Every word Postecoglou said on what upset him in Arsenal defeat, half-time subs and Trossard error
Ange Postecoglou held his press conference following Tottenham's 2-1 defeat at Arsenal in the Premier League and we've got every single word he said.
Spurs opened the scoring when a corner was headed out to captain Son Heung-min and he struck it via a deflection into the bottom right corner of the net from the edge of the box. However, the hosts levelled matters when Radu Dragusin beat Gabriel to an Arsenal corner only to head it against Dominic Solanke and into the Spurs net.
It all came from a corner that shouldn't have been given as the ball bounced off Leandro Trossard and out of play. Arsenal then went ahead before the break when Yves Bissouma was dispossessed in the Spurs half and the ball was worked to Trossard and his shot bounced in front of Kinsky and the young goalkeeper only got fingertips to it as it went in.
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The second half brought little in the way of chances and quality and although Pedro Porro hit the right-hand post in the 94th minute, Spurs did not do enough to turn the game around.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou after the game. Here is the full transcript from the Australian's press conference at the Emirates Stadium.
What did you make of the performance tonight?
Not good enough, especially the first half. Way too passive, allowed Arsenal to take control of the game. Really disappointed with the way we, both with and without the ball, allowed them to dictate the tempo and paid a price for it. The second half was a little bit better but nowhere near good enough.
Was the double change at half-time about trying to get control back?
It wasn't about regaining control it was having different intent in our football. It's not who we are, it's not the way I set the team up. It's not the way we want to play, to sit in there and allowing Arsenal to play to their tempo. It just wasn't good enough.
You've said in the TV interview that too many games are getting away from your team and you need it to stop, how do you go about doing that?
You've got no choice. There's no magic cure. You've got to get up tomorrow, work hard and go into Sunday and prepare to go into battle and turn around our fortunes and our season. There's nothing magical that's going to change it. There's always reasons for all these things to happen. The reality is that our results and our form in the league has been nowhere near good enough. That needs to change.
For Arsenal’s first goal it should not have been a corner as the ball hit Trossard, you don't want to look at excuses but it did hit him?
Well it did. It did but I don’t want to talk about referees. I have got to take responsibility for my team and I let the referees take responsibility for theirs. It wasn’t a corner. It’s how things are going for us at the moment. But that aside, we weren’t anywhere near the level we needed to be in that first half in such a big game. We have got to understand that what we can control is the first thing we need to focus on.
Do you have frustration with the second goal?
I think that second goal is endemic of our whole first half. Irrespective of everything else, like I said, we just didn’t play anywhere near the identity I want us to be. We are an aggressive team with and without the ball, we have shown that. We showed that seven days ago against Liverpool. Tonight, especially in that first 45, we were way too passive and that’s not acceptable.
When you do that, these kinds of things creep in. Yeah it was a disappointing goal the second goal to concede but it’s not like we were playing anywhere near the level we needed to. Like I said, Second half was a little bit better and we certainly caused them a few more problems with and without the ball but it wasn’t enough.
There's not many positives you can take from a derby defeat but are the performances of your 18-year-olds, Bergvall and Gray, something you can take?
I hope not. I want them disappointed. This can’t be accepted by anyone at the club. Us losing so many games in a league season is not right. I know we are going through a tough trot and are asking big jobs but I hope they are hurting, the 18-year-olds, as much as anybody else in terms of us not being able to deliver on a big night.
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