Brennan Johnson has revealed that Ange Postecoglou made an inspired prediction at half-time, telling the Spurs players they will be able to get two or three goals as soon as they score the opener.
The first half was an extremely frustrating affair from a Tottenham perspective, with Brentford being set up quite well to stop the home side from building out from the back.
The away side also proved quite resolute defensively, with the Lilywhites struggling to break them down and fashion chances.
Postecoglou made two changes at the interval, taking off Rodrigo Bentancur and Oliver Skipp while bringing on Johnson and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, thus throwing caution to the wind.
The changes had the desired effect as Tottenham blew Brentford away at the start of the second period with three quickfire goals.
What did Postecoglou tell Spurs players at half-time?
Johnson admitted that the home side got sidetracked by the antics of the Bees players in the first half and thus lost their focus.
The Welshman told TNT Sports (via TBR Football) following the 3-2 win: “It was a weird game. I think obviously we expected what was going to come, in terms of them trying to get set pieces, playing a tough game, and I think we fell for it in the first half.
“We were getting riled up by some of their players and I think in the second half, we just had to take a deep breath and play our football.”
The 22-year-old revealed that Postecoglou’s prediction at the interval proved spot-on, with the Australian being confident that his side would go on to score a few if they could get an equaliser.
The winger added: “It was just one them games, the manager said before, once we score one we’ll score two and we’ll score three, he said those exact words. And as soon as we scored that first goal so early I just felt like we had to keep the momentum going.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Postecoglou deserves a lot of credit for the chances he made at half-time. It was a brave call and could have quite easily backfired, with Brentford having more space to counter-attack, given the number of bodies that Spurs were committing in attack.