Ange Postecoglou has criticized Tottenham for ‘taking liberties’ in the second half of their 2-0 victory over Fulham. On Monday night, the Lilywhites easily defeated Marco Silva’s team to extend their winning streak and retake the lead in the Premier League standings.
Son Heung-min and Jame Maddison’s goals have given the Spurs manager a total of nine points, which is more than any other manager in the English top division. Despite Tottenham’s historic victory, Postecoglou wasn’t particularly thrilled with his team’s performance.
The 58-year-old gave his team a wake-up call after the match in north London, saying they “weren’t anywhere near the levels they’ve already shown this year.” Postecoglou responded, “I’m not trying to make a point, it’s just what I saw,” when asked to provide an explanation for Spurs’ decline after the break.
“I thought we wasted the ball a lot in the second half,” With regards to adding extra touches, we erred somewhat. I’ve been around long enough to know you’ll fall quite hard if you try to take liberties.
“Even though we won the game, I won’t let that obscure the fact that there is still room for improvement. We didn’t play nearly as well with the ball in the second half as we had earlier this year, and there wasn’t a really good reason for it.
“It’s not like the opposition changed their strategy. More of it was self-inflicted. I have to provide the gamers with feedback in that situation. They aim to achieve that. They desire improvement and betterment. I want to show them some of those stuff.
Then, when asked whether the disappointing performance showed how much progress is yet to be made, Postecoglou replied: “No. I’ve said every week that I’ve sat here that we’ve still got a long way to go. That doesn’t change.
“We’re still nine games in, at the beginning of building something. It would be so much easier for me to sit here and say we’re a great team. What I’m saying is that we have to improve. That responsibility is on me to make sure we do.
“We can be better, absolutely we can. Within that context, without the ball I thought we were brilliant tonight. We were outstanding. Let’s not discount it.
“It takes a hell of a lot of effort and commitment from the boys to that side of the game. That was there the whole time. That side of the game got us the victory tonight. But we need to be better when we have the ball as well.”