Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham Hotspur side prepared for their return to Europa League action but the manager was unhappy with some of the reaction to the victory
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has accused critics of "turning gold into cr*p" after questions about his team's penalty situation. Brennan Johnson was on a hat-trick when Spurs were awarded a spot-kick against Southampton, but wasn't given the opportunity to complete its treble.
It was Mathys Tel, rather than Johnson, who stepped up to beat Aaron Ramsdale from 12 yards and clinch a 3-1 win. Addressing the matter ahead of his team's Europa League quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt, the Australian launched into a strongly-worded rant.
"It's incredible. It's the one bit. Literally turning gold into cr*p when it's Tottenham," Postecoglou told reporters. If we're 2-1 up and we get a penalty late on, I want our best penalty taker to take it."
He added: "I mean the one slight against this club is apparently it hasn't been a winner. Well the winner's mentality in the last minute of the game is to score a goal. We scored a goal. And yet somehow in this ultimate universe where everything Tottenham does is wrong, that's come out as a negative. Be that as it may.
"From my point of view, I was delighted because as I said if that's tomorrow night and we get a penalty in the last minute and get a third goal which could be really decisive, I'm really pleased with the way the players handled it. "
The Australian also seemed to indicate he felt critics were beginning to pick fault whatever the result. "I just think we're in that position now where even the good stuff we do is going to be turned into a glass half-empty rhetoric," he said.
Johnson agreed with his manager that too much was being made of the incident against Southampton. "In this tournament it's not really about giving people free goals, it's about scoring goals," he said ahead of the return to Europa League action.
Frankfurt go into the game sitting third in the Bundesliga, but suffered a setback against Werder Bremen over the weekend. Ahead of the meeting with Spurs, Toppmoller indicated major improvement is requried.
"We tried to do better in the second half but just weren’t good enough in possession today and didn’t have the right distances," he said. "We need to improve in that regard against Tottenham. It’s a painful defeat today. We have to produce 100 percent on the pitch in every match, which we didn’t do today.”
The first leg of the clash will be played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, before the two teams face off in Germany one week later. Whoever prevails will take on either Bodo/Glimt or Lazio in the semis.