Ange Postecoglou has made a confession about how the external pressure affected the Tottenham players ahead of the second leg against Alkmaar despite his best efforts to play it down.
There were plenty of rumours swirling around ahead of Thursday’s game that Postecoglou’s future at Spurs was in doubt if Tottenham had been eliminated from the Europa League by Alkmaar.
In fact, Postecoglou was even directly quizzed about being in danger of losing his Spurs job in his pre-match press conference. The Tottenham head coach batted the question away, insisting that he was purely focused on what his side could do to avoid the mistakes they made in the first leg.
The Spurs players managed to spare the head coach’s blushes by putting in a fine performance to overcome the Eredivisie side 3-1 in the second leg. The Tottenham boss has now made a confession about the pressure his players were under.
Ange Postecoglou praises his players for coping with pressure
The Spurs head coach has now admitted that even though he was not bothered by the things that were being said and written ahead of Thursday’s game, the outside noise did seep into the dining room, with the players being aware of just how big an occasion it was.
Postecoglou praised his troops for not being overcome by anxiousness or pressure despite coming into the clash 1-0 down, stating that he could not be happier with the performance his side delivered.
When asked if it was an important step for Tottenham to come through such a high-stakes game on the right side of the result, the 59-year-old told Football.London: “Yeah I think the way we handled it tonight was important. As much as you try to block out the outside noise and it doesn’t bother me but I am sure the players and the whole club was aware tonight was a big night for us.
“When you are already 1-0 down you can get really anxious about it but I never felt that. Up until we sort of gave them the first goal, I thought the lads had handled it superbly. They were in control, they looked strong, they looked dominant, aggressive and looked threatening in the front third. All the things we want to be.
“I think Micky coming off disrupted us a little bit, we had to change a couple of things and we give them a goal that changed the momentum of the game to make it more nervy than it needed to be, but yeah on what was a big night, I couldn’t be happier with the way the players tackled it and it’s a credit to them.”
Tottenham players will take huge confidence from the win
The performance and the win will restore the squad’s belief that they are capable of beating anybody over a two-legged tie.
Tottenham face an even bigger test next up against Eintracht Frankfurt, but one would hope that the Lilywhites are an even stronger side when that tie comes around as Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke will be much closer to full fitness.
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