After the defeat against Newcastle, Spurs coach Ange Postecoglou was extremely annoyed – and spoke of unfair conditions for his team, who were denied the deserved victory.
24 points, 12th place, just one win in eight games and currently four games without a win – things are not going well for Tottenham, and the frustration is running high, especially after the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United.
“I’m so proud of the players, the way they played today,” said coach Ange Postecoglou at the post-match press conference, saying he simply ‘loved’ everything his team showed. ”The players had an enormous task ahead of them and didn’t try to find any excuses. They were aggressive, created chances, played with energy and enthusiasm. We deserved to win today.”
Only in the end, it wasn’t a win but a defeat – an unjust one, as Postecoglou saw it. “I’m really angry that we didn’t get the reward we deserved. I’m angry and disappointed because it wasn’t football that denied us the result. I know what everyone wants to hear from me, but I’ll just say that on any other day, we would have won the game on a fair and even playing field.”
Postecoglou’s cryptic criticism
The Australian was quite cryptic in his criticism and didn’t really want to go into detail, but then he did when he talked about a hand scene, emphasizing that he didn’t care “whether people agree with me or not, whether they think it was a hand game or unintentional – whatever. I’m not interested in this discussion.”
Even though he did not elaborate, the Spurs coach was likely referring to the origin of the interim 1-1. In this, the only 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall had shot at Newcastle’s Joelinton after a sloppy pass from Pape Sarr. The ball rebounded off his hand to Bruno Guimaraes, who in turn set up scorer Anthony Gordon. The VAR had reviewed the scene and did not penalize the alleged handball – the goal counted, much to the annoyance of Postecoglou.
“We started the game really well and the only thing that stopped us was not football,” he said, also referring to the current extremely tight personnel situation at Spurs. ”We only had 11 fit players in training, but that’s no excuse. The players put in an incredible performance, played fantastic football, created chances and defended strongly. It’s unfair that they didn’t get the reward they deserved.”
Consolation in the role of the victim
Postecoglou forgot two or three things though. After Joelinton’s alleged handball, there was still a chance to defend and prevent the goal from being scored. Then there was the small fact that the equalizer fell in the 6th minute (!) and they had plenty of time after that. However, the Londoners did not take advantage of this, but instead conceded the 1:2 shortly before half-time thanks to an extremely poor phase. After the restart, Tottenham showed a much-improved performance, but ultimately remained simply too dangerous in front of goal.
Postecoglou did not dwell on that in his analysis, however, preferring to seek further solace in the victim role. “I know the results are not coming, but I see so much positivity in the team. Still, we have to win games. And normally you get rewarded when you play well and do things right. We were denied that today.”
