Towards the end of Ange Postecoglou Press Conference, after its appearance of Tottenham, Hotspur lost the northern London derby against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium on Wednesday, he asked if the only positive aspects to take the game were the performances were the performances were the performances were the performances from Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.
It was an opportunity to acknowledge two teenagers excelling in difficult circumstances and end a bad evening on a hopeful note. Gray prefers to play in midfield but has started the past 10 games in all competitions at centre-back, while Bergvall has arguably been Spurs’ most impressive performer in recent weeks.
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Instead of renting Gray and Bergvall, which 12 months ago, they played respectively at the time of English football and the first flight from Sweden, Postcoglou fired a precautionary shot.
“I hope not. I need them to disappoint,” he said. This cannot be accepted at the club. We lose so many games in a league season that they don’t go well. I know we’re going through a tough Trot and we’re asking for a lot of paintings (of people), but I hope they suffer, 18-year-olds are harmful. “
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The frustration of the understandable postcoglou.
Tottenham resisted 20 minutes of intense tension from Arsenal, then took the lead through the son Heung-min, just to grant twice just before part time. There was a detail of the misfortune about Dominic Solanke’s own purpose, however, Yves Bissouma was gently dispossessed through Thomas Party in the preparation of Leandro Trosssard’s winner. Postcoglou said his team was “too passive” and “far from the point they are”, describing what they play as “not acceptable. “
Leandro Trossard provides the arsenal to the lead 4 minutes after equalizing 💥
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– Soccer on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 15, 2025
It is a contrast to the way Declan Rice spoke about the arsenal that demonstrates in TNT Sports, the live station of the United Kingdom game. “Tonight meant more than anything, from the first minute,” Rice said. “The first forty -five minutes were natural domination. We have shown this intention, this pressure, this desire. You can say it a derby. We are not lucky not to score 10 tonight, it is the sensation. “
This is the eleventh time Spurs have lost in the Premier League this season in 21 games: the only groups to have suffered more defeats are Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City (13) and Southampton (16). Or, to describe them along the way, the 3 sides of the down puts.
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Tottenham has taken only 24 numbers of the 21 games and are closer to the back 3 than the classification of the Champions League four. They have once won in nine games of the League, and that opposed an aspect of Southampton lately 8 problems in the last place. The goodwill to overcome the leaders of the Liverpool League in the first leg in the house of a Cup Copao Cup this time this time a week ago, moved away after the visualization of Wednesday night on Wednesday night.
In the first minutes of the match, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jurrien Timber made interceptions in the most sensible of the box that led to attacks by arsenal. Gray, Bissouma and Djed Spence had trouble advancing to the left wing of the spurs. Then Kai Havertz blocked goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky in the box and almost scored.
Tottenham struck and struggled to string together a series of passes. Sound, Dejan Kulusevski and Solanke were peripheral figures. Bissouma and Pape Sarr were replaced via Brennan Johnson and James Maddison at half-time, while Postcoglou are looking to locate “another target in our football”.
“It’s not who we are,” the head coach said. “Allowing Arsenal to play to their tempo. It just wasn’t good enough.”
This is not the first time Postecoglou has made drastic changes at the break. Injuries have hit Spurs but their midfield has been left relatively unscathed, apart from Rodrigo Bentancur suffering two separate concussions. Halfway through his second season, Postecoglou is still trying to figure out his most effective midfield combination.
In the Premier League, Maddison is leading the way, with Son, in the squad for direct goal involvements (12), yet has started the past four games on the bench. The 28-year-old England international has not completed a full 90 minutes in the league once this season and has been substituted more times (14) than any of his team-mates. Paradoxically, Maddison is either the first to be taken off when Spurs are underperforming or is asked to perform a rescue act coming on from the bench.
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Bergvall seems promising as the deepest midfielder, but it is very duty to position himself in a young and green player. Kulusevski has the task of changing between a central role and the right wing in the same game and has accumulated the second highest number of the minimums of the League (1,681) this season after Solo Pedro Porro (1,716) and wishes to rest.
If Postcoglou has replaced his midfielder on safe occasions, he can say that he has adapted his technique to cancel the strengths or capitalize on the weaknesses, of the express opponents. On the other hand, he has the impression that he shines too brightly and it is difficult for the team to generate consistency.
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Postcoglou comments on how this bad way “cannot be accepted in the club” can be interpreted in two ways.
Was it a brutally fair admission that lacks time to replace this disastrous situation?Or did he apply mild tension to chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Johan Lange to seek answers to their upheavals in the last two weeks of the winter transfer window?Richarlison made his first appearance since early November last night after recovering from a hamstring injury, but Solanke wants more help beforehand. Tottenham were interested in signing France’s foreign striker Randal Kolo Muani on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, but he deserves to sign up for Juventus.
It’s frustrating to lose a derby, but Postecoglou has now failed to beat Arsenal once in their 4 attempts. The specters look more forged when protecting sets, but this is the moment this season that Arsenal have scored from an opposite corner to them.
Mikel Arteta’s side came into last night’s match reeling from back-to-back defeats in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, and the long-term loss of Gabriel Jesus to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury.
If Spurs had reached half-time in the lead or level, the frustration and nerves inside the stadium would have increased. Tottenham could have capitalised on the tension by sitting slightly deeper and hitting Arsenal on the break. Instead, they made costly individual errors and failed to create high-quality chances, things that have happened on countless occasions over the past six months.
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If Manchester United beat Southampton in Old Trafford tonight as planned, the Spurs will be 14 of the Premier League 20 table.
Postcoglou can depend on its impressive functionality in the Carabao Cup for so long before serious questions about their long -term future are asked.
As the 59-year-old admitted, their form “is nowhere near good enough and it needs to change”.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP Getty Images)