Jamie Carragher reckons Ange Postecoglou was tricked by Arne Slot into persevering with his gung-ho Tottenham approach ahead of their clash with Liverpool on Sunday.
Slot’s side ran out comfortable 6-3 winners over Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Postecoglou stayed true to his attacking style of football that’s been heavily criticised during a run which has seen his side lose three of their last four Premier League games.
But Slot lauded the Tottenham manager’s approach ahead of the clash, rejecting claims that football can ever be “too attacking”.
The Dutchman said: “People talk about trophies, trophies, trophies and that is so important. For me, his brand of football is so much more important. If he can combine it with winning something that would be so good for football in general because then people can stop talking about ‘is it too attacking?’ How on earth can you play too much attacking football?”
“I think it is a privilege to be a season ticket holder at Tottenham and to be a fan of them at the moment because they play such a great style.”
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Carragher, whose less than positive opinion on Tottenham and their devil-may-care approach under Postecoglou has been brought up in Spurs press conferences this week, claims the Australian boss fell right into Slot’s trap.
He believes the Liverpool boss was lavish in his praise of Spurs and Postecoglou in the hope they would continue to play in a manner he knew would lead to an easy victory for his side.
He said on Sky Sports: “That press conference on Friday from Arne Slot was hilarious. People thought he was defending Ange – I don’t believe that for one minute. Slot was desperate for Tottenham to play the same way as they played Man Utd and they did. Liverpool could have scored 10. Everyone I spoke to, Liverpool supporters said it was obvious.”
Postecoglou said after the game that he was tired of being asked the same questions.
“I’ve been really patient the last 18 months, answering the same questions over and over again,” said Postecoglou. “If people want me to change my approach, it’s not going to change.
“We’re doing it for a reason, we’re doing it because we think it’ll help us be successful.
“If people don’t understand the circumstances we’re in, the challenges we have from a team and squad perspective, which are as obvious as I want to make them now – I get the idea that people think I should just flick the switch and change and somehow that would make us a different team.
“But it is what it is, I’m just going to continue staying focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want. In the interim, we’re going to have to accept there’s going to be challenges along the way.”