by Ange Postecoglou ripped into his Tottenham players after seeing them blow a 2-0 half-time lead to lose 3-2 at Brighton, branding the performance “unacceptable” and accusing them of a lack of fight. The head coach hasn’t been this angry after a defeat during his season and somewhat at the club, with his outspoken criticism resembling his Antonio Conte moment.
Conte, the former permanent head coach of Spurs, collapsed after his side surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 at Southampton in March 2023, furiously questioning his players’ mentality. It must be said that Postecoglou’s performance was rather measured.
“We didn’t do what we needed to do at this level – it’s non-negotiable,” Postecoglou said. “We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t do what was needed at this level, the basics of the game, and we paid the price.
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“This is unacceptable. You can kind of understand that you’re not going to win every game. But there is the way you lose matches. And it’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve lost the game like this. Like I said, unacceptable. It’s probably the most disappointing loss I’ve had since I’ve been here, in terms of how we approached it and it’s something I have to evaluate.
“It’s a stark reminder of what elite sport is all about. The main thing is competitiveness. If you’re not competitive, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how good you think you are…you’re going to stumble.
Danny Welbeck put Brighton ahead in the 66th minute and Postecoglou left time until the 79th minute to make his first substitutions. “Substitutions and all that kind of stuff…that doesn’t concern me at all,” he said. “If you’re not competitive, no matter what you do, you’re not going to get rewards.
“We didn’t deserve, on our performance in the second half, regardless of the substitutions or anything else, to get anything out of the game. If you get something from the game, you are falsely rewarded and I don’t want to be falsely rewarded.
“We should have put the game to bed in the first half. But if that’s just obscuring what I saw in the second half, then it’s not… I mean, some things will always reveal themselves over time. I have to deal with what happened in the second half.
Postecoglou was asked if he had said all this to the players in the dressing room. “Yeah, the comments are always what I believe [in]“, he replied. “I’m not hiding anything. I’m sure the players are disappointed but that doesn’t really matter to me. They should be disappointed. Our supporters are disappointed, I am disappointed.
“I want them to understand that football is not about losing a football game, it happens. The disappointment comes from the fact that we are not doing the basics of what is expected at the highest level from a competitive point of view.
