Tottenham’s players can expect a fiery team talk from Ange Postecoglou when they return from international duty this week, with anger from their last defeat still lingering
Ange Postecoglou says he will “explode” at his Tottenham players once they arrive back at the club following international duty.
Spurs face West Ham in Saturday’s early kick-off needing a result following a staggering collapse against Brighton before the break. Postecoglou’s side had a 2-0 lead at the Amex Stadium on October 6, only to lose 3-2 in a dramatic turnaround
The Australian manager launched into a passionate post-match rant in which he slammed his complacent players for throwing away three points. He branded it the ‘worst defeat’ of his reign at Tottenham, insisting the second-half performance was ‘unacceptable’.
However, Postecoglou isn’t done with venting yet, having been left to his own devices to stew on things while many of his players have been away with their national teams. “You never know if it (the international break) is good or bad. Maybe for the players it was good, but I don’t like sitting on a loss,” Postecoglou told Mark Schwarzer for Optus Sport.
“There can be a tendency to over-analyse things. It wasn’t a good one. The first half was unbelievable, but I didn’t like the second half and what we looked like. It wasn’t the loss, it was the manner I wasn’t comfortable with. I’ve been sitting on it for 10 days, I’m ready to explode once they get back in the building and that will be my therapy.”
The defeat left Spurs ninth in the Premier League on 14 points from seven matches. They will face a West Ham side full of confidence following their 4-1 thrashing of Ipswich before the break, which was their first win at the London Stadium.
Postecoglou is under pressure, with Spurs having won just three matches in the league so far this season, but he says he won’t change his approach. “What everyone wants me to do is what everyone else does. I’m not going to do that,” he said.
“The reason I’m here now is because I didn’t do what everyone else does. I wouldn’t do anything differently because I’ve always tried to make decisions that I believe are going to stay true to what we’re trying to create. What I do know is that people forget the starting point. It becomes really blurred. I don’t forget the starting point. That’s how I measure progress.”