Ange Postecoglou watched on shaking his head for most of the game as Tottenham Hotspur lost at Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
The hits just keep on coming for Spurs, but Postecoglou credited his small group of fit players for doing an “unbelievable job” over the last two and a half months to keep playing as injuries have piled up.
After losing 4-0 at Liverpool on Thursday as they were knocked out of the League Cup at the semifinal stage, Spurs were outplayed by Villa for vast swathes of the game and the 2-1 scoreline flattered them.
Here’s the latest Ange Postecoglou reaction as Tottenham’s fans were far from happy with the performance.
Ange Postecoglou reaction
“Disappointed we don’t progress. It wasn’t a great start,” Postecoglou told the BBC. “It’s the last thing you want. That sort of gave them some momentum going into the 45 minutes and we really struggled to get some control. We also had an enormous chance at 1-0 to equalize. Second half we had to open up a little bit which allowed them some opportunities on the counter but at the same time I thought we got a better grip of the game and unfortunately fell short. When you go a goal down it gives the opposition some momentum and confidence and we struggled then to get a grip on the game. Ideally you want to try and wrestle control really early and we didn’t do that.”
What was his message to Spurs’ players at half time, as they improved in the second half?
“We are still in the game. As disappointing as the first half was I said ‘we are only 1-0 down and had a big chance to make it 1-1.’ We just needed to hang in there and the second half was a lot more like ourselves and the second goal made it a bit more difficult for us but I always felt we were a threat going the other way but unfortunately not enough.”
Postecoglou then gave an impassioned speech about how this small squad of players have done an incredible job to hang in there over the last few months as so many injuries have hit Spurs.
“Nothing really changes. We’ve got a couple of weeks now where we don’t have midweek games. This group of players has done an unbelievable job for two and a half months. Unbelievable job,” Postecoglou said. “Can’t praise them highly enough for the effort they’ve put in. A really small group of players playing twice a week since the middle of November. They’ll get some opportunity to recover now. We’ll get some players back over the next couple of weeks and look forward to resetting and finishing the season strong... Europe is still very important to us and we are in a great spot there. We expect to get some players back over the next two weeks which is the most important thing because it gives a bit of a respite for the group that have been doing it for the last two and a half months.”
Postecoglou praises his players
He doubled down on that in his post-match press conference with reporters and suggested there’s an agenda against Spurs.
Ange Postecoglou launches a passionate defence of his Tottenham Hotspur team after their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/c5IaFf58PI
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) February 9, 2025
Postecoglou admitted that only having a small group of players to deal with such a heavy fixture list over the last few months has taken a big toll on them.
“Of course it does. You can see that. They are just going out there giving everything they can. But obviously it would be a lot better for them if we had some help,” Postecoglou said. “We will get some players back, which will help. We had 11 first team players out today. Take that out of any team for one game and they’ll struggle. We’ve been doing it for two and a half months. We’ll get some players back and it will help.”
