Ange Postecoglou held his press conference after Tottenham lost 4-3 to Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday and we've got every single word he said.
In a breath-taking start, Dominic Solanke opened the scoring for Tottenham within five minutes. Marc Cucurella slipped on the ball and Brennan Johnson raced away with it down the right flank and Solanke did well to get in front of his man to power the cross home. Just five minutes later Dejan Kulusevski made it 2-0. Cucurella slipped once again, Johnson picked up the ball again and gave it to Pedro Porro who passed it to Kulusevski and the Swede dribbled inside and struck a terrific low effort inside the right-hand post.
Tottenham then lost the returning Cristian Romero from the action after just 15 minutes when he was forced off with an injury on his return to the team.
Chelsea hit a goal back when Jadon Sancho hit a clinical low finish in off the right-hand post from outside the box. The visitors were then gifted a leveller on the hour mark when Yves Bissouma brought down Moises Caidedo to give away a penalty and reach his fifth yellow card for the season so he will miss the Southampton game. Cole Palmer slotted home the spot kick.
The Blues made it 3-2 when Enzo Fernandez lashed home an effort and Palmer netted again from the spot after Pape Matar Sarr brought him down in the final 10 minutes. Son Heung-min fired one one back from James Maddison's pass in added time but it came too late.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou after the game. Here's a full transcript with everything the Australian said in the press conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Was that match about concentration in key moments?
Yeah. Obviously it's a painful one because we started the game really well. Not just the goals we scored but the way we were playing. We were really in control of the game and had some really good opportunities apart from the two goals. Then you lose Cristian after the second goal which is just the way our season has gone.
Nothing has run smoothly and they capitalised before we had settled back down to score. I still felt that in the first half we had the better moments to get a third goal, a couple of key ones.
In the second half they came out and put us under pressure. I felt we were handling it not too badly and then when they scored we had a big moment at 2-2 to go 3-2 up and in these kind of games, those moments are important. We don't take it and then both penalties were poor on our behalf. They're self-inflicted and unnecessary challenges. We've given them two goals away for no reason and given ourselves a mountain to climb which proved too hard.
What were the problems for Romero, Van de Ven and Brennan Johnson?
Romero is just obviously hugely disappointing. He felt something in his quad. He trained really well. He wasn't the one I was worried about, to be honest, but, you know, it's just like I said, the way the season's going for us unfortunately. So we just have to wait and see.
Brennan just didn't feel well. He didn't feel well at half-time, but he wanted to give it a go, but he just wasn't feeling 100% so I had to take him off.
And then, well, the plan was always for Micky to play 60/70 [minutes] today. Obviously, I thought Romero would be okay to play 90, but Micky, probably 60/70. So we were always going take him off. He didn't feel anything significant. He just felt tightness, but we were always going to take him off anyway.
Did you gamble at all with the fitness of the two centre-backs in particular?
No, Romero didn't injure the same thing. It's a totally different injury, but also people I'm sure are aware of our situation. It's not like I've got a multitude of options there, so, you know, you've got to make these decisions. Both players trained and tried well, and they both wanted to help.
So you make these decisions with all the best information. Like I said, it's not like Romero re-injured his toe, it's a totally different injury, which could happen at any time.
Some people say that maybe this defeat has come in the most damaging way possible, also losing the players, how much of a challenge is that?
Every challenge you have is, is one you need to overcome. So you know whether there is something ultimately, the pain of the defeat today, for me anyway, it doesn't diminish that we also played very well against a top team, and at times, looked the better side. So I always look for that in terms of our growth.
It was disappointing that we worked awfully hard, but to give away two goals and you give away two penalties unnecessarily against a quality side anyway, you make things very difficult for yourself.
What did you make of Moises Caicedo's tackle on Pape Matar Sarr?
I think it's kind of where we're at with the current state of football, where people are just frozen to make big decisions. I think referees don't want to make them because they'll go to VAR and VAR doesn't want to intervene, so you're kind of left in no man's land. There's a couple of decisions I thought today that definitely went against us.
I thought the linesman put his flag up bizarrely for Deki when he was through, I don't know what for. Those are things that are out of our control. We can't do anything about that. Hopefully the powers that be work that out.
How frustrating is it for you to have all of these uncontrollables?
Yeah, it's just the space we're in at the moment, We just don't seem to get that sort of ability to just gain some traction. Every time we've seemed to something comes along and disrupts us. People keep referring to the City game, and we lost Vic straight afterwards for three months, so it seems like we're just not able to do that.
But like you said, they're uncontrollables. My role is to try and maintain the course of the things we can control and keep making sure we're focused on continuing to grow as a team. I always feel with these things that at some point they even themselves out and if you do the right things, they'll come back to you.
The Caicedo foul on Sarr? Were you surprised he wasn’t sent off?
Yeah that’s what I was talking about. But like I said that is where we are at. I just don’t think, I have said it before, the technology has helped our game. I don’t see how it helps because It means instead of one person being in control of a game and you accepting that it almost feels like no one is in control because everybody is scared to make a decision to overturn somebody else. Referees are scared to make decisions in case they get it wrong, VAR don’t want to intervene and I get that because you don’t want disruptions to the game. You just have to cop out.
How much does it all feed into the inconsistency?
Every time we have seemed like we are on solid footing something has come along which will become an impediment for us to do that. It’s just the way our season has gone so far. It went like that last year. It’s not like since I have been here this is unusual territory. Ultimately, my role now is to focus on the things I can control and keep preparing the team the best we can to keep progressing as a football team and turn our season around.
Is confidence and belief low among the players?
When I look at today’s performance I don’t see them lacking confidence or belief. It’s probably the other way. Both penalties we conceded were borne out of desperation. I think they are desperate to turn our season around and are really disappointed how it has gone. When you’re in that mood you kind of lose that composure and discipline you need. It’s not like we are hanging on in games, we wouldn’t play like we did today if there was a lack of belief and confidence. When you get into this situation we are in there is also a sense of desperation from the players and I thought that cost us today.
There seemed to be tension in the crowd at 2-0?
Look fair play to them I thought the crowd were good today. They got behind the team but I guess when the season has gone as it has for us…. At 2-0 to lose your centre-back it does disrupt you. You’ve started the game so well, you have to make a substitution which means you’re hampered in making substitutions during the second-half. All these things come along and you just go ‘here we go another challenge for us, nothing is really running smoothly.’ The crowd probably senses that as well and like I said it almost becomes a self-fulfilling thing where you are almost expecting things to go wrong.
This is uncharted territory for you, how do you stop people feeling sorry for themselves and what tactics can you use to turn this around?
I don’t sense anybody is feeling sorry for themselves. It is a tough moment because there are all these tools you can possibly use as a manager when you are going through tough moments to turn things around and our limited resources from a playing perspective at the moment doesn’t allow us to do that so you have to find other ways. It’s not through a lack of effort. The players are constantly out there because we can’t rotate. They are giving everything they can. It diminishes performances as well because they probably need a rest but we can’t give them a rest.
I think it is something we need to tackle head on and keep pushing on. There is still plenty to play for us between now and January just to make sure we keep performing. I still sense within this squad there is a real conviction in what we are doing and if we maintain that we will turn our season around and hopefully at some point we hit some smoother waters in terms of some of the things that are happening at the moment. Some of it is self inflicted and hopefully we can get some more consistency.
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