Les Ferdinand is not a fan of what Ange Postecoglou said after seeing his side beaten by AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16 tie, with the pundit accusing the Tottenham head coach of making a needless excuse for his players.
Although the game’s only goal came as a result of Lucas Bergvall slicing the ball into his own net, Alkmaar were full value for their 1-0 win at the AFAS Stadium on Thursday.
In fact, the Eredivisie side may even feel disappointed that they do not take a bigger advantage into the second leg in North London, having fluffed some chances to extend their lead.
Ange Postecoglou acknowledged that Tottenham were ‘nowhere near’ their best, admitting that they had to be a lot more aggressive both on and off the ball.
Les Ferdinand questions Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham excuse
However, the Tottenham head coach also said in one of his post-match interviews (TNT Sports 06/03/25 at 20:05) that it was “tricky pitch” at the AFAS Stadium, which his players struggled to come to terms with.
Les Ferdinand feels that the Australian should have left out that line from his interview and was critical of the Spurs boss for blaming the pitch for his side’s shortcomings.
The former Tottenham striker told TNT Sports regarding Postecoglou’s comment about the Alkmaar pitch: “I wish he hadn’t said that. We’re not there [at the stadium], so I don’t know what the pitch is like. They [AZ Alkmaar] seemed to play alright on it, they seemed okay on it.
“He said before the game, ‘we want to be aggressive. we want to be in their faces’ and we never saw, any of that. He alluded to it, he said we weren’t good enough. We weren’t, our passing and everything about our game today, weren’t good enough. I’m not sure I would blame the pitch for the problems that Spurs had today.”
Tottenham will be happy they are still in the tie
On another day, a performance like that could have easily seen Spurs lose 3-0, which would have effectively ended the tie.
The one silver lining for Postecoglou’s men is that despite not being at their best, they are still well in the tie ahead of the second leg, with all to play for at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Premier League side will fancy their chances of turning around the deficit in North London next week.
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