Ange Postecoglou 'not interested' in pragmatism at Tottenham

Ange Postecoglou believes people may long for his entertaining style of play after his time as Tottenham manager comes to an end.

Spurs are sixth in the Premier League table after an inconsistent start to the season.

They have fallen to defeat against relegation candidates Crystal Palace and Ipswich but stormed to convincing victories over Aston Villa and champions Manchester City in their last four league games.

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However, Postecoglou is refusing to countenance a drift towards pragmatism ahead of his side's match against Fulham on Sunday.

"Look, I don't know how many ways I can say this," he said.

"Look, there's plenty of room for pragmatism in walks of life and in football as well.

"But I'm just not interested in it. I don't know why I need to change my approach to be like everyone else wants me to be.

"I'll continue to push this team to be a bit different, to play football in a different way, and maybe when I'm long gone you'll all pine for my entertainment, and you'll have had your fill of pragmatism.

"If we were pragmatic, I'd say at 2-0 up at City away, we'd have probably settled, and we wouldn't have got the victory we did and made it a special moment for our club."

Spurs currently have six wins, one draw and five defeats across their 12 Premier League games this season.

They followed up their morale-boosting victory against Manchester City with an underwhelming 2-2 draw against Serie A strugglers Roma in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.

Postecoglou insists his side have nothing to lose when they take risks on the pitch.

"I always think of the possibilities of what could be if we continue down this road, rather than holding on to what we have," he added.

"At the moment what do we have? We don't have a hell of a lot. We haven't achieved anything yet, we haven't had success, we haven't done all the things we want to do.

"So if I start being pragmatic now, maybe we'll never get there.

"Last night we weren't at our highest level but, jeez, I thought for 20 minutes we were as exciting as we've been since I've been here.

"I loved our last 20 minutes of the first half. We should have got a third goal to kill the game off but we were exciting to watch.

"And that's what I want."

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