in his second season at a club, as well as breaking Spurs' longstanding drought that has extended to 18 years.

Spurs will face 2021/22 Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals next month, after which a potential semi-final would be against Lazio or Bodo/Glimt. Should Manchester United be successful on the other side of the bracket, there could be an all-English final in Warsaw in May.

But Postecoglou is adamant that he won't allow Europe to become the sole focus for the remaining ten weeks of the season at the expense of still chasing results in the Premier League.

It was another bad day for Spurs at Fulham / Richard Pelham/GettyImages

"I said to the players, I'm not going to let anyone just think about Europa and nothing else. We can't let this league season go the way it has. We've lost way too many games, unacceptable,” he said.

Discussing the 2-0 defeat to Fulham, in which both goals at Craven Cottage were scored in the final 15 minutes, Postecoglou added: "I understand the supporters' frustrations with that. It was another day where we let a game get away from us when we shouldn't. We had chances to go 1-0 up which would have put pressure on them, then they scored a really soft goal.

"The opposition haven't blown us off the park. For 75 minutes we were where we wanted to be, the fact we come out of that game with nothing is disappointing."

The last time Spurs had lost 15 Premier Leagues at this stage of a season came 27 years ago in 1997/98, while they have not suffered more than 15 losses in a 38-game league campaign since 2003/04, when 19 defeats contributed to a lowly 14th place finish. They have haven't fallen that far since, but currently occupy the same position in the table again with nine games left to play.