Kristina
Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou has been forthcoming after the upset at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion in which he has spoken to his players about issues in the team, conversations that will take place during the international week.
It was particularly galling given the fact that Spurs had been able to create a healthy two-goal cushion at the end of the first 45 minutes only to surrender all three points after the restart.
Postecoglou said it’s hard to try to forget the past loss for two weeks, especially when there is an international break and added that gave him time to reflect and get ready in presenting his feedback to the team.
“It’s hard,” he said. “But it’s not about me. It’s about what we’re trying to do to make ourselves the football team we want to be.”
The manager emphasized taking a balanced view towards their games, even addressing the imperfections in the second half while appreciating their team’s excellent performance in the first.
“Time allows you to reflect a little bit better,” he said. “You can’t dismiss the first half. You can’t just focus on the second half. It gives you perspective to then look at how I’m gonna… one thing is to say ‘I’m angry, I’m disappointed’, whatever. But how are we going to help the players that next time that happens, we deal with it better?”
Postecoglou said statistics came to his aid during post-match analysis, but a heavy head showed the visitors dropped their intensity significantly during the second half.”.
“The stats indicate we were very passive in the second half, even from a physical standpoint,” he explained. “We pride ourselves in being the fittest team, the most intense team in the comp and our physical stats nosedived at the start of the second half.”
He attributed this to a misplaced attitude of complacency.
“I just feel we went out there with the kind of attitude of ‘We’ll weather a bit of a storm and then finish strong and then the game is over done with’ because we were so dominant in the first half.”
Postecoglou said such an approach is not sustainable at the highest level.
“Elite sport you can’t do that. You drop one or two per cent and you’re dropping off a cliff. Your performance doesn’t drop a little bit, you drop (considerably)”.
The gaffer picked on the fact that Brighton capitalized on Tottenham’s loss of focus and implored his players to take more responsibilities on the pitch.
“We didn’t handle it well and stopped doing the things that fundamentally are the foundation of our football,” he said. “It’s not me saying we weren’t competitive or didn’t look like we didn’t have any effort.”
Postecoglou rebutted the idea that leadership lies solely with a selected captain or even senior players.
“Part of the feedback to the players is, ‘If you feel it happening out there, the best way to arrest that is individuals to take action, to know what to do, he explained. “When people talk about leaders they think it’s the captain. But that’s where you fall into the trap because it might be the captain who is having a bad day.”
He believes any player on the pitch can show leadership.
“Leadership can be shown by the youngest player out there,” he said. “Every individual has the capacity to show leadership. Leadership is in that moment taking ownership of something. We didn’t have anyone who did that through that time.”
Postecoglou acknowledged some players aren’t the types to vocalize their thoughts, but leadership can also occur through actions.
“For me, leadership is action,” he said. “It’s what you do in the heat of the action. Where the instincts are to do something about it but for some reason you don’t. Because you don’t feel it’s your place or you don’t feel confident enough. That’s leadership.”
He sketched out plans to foster a more responsible culture among the squad.
So you say, okay, you’re not going to talk, but you know what, next time there’s a 50-50 go and win it. And that’s going to inspire everyone, he explained.
The defeat at Brighton wasn’t the first time that Tottenham have let a lead slip. The same thing happened at Southampton earlier this year, prompting a scathing attack from then-manager Antonio Conte on the players and the club.
Postecoglou vigorously dismissed the idea that this was somehow a part of the club’s DNA to do this, that such collapses are some kind of inevitability.
” Mate, if I accepted that what am I doing here?” he responded. “Seriously – if I accept that this somehow is impossible to change I am really stealing a living. I don’t believe that and I never have.”
The manager remains steadfast in.
