Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou fired a tetchy response in an interview with BBC and threatened to stop answering questions following their 6-3 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
The Australian had been coping with several absentees in defence, with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, captain Cristian Romero and centre-back Micky van de Ven all out of the starting XI.
Instead, 18-year-old Archie Gray was asked to start at the heart of the defence again alongside Radu Dragusin. And the pair struggled to contain Liverpool‘s devastating front four as Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah helped themselves to a brace apiece.
Liverpool helped themselves to 24 shots and Reds icon Jamie Carragher suggested Arne Slot‘s men « could’ve got 10. »
When asked about if he blamed Spurs’ leaky defence on the players out injured, Postecoglou made it clear he wouldn’t entertain such ‘obvious’ questions and even threatened to stop answering them altogether.
« I’m just going to stop answering these questions, » the 59-year-old said to BBC Sport.
« If people can’t see the obvious I‘m not going to point it out. Make of it what you want, yes we’re conceding goals.
« If you want to discount the fact we’re missing a goalkeeper, two centre-backs and left-back and that hasn’t coincided with what we’re doing… I don’t know what to say anymore.
« I think people make up their mind in their own way. They either think what I’m doing is good or bad, and that’s fine. »
Since the start of December, Spurs are bottom of the statistics charts for goals conceded (12), shots faced (85), expected goals against and big chances faced, per Sky Sports.
However, Postecoglou suggested that Liverpool, who had their strongest XI available for the game, would similarly struggle if they were in the same situation.
« It’s fairly significant [losing injured players], » he continued. « If you took out Liverpool’s goalkeeper, two centre-backs and a left-back – or any team other than Liverpool – they’d find it tough going as well. »
Despite his grievance with Spurs’ mounting injury list of 10 players out, Postecoglou didn’t take anything away from Liverpool‘s performance and admitted his side were inferior throughout.
« It’s obviously a painful one for us. Credit to Liverpool, they were too good for us, » he added. « They’re in a great moment, great form, feeling confident. It was a bridge too far for us, We looked like we lacked energy which is understandable. »
The result leaves Spurs sitting 11th in the Premier League table, having lost eight of their 17 matches so far this season.
The north London outfit travel to face high-flying Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Boxing Day knowing that a win would bring them back into contention for Champions League qualification.
Source link
