Teddy Sheringham makes big Ange Postecoglou claim and agrees with his James Maddison decision

Teddy Sheringham believes that Tottenham supporters should get behind Ange Postecoglou because he's bringing something exciting to the club.

Spurs are the Premier League's top scorers and would have gone third in the table had they beaten Ipswich in their last game, while they are also in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and have won three of their four Europa League ties so far in the big group stage. However, a dismal defeat to Ipswich and a poor away record has affected the mood during the international break with a trip to the champions Manchester City on Saturday.

Sheringham, who played 268 times for Tottenham and scored 117 goals, likes what he's seen of his old club under Postecoglou.

"Everyone at the club has bought into it completely, without a doubt, and I think Tottenham fans should as well, because they must be more excited in this last season and a half than they have been for the last five years under Mourinho and Conte where you’re watching a team hoping to get a breakaway goal and nick a result against Norwich at home, Southampton at home," he told Best Offshore Sportsbooks.

"Now Tottenham are creating at least 10, 12 chances in every game they play. You’ve got to be happy with that. He’s getting bums off seats, you’re up, you’re excited. You’re optimistic, you’re gonna get a chance, you’re gonna score. Alright, sometimes things don’t go your way, and I don’t know what the atmosphere was like against Ipswich, but the vibe in general is great. I go there thinking I’m going to see excitement, chances, goalscoring opportunities, so I’m optimistic."

He added: "Without a doubt, the objective for Tottenham is to win something this season. They've got to win something. Postecoglou told us that he always wins something in the second season and I'm fully behind him. They've got a team that is inconsistent. They’re in for three – the cups – and you can afford to be a bit inconsistent in those because its game-to-game.

"The cups represent a great opportunity for Tottenham to put some silverware in the trophy cabinet. You can be inconsistent and still win something. Man United showed that last season with Erik Ten Hag. Hopefully they can win games at the right times because they've got the right firepower to win a cup this season.

"Ange obviously said that he always wins something in his second season, which if he doesn’t them I’m sure people will ridicule him for saying that. However I think he has been a touch misquoted as what he was saying is that he's done that at previous clubs and that's what he hopes to do again. It's all the outsiders that are ridiculing him. If you listen to what he actually said, he didn’t come out and say I’m going to win a trophy at Tottenham this season."

Postecoglou has dropped James Maddison to the bench in the Premier League in recent weeks with Dejan Kulusevski as the team's main playmaker. Sheringham likes the Swede and backs the Tottenham head coach's decision when it comes to Maddison.

"I really like [Kulusevski] in that position. He comes in and takes Maddison’s spot, although I think you can play both of them at times, especially at home. Maybe he's looked and thought that you can't. I like Kulusevski in that 10 position, but I also like Maddison playing alongside him as well. I thought they perform nicely together," he said.

"I think Postecoglou has made a couple of big calls, and I'll stand by him and what he's doing. Recently he took Maddison off when the team got back to 1-1 just before half time, and he took him off when the team were playing really well. I was actually at the game. He took Maddison off at half-time and then the team ended up beating West Ham 4-1. Then he did the same thing with Son, his other top player and his captain. He took him off at 1-1 in the same game and the team went on to beat Aston Villa 4-1.

"So, it was obviously the right decision at the time. When you take your top players off, it kind of rocks them, when you look to them for leadership to get you back into the game. They were obviously the right calls at the time for the team to go on to win, but you've got to manage those two big egos very well as well, and you need to let them know that it was just a one-off or whatever, because Maddison was playing quite well in that particular game and I was surprised that he took him off in the manner that he did, but obviously the team won."

Sheringham believes Dominic Solanke should be aiming for 20 goals this season after his positive start to life at the north London club after a £60million move from Bournemouth.

"Solanke leads the line. It's not easy to play that centre-forward role, bringing other players into play, holding the ball up and running in behind to score goals," said the former England international. "You need to be able to do all of those things and he can do that. I think he's done really well.

"He obviously had a great season last season and he's been operating in the Premier League now at a very, very good level for a while. He got 19 goals at Bournemouth last season. He's got four so far [in the league] this season for Spurs. He's been a centre-forward. He knows how to score goals. You can tell that with the goals that he scored.

"Twenty goals will be his target again and if you get off to a good start and on a good run early, then the targets change. If you have a couple of injuries, you're out of the team, then your targets change the other way."

Listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham by clicking here for in-depth Spurs chat on your preferred podcast platform.

Want breaking and top Tottenham stories sent straight to you? Join our Spurs WhatsApp community by clicking this link. If you're curious you can check out our privacy policy here.