Every word Ange Postecoglou said on his Tottenham 'burden', set pieces, Romero and Solanke
Was that another game where you had plenty of the ball but didn't create enough clear chances?
Yeah, to a certain extent. We had some good opportunities but we created so many more, we just wasted some of our good play. Similar to our other games where we haven't really had that conviction in the front third to take advantage of, whether it's us winning the ball back or getting into that front third and nothing coming of it. You keep opposition teams in the game when you do that.
How disappointed were you with the defending at the set piece for the goal?
Yeah, we handled them well for the most part. We switched off for one and you pay a price. That's what happens. It was always going to be a tight game, fine margins. And it proved to be a key moment.
Have you improved at set pieces overall this season?
We've handled them ok. Arsenal are obviously a very big threat at set pieces. It only takes one. It wasn't just Romero, a couple of others switched off as well. The delivery was spot on and Gabriel is always a threat in those situations. We paid a price for it.
What did you make of Dominic Solanke's performance on his home debut?
I thought Dom worked hard but, like I said, he hasn't played for over a month, only his second game of the year. I just thought there were a lot of odd times where, you know, if we just had a bit more belief and conviction in that front third that we could have made so much more with our play to create really good opportunities and, and even the ones we did, you know, we didn't again, like I said, we lacked some real conviction in their execution to really make the most of them.
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You've mentioned that lack of conviction before, what gives you the belief that that will change?
We've just got to keep working at it mate, that's my job. I've just got to keep giving the feedback to the guys, trying to guide them in the right way to make them see that for all their dominance in the game, you need to really be clear-headed in those kind of moments and, that's my role to try to guide them in the right way.
Arsenal are one of the best on set pieces, is that something you had worked on any more than normal this week?
I know, I know, for some reason people think I don't care about set pieces and it's a narrative that you can keep going on for ages and ages. I understand that. Like I said, we work on them all the time like we do for every other team. You know that they're a threat, as I said, for the most part, we handled them really well today, but we switched off for one and we paid a price and you learn from that and you move on.
But it is what it is, you know, it's my burden to carry mate and I'm happy to do that. It's not like, like I've always said, for me, there's a bigger picture that's at play here that's much more important than the finer details of us getting to where we want to. For us, the way forward is to try to turn the football we're playing now into something meaningful.
Last time you played Arsenal you spoke about Romero being 'outstanding' and that you need to get 'a bit of him' into the other players. Did you see more of that character from them today?
To a certain extent. We are a team that is progressing in many areas, with all that progress there are always new challenges and things you need to overcome. When I look at the four games in isolation this year, the football is probably more consistent and compelling than our first four games last year but obviously our results don’t reflect that. So I think we have made progress in certain areas but there are other areas we need to improve on and that’s my job to fill those gaps as quickly as possible.
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