Wayne Rooney has said that Ange Postecoglou failed to deliver what the Tottenham fans deserved against Fulham on Sunday, opining that the Spurs supporters have good reason to be displeased with the Australian decisions.
While Tottenham Hotspur’s main focus over the next two months will understandably be on the Europa League, they are now at risk of slumping to an embarrassing Premier League finish.
Their latest 2-0 loss against Fulham saw the Lilywhites drop down to 14th place, with the performance being devoid of any purpose or energy for large periods.
Rumours continue to circle over Postecoglou’s future at Tottenham, and the Australian may feel like he needs to deliver the Europa League title to secure his long-term future.
Wayne Rooney says Postecoglou made a big error against Fulham
Tensions boiled over after the final whistle as Postecoglou was seen getting into an angry confrontation with a Spurs fan, with the 59-year-old needing to be pulled back by Djed Spence.
Rooney believes that the Spurs fans who made the trip to West London had every right to feel aggrieved, given the starting lineup that was put out.
The Man Utd legend questioned why Postecoglou did not play his strong side and build on the momentum of their win over Alkmaar.
Rooney told BBC’s Match of the Day 2: “Tottenham is a massive football club, and I think for me when Ange has come out and I really like Ange, I think he’s a top manager. They haven’t had a great season and I think he’d be the first to admit that, but I just didn’t understand the changes today.
“I think you’ve got a responsibility to the fans who want Tottenham to do well, and it’s clear the fans are not happy with what’s going on at the minute, both on the pitch and off the pitch.
“I thought today was an opportunity to build on going through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League and give the Tottenham fans something going into this international break, but I know from obviously being a player, when you lose a game going inside international break, it’s horrible.
“There’s no worse feeling when you’ve got two weeks thinking about the game. If you win the game, you go away whatever happens and you’re coming back to a happy training ground and getting ready for your next game.”
Ange Postecoglou explains why he rotated his Tottenham squad
In his post-match press conference on Sunday, Postecolgou revealed the reason why he decided to make changes to his Tottenham side.
He pointed out that Tottenham’s schedule gets busier again after the international break, explaining that he had to get minutes into the legs of a number of his players.
Ange Postecoglou said: “Obviously, I made a lot of changes today because when we get back this is going to be our sort of schedule. We have already seen we can’t do that with 11 players.
“We need to make sure we have as many up and running and in good condition. I thought Mathys, Archie, Bentancur, Bissouma, and Brennan, they needed to play today to make sure we are topping them up.
“We had to rest a couple as well but I said to the players I’m not going to allow anyone to think about Europa and nothing else.”
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