Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Tottenham lost their way a bit in the first half after they took the lead but praised his players for the way they controlled the second half and kept plugging away.
The game started at a high tempo, with both sides pressing from the front and creating plenty of chances.
However, following Curtis Jones’ sending-off in the 26th minute, the away side decided to put men behind the ball and play on the counter-attack, with Postecoglou admitting that his side did not cope well with their opponents’ tactical shift.
When Diogo Jota was also given his marching orders on 69 minutes, Liverpool understandably decided to drop deep with all nine men behind the ball, with the Lilywhites struggling to break them down.
In the end, Tottenham got a fortuitous late winner, with Joel Matip turning Pedro Porro’s cross into his own net.
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 30: Ange Postecoglou, Manager of Tottenham Hotspur, celebrates following the team’s victory during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 30, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Always room for improvement for Postecoglou
Postecoglou stated that he was pleased with the maturity and calmness that his side showed after the interval.
When asked how pleased he was that Tottenham found a match-winner without James Maddison, Yves Bissouma and Son Heung-min on the pitch, the Australian told Football.London: “We want to be a team that has multiple avenues to score goals and we had to create that because with Harry going there was a fair chunk of goals leaving the team automatically.
“We weren’t going to replace that with one player. We needed to make sure the way we set up as a team gave us the opportunity to score in different areas. I thought we started the game really well and so did Liverpool. I thought it was a good game at the start and then they went down to 10-men.
“Until we scored I thought we were really good and then we lost our way a little bit. We rushed things, overdid things and were a bit too individual in that back end of the first half and it allowed them to get an equaliser.
“The thing about Liverpool is even with 10-men they are still the same threat because they prey on mistakes, have world-class players in transition and we were a bit naïve I thought, but second half we were better.
“We controlled the game a lot better, played in our half, we were a bit more calm and probably didn’t vary our attacks enough but having said that Alisson pulled off some unbelievable saves and we just had to stay calm.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I thought we got it tactically wrong in the second half, particularly after Liverpool went down to nine men. Instead of stretching the pitch and creating overloads out wide using the Udogie and Porro, our full-backs continued to be inverted and take up positions centrally, which made it easier for Liverpool to defend.
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