Ange Postecoglou has said that although he is disappointed with Tottenham’s result at Anfield, he was pleased with the positive intent that his players showed on Sunday.
Postecoglou looked more animated than we have ever seen him during Tottenham’s loss at Stamford Bridge last week, with the Australian clearly not happy with the fact that his players were unwilling to take risks in the London derby.
It seemed like his message after that loss had got through to the players as the Lilywhites were looking to play forward against Liverpool right from kick-off.
However, Jurgen Klopp’s men were still able to shut out Tottenham’s attacks and looked threatening every time they went forward, racing to a 4-0 lead within the hour mark before the away side pulled a couple of goals back to add some respectability to the scoreline.
Postecolgou wants Spurs to play his brand of football
When asked what he made of the performance, Postecoglou told Football.London: “Obviously a hugely disappointing outcome for us but at least we were more like ourselves today in terms of our football.
“Our last two away games at Newcastle and Chelsea, apart from the results which weren’t great either, we just didn’t try and play our football.
“I thought today, even in the first half, some of our football, our pressing was back to where it should be. We lacked a real sort of cutting edge for sure. We had nothing in that front third and that allowed Liverpool to get comfortable.
“The flip side of that was when they got forward and into the front third their guys were quite lethal on pouncing on our mistakes. At 4-0 we’ve got a mountain to climb but again when we play like ourselves we always finish strong because we put pressure on the opposition and it eventually takes its toll.
“We got a couple of goals and we maybe could have had a couple more. It’s disappointing but at least we tried to play and looked like a version of ourselves which gives me something to work with.”
The Tottenham head coach confessed that his players were not decisive enough in the final third, admitting that they need to rectify that issue if they are to beat the likes of Liverpool.
When asked if his players are short of confidence, he said: “Maybe in the front third there is. Like I said, I thought our football was good today. Under pressure, they are a really good pressing team and we played some good stuff to get through them and then we got to the front third and nothing would happen. It probably is a bit of a lack of confidence but again that’s something the guys have to work through.
“You have to find a way to overcome that because ultimately if you don’t put pressure on the opposition in the front third after you’ve worked your way up there, they’re going to get comfortable with their position. It’s probably a little bit of that but we’ve got to find a way to snap out of that because it’s not going to happen on its own.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I can understand why some Spurs fans are seeing the positives from these performances and are hopeful that Postecoglou is putting in the foundations which can propel us to bigger and better things in the next couple of seasons.
While I am hoping that they are right, the reality is that Postecoglou has not competed with managers of this calibre in his career so far and we have no evidence that this can work.
Unfortunately, the fact that we continue to give up chances very easily is a feature and not a bug of the Australian’s system and I am starting to have major doubts over whether you can succeed at this level while having no defensive control.
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