Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou bemoaned the “soft” objectives his facet conceded within the 2-0 loss at Fulham as they suffered their fifteenth defeat of an “unacceptable” Premier League marketing campaign.
“Fifteen defeats nowhere near good enough,” stated Postecoglou following their newest loss at Craven Cottage, the place former participant Ryan Sessegnon added insult to harm by scoring Fulham’s second.
The consequence leaves Spurs languishing in thirteenth, with 34 factors from 29 video games, having misplaced their joint-most video games at this stage of a league season since 1997-98.
Any prospect of European soccer subsequent time period rests totally on profitable the Europa League.
“I said to the players, I’m not going to let anyone just think about Europa and nothing else,” Postecoglou stated.
“We won’t let this league season go the best way it has. We have misplaced approach too many video games, unacceptable.
“I perceive the supporters’ frustrations with that. It was one other day the place we let a sport get away from us after we should not. We had possibilities to go 1-0 up which might have put stress on them, then they scored a extremely tender purpose.
“Today the opposition haven’t blown us off the park. For 75 minutes we were where we wanted to be, the fact we come out of that game with nothing is disappointing.”
A vital victory over AZ Alkmaar on Thursday evening stored alive Spurs’ marketing campaign with Europa League development and Postecoglou shuffled his pack with seven adjustments in west London.
That call finally got here again to chew the Australian as, after a uninteresting first 45 minutes and a sequence of squandered second-half possibilities, Rodrigo Muniz and latterly Sessegnon pounced.
Requested whether it is troublesome to get his gamers motivated for the Premier League, Postecoglou added: “I don’t think so. Hope not. We made a lot of changes today.
“When we get back [from the international break] this is going to be our schedule we need to make sure we have as many [players] in good condition.
“They needed to play as we speak to prime them up. We needed to relaxation a pair as nicely. Typically gamers undergo these spells and he must discover a strategy to break via that.”
Bissouma hooked as Postecoglou tries to handle squad
Sky Sports activities’ Peter Smith:
Postecoglou spoke plainly when requested why Yves Bissouma had been subbed off at half-time for the second Premier League sport in a row. “Sometimes Biss lets the game drift by him,” stated the Tottenham boss. “He needs to be more dominant in the way he gets on the ball. The game gets away from him and today we needed more in that position.
“However on the similar time Biss and some others are missing a little bit of confidence.”
His replacement, Lucas Bergvall, added impetus and energy after the break at Fulham and was unfortunate not to win a penalty at 1-0 down. So why not start him? Because Bergvall – just 19 – started in the Europa League win over AZ Alkmaar on Thursday and Postecoglou is trying to get the balance right in his squad.
“We want to verify we now have as many in good situation [as we can],” he said, referring to the seven changes he made from the AZ win. “They needed to play as we speak to prime them up. We needed to relaxation a pair as nicely.”
The Europa League quarter-final with Eintracht Frankfurt is the precedence for Spurs now. Postecoglou needs as many choices on the pitch and on the bench able to swing that tie their approach. However he has additionally described Spurs’ 15 Premier League defeats this time period as “unacceptable” and Mathys Tel was filmed attempting to placate Spurs followers after the ultimate whistle at Craven Cottage.
Getting the stability proper between rotating within the league however nonetheless delivering performances and outcomes to take care of confidence and momentum for the important thing European nights goes to be a problem.