Troy Deeney believes that the Tottenham players are now quitting on Ange Postecoglou. The former Watford man accuses the senior players in the Spurs squad of lacking the fight and bravery that they need to deal with high-pressure situations.
Ange Postecoglou admits Spurs players did not follow game plan at Anfield
Tottenham’s performance at Anfield in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semifinal was very alien to what we have come to expect of the Lilywhites in the Postecolgou era.
Rather than trying to go toe-to-toe with their opponents, the away side decided to sit back and absorb pressure for the majority of the encounter, and it backfired spectacularly, with the Reds brushing them aside 4-0.
Speaking after the game, Postecoglou admitted that the game plan was not to sit back. He suggested that the players might have psychologically gone on the back foot since they took a 1-0 lead into the fixture.
Troy Deeney accuses Tottenham players of quitting on Ange Postecoglou
Deeney insisted that it was clear when watching Tottenham’s performance at Anfield that the players had given up before the game had even started.
He questioned why the senior players in the squad have not taken more ownership, remarking that it points to a lack of leaders in the dressing room.
Deeney told The Sun: “Anyone who has played the game will tell you most of those Spurs players quit, gave up. Not on each other or themselves, but quit on the manager, the fan base, everything.
“I made headlines by once saying Arsenal lacked ‘cojones’, but just look at this Tottenham team. They bottled it. They collapsed through fear. If that group look at themselves in the mirror and say: ‘We gave it everything’, then they’re liars. They’re lying to themselves and they’re lying to the fans.
“Where are the leaders? I was in the tunnel at full-time around all the post-match interviews. I only saw one player do one, and that was Son. Other than that, Ange did all of them. That to me says it all. One of the experienced lads should have taken a few of those off the manager’s hands. Take ownership.”
Senior Tottenham duo did not want to take responsibility
Given that Tottenham were without leaders like Cristian Romero and James Maddison, Postecoglou would have been hoping to see Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma take on more responsibility.
However, instead of taking the game by the scruff of the neck and showing some bravery in possession, both players hid against Liverpool, failing to even show for the ball at times.
That performance might have sealed Bissouma’s fate at Tottenham, with the Mali international now looking likely to be let go at the end of the campaign.