How Ange Postecoglou really reacted in Tottenham dressing room to defeat

Journalist Charlie Eccleshare has shared what he was told about how Ange Postecoglou reacted in the dressing room to the Tottenham Hotspur performance against Manchester City on Tuesday.

It has been a surreal few days for Spurs, with Tottenham fans feeling completely conflicted about the idea of their side beating Manchester City.

On the one hand, a win would have given Spurs a chance of finishing in the top-four on the final day of the season. However, denying Manchester City a victory would have put Arsenal on pole position to win the title.

So there were some Tottenham fans who felt a sense of relief when Erling Haaland did score the two goals to give Pep Guardiola’s men the three points.

Ange Postecoglou furious with Tottenham players after Manchester City defeat

However, Spurs definitely did not play like a side looking to do Arsenal a favour, with Stefan Ortega producing a goalkeeping masterclass after coming on for Ederson in the second-half.

Nevertheless, it appears that Ange Postecoglou was not at all pleased with his side’s performance, with Eccleshare telling The Athletic Football Podcast that the Tottenham boss did not hold back in criticising his players after the full-time whistle.

“Jack and I have both been told that he was pretty angry at the players after this game, despite the fact that publicly, he didn’t criticise them. And we saw in the Chelsea game where they lost 2-0, he was furious at some of the players, screaming at them to play the ball forward, not to go backwards,” he said.

“His thing is always he’s never going to call someone out for making a mistake, but he will call people out for not playing the way that he wants them to play, not taking chances, not being brave on the ball, not showing for the ball, not passing forward.”

All a part of the plan

To the untrained eye, it would be fascinating to know what Postecoglou did not like about the performance against City; they certainly did not make life easy for the champions.

Perhaps he felt that Tottenham did not show the urgency he would usually expect, which would have been easy to do in what felt like quite a flat atmosphere.

But you really get the sense that Postecoglou is desperate to drive standards up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, so in that way, it should not come as a shock that he is not happy with a home defeat, regardless of who it came against.