Ange Postecoglou was ebullient in front of the press after Tottenham’s thrilling 4-3 win over Manchester United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday night. Spurs took a 3-0 lead over United to midway through the second half, but United scored two quick goals behind keeper errors by Fraser Forster to cut the lead to 3-2. Son Heung-Min extended Spurs’ lead to 4-2 thanks to an outstanding Olimpico goal before an injury time header by United’s Jonny Evans.
In the end it was still a return to the League Cup semifinals for Spurs where they’ll face Liverpool in a home-and-home series early next year. But in his post-match interviews, all Ange wanted to talk about was how good a win it was for his injury-strapped and exhausted side playing his style of football against the odds.
“Are you not entertained? I know the studio is probably going in a meltdown over my lack of tactics”
Ange Postecoglou reacts after a Carabao Cup classic against Man United ️ pic.twitter.com/cnR8aOXHw7
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) December 19, 2024
“I liked every bit of it, mate. Are you not entertained? What do you want, a scrambling one-nil? I know the studio is going into meltdown over my lack of tactics, but you know what? I love the fact that we just go out there and take it to oppositions, even with the fact that we’ve got so many absences at the moment.
“Goalkeeper, both center halves, left back, I’ve got kids on the bench and yet these boys are maintaining their principles and go out playing the football we want to be and I think if we get through this period we’re going to get enormous growth out of it.
“I really liked the way we played tonight. I mean obviously those two moments sort of taint the eyeball and it’s something that’s happened this year before. Obviously it doesn’t help us in terms of gaining traction with our consistency, but in terms of the mentality of the boys, mate, I love it.”
In the post-match press conference, Ange did discuss the two goalkeeping errors that turned what was a comfortable 3-0 Tottenham lead into a nervy 3-2 match that ended a 4-3 thriller, but gave Fraser Forster a lot of grace while acknowledging that, yes, those were big, big mistakes.
“He is disappointed because he was outstanding for us. Even before then in the first half I thought he was really good with his feet, he found some great solutions. The first one probably affected his confidence a little bit and he lost a bit of belief and the second one compounded it. But he is a big boy mate and he is another one who has stood up for us big time in this period.
“I can’t speak highly enough of this group of players. Again tonight we had 10 players from our list unavailable for one reason or another. We had a day’s rest less than Man Utd and we are not able to rotate the squad the way we want to, like other clubs can because we just don’t have the numbers. We are not just getting through games we are still maintaining our level of football. As I keep saying we will get to some smoother waters at some point but this period is going to see us have enormous growth.
“Look, fair to say in 26 years there’s been a few [mistakes], but I’ve always felt the pros well outweigh the cons of those kind of things, and those moments are rare, but when they happen, obviously, you know, they kind of stand out and today there was obviously two, and like I said I think it’s just, I think the first one sort of affected Fraser for that next period.
“For us it’s still, I don’t think we could be the team we are, if we didn’t maintain our conviction around our beliefs. I know people will say ‘well just don’t take any risks’ and all that sort of stuff, but then we wouldn’t be scoring four goals and five goals and four goals and five goals. I mean, it’s the hardest thing in the game to do, score goals, and we’re doing it with bare bones of a squad. I think it’s a massive credit to this group of players that we’re performing at that level.”
Tottenham still have a lot of matches upcoming, starting with this Sunday’s match against Premier League leaders Liverpool, the same team Spurs just drew in the League Cup semifinal. But it’s matches like these that remind you of what Ange Postecoglou is trying to build, and his persistent reminders of how adversity can galvanize a team and propel it to bigger and greater achievements.
