Ange Postecoglou has said the Tottenham squad still supports their attacking philosophy and backed them to turn their season around after losing 4-3 to Chelsea on Sunday.
Spurs were 2-0 up after 11 minutes thanks to goals from Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski, but were unable to stop Chelsea's thrilling comeback as Jadon Sancho's first-half goal and Cole Palmer's penalty in the minute 61 leveled the score.
Enzo Fernandez then put the visiting team ahead before Palmer's second penalty of the night decided the match.
Although Son Heung-Min scored a consolation goal in the sixth minute of added time, fans greeted the final whistle with boos and many had left even earlier after feeling resigned to Tottenham's seventh league defeat of the season.
Postecoglou, who took charge of Tottenham in the summer of 2023 and guided them to fifth place in his first season, faced angry Spurs fans after Thursday's 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth and pressure is mounting on the 59-year-old with the club 11th in the table and now seven points off the top four.
Tottenham suffered a series of injury setbacks and lost Cristian Romero to a quadriceps injury after just 15 minutes before Brennan Johnson fell ill and Micky van de Ven could only play 79 minutes due to a tendon problem. crooked
“It's a difficult time because there are all these tools you can use as a coach when you're going through tough times to turn things around and our limited resources from a playing perspective right now don't allow us to do that. We have to find other ways,” he said. Postecoglou at a press conference.
“It's not for lack of effort. The players are constantly out there because we can't rotate. They're giving everything they can. That also decreases performance because they probably need a rest, but we can't give them a rest.”
“I think it's something we need to address head-on and move forward. There's still a lot to play for us between now and January just to make sure we continue to perform.
“I still feel that within this team there is a real belief in what we are doing and if we maintain that we will turn our season around and hopefully at some point we will get into calmer waters in terms of some of the things that are happening at the moment.”
Postecoglou also expressed frustration at referee Anthony Taylor's decision not to punish Chelsea midfielder Moisés Caicedo for a late challenge on Pape Matar Sarr in the 34th minute. VAR official Jarred Gillett deemed Caicedo had not used excessive force in the entrance, but Postecoglou said: “I think it's the situation we find ourselves in with the current state of football, where people are simply frozen to make big decisions. I think the referees don't want to. make them because they will go to the VAR and the VAR does not want to intervene, so you are like in no man's land.
“I just don't think, I've said this before, that technology has helped our game. I don't see how it helps because it means that instead of a person being in control of a game and you accept it, it almost feels like it.” like no one is in control because everyone is afraid to make the decision to overthrow someone else.
“The referees are afraid to make decisions in case they make a mistake, the VAR doesn't want to intervene and I understand that because you don't want interruptions in the game. You just have to deal with it.”
