Ange Postecoglou has been speaking in his press conference following Tottenham’s woeful second half performance to lose 3-2 at Brighton in the Premier League and we’ve got every word he said.
Tottenham opened the scoring on Sunday within 24 minutes when James Maddison won a ball back in the Brighton half, fed Dominic Solanke and the striker played a perfect ball through to Brennan Johnson, whose first-time finish made it six goals in as many games. After a spell of Brighton pressure, Spurs got a second goal when Solanke sent Timo Werner away down the left and he pulled it back inside to Maddison to curl in a low shot that the diving Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen fumbled into the net.
Tottenham opened the scoring on Sunday within 24 minutes when James Maddison won a ball back in the Brighton half, fed Dominic Solanke and the striker played a perfect ball through to Brennan Johnson, whose first-time finish made it six goals in as many games. After a spell of Brighton pressure, Spurs got a second goal when Solanke sent Timo Werner away down the left and he pulled it back inside to Maddison to curl in a low shot that the diving Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen fumbled into the net.
Brighton grabbed a goal back early in the second half through messy Spurs defending. Micky van de Ven missed a chance to intercept a bouncing cross into the box and then Destiny Udogie made a mess of his attempted clearance and the ball fell to Yankuba Minteh to fire low into the bottom right corner of the net. The hosts levelled before the hour mark. First Kaouru Mitoma found a way through some weak defending before Georginio Rutter ran on to his pass, skipped past a few half-hearted tackles before shooting into the bottom corner.
Only five minutes or so later it was 3-2 to Brighton as Danny Welbeck headed home. Udogie and Rodrigo Bentancur were easily beaten by Rutter and he picked out the unmarked striker to head in the winner.
Here’s every word Postecoglou said in his press conference at the Amex Stadium after the game.
What do you put that second half turnaround down to?
Look, we didn’t do what you need to do at this level, it’s kind of non-negotiable. We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it.
Was there complacency?
Not really sure. But wherever it comes from, it doesn’t really matter, it’s irrelevant. It’s unacceptable at the end of the day. You can kind of understand that you’re not going to win every game. But there’s the manner you lose games. And that’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve lost the game in that manner. And like I said, unacceptable.”
What can you do about it?
There’s a lot I can do about it. That’s why I’m in the role. If I couldn’t do anything about it I’d get somebody else to sit here.”
The team has improved defensively this season, does that make those goals conceded hurt even more?
All of it it’s disappointing. Like I said, there are certain elements of this team that have been pretty consistent throughout my tenure, and that is one, even on our not-so-good days we’ve always fought and been competitive. I think that’s been a non-negotiable. Like I said, today’s the first day I actually felt like we didn’t deliver in those areas. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s with the ball. Like I said, sport is as much about competition as it is about anything else. And if you don’t compete, you allow the opponent to overrun you in that manner, you’re not going to get anything out of it.
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