Ange Postecoglou has said that following the win over Newcastle he has been too hard on his players recently, admitting that it was always going to be difficult to get results, given the injuries that his side was dealing with.
Tottenham’s recent losses at home against Chelsea, Aston Villa and West Ham followed a very similar pattern, with the Lilywhites dominating proceedings but being unable to make their dominance reflect on the scoreline before being punished at the other end due to some defensive lapses.
Postecoglou looked visibly angry and frustrated after the 2-1 loss to West Ham on Thursday, remarking in his post-match press conference that his players lacked any conviction in the final third (Football.London).
The Australian would have wanted a response from his squad against Newcastle and he certainly got that, with the North Londoners tearing the Magpies to shreds on Sunday.
The Tottenham head coach conceded after the 4-1 win that while he did not want to give the players any excuses over the last few weeks, there were always going to be some challenges, given their injury list.
Postecoglou has been too hard on the Spurs squad
When asked if it feels like the team is coming together a bit now even though James Maddison and Micky van de Ven remain out of action, Postecoglou told Football.London: “Yeah, look I have been struggling with that a little bit all week because we’re trying to build something here and part of that is through the tough periods to not allow the lads too much latitude in terms of excuses but the reality is and I have probably been too hard on them in retrospect but we got decimated after the Chelsea game.
“And it is no coincidence that now we are getting some players back that we are starting to look a lot stronger. I will not speak on Eddie Howe’s behalf but I can see what he’s going through and in this league if you have one or two key players out, you’re going to struggle.
“You mentioned James and Micky but you missed out Bentancur, how important Perisic was and when we won those games late, he was the one providing and Manor Solomon.
“I could go on and on. It sounds like excuses but that is the reality of the Premier League and you don’t need too much analysis to see why in the last few weeks we haven’t been as conclusive in our results as we were earlier in the year.
“And when I analyse the performances, I’ve asked guys and I don’t know how many positions Deki Kulusevski has played. Ben Davies has turned into a centre-back now, we had Emerson at centre-back, so all these kinds of things, there is some logic as to why we slipped a little bit.
“In the Premier League, if you slip a little bit, that’s enough and hopefully we’re coming out the other side and just having Richy and Pape back today, making those two changes after a midweek game and Eddie couldn’t make any changes, I just felt we had more energy and legs and we needed it today.”
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The influence of Sarr on this side cannot be overstated as the 21-year-old has an unbelievable engine. Having him and Bissouma together is almost like playing with an extra man in the middle of the park, and Newcastle’s midfielders were simply was not able to cope with the Spurs pair’s intensity.