Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after our 2-1 loss in the Premier League against Nottingham Forest on Monday night.
Here's what he had to say...
Ange on the shot count of 22-4 in our favour...
"It’s another game we have lost where we shouldn’t lose and it’s been a big part of our season in that we are just making things really difficult for ourselves in key moments, just a little bit of concentration, giving away poor goals. It’s a shame because our football was outstanding and we totally dominated the game. Even with the two goals we conceded I still feel like we deserved to win the game. At the same time, it’s another loss and another unacceptable loss. For us it’s just been a season where at times, even with the challenges we have had and we have had challenges today have to make changes to the team, but it’s really frustrating because our football was so good. We have lost another game."
Ange on 18 defeats in the Premier League and what he can say to the fans...
"I don’t need to say anything to the fans. The fans are disappointed and angry as we are as well. It’s too many losses, I know that. I don’t need to tell the fans anything. The fans clearly wouldn’t be happy with our results, but neither am I or the players. From our perspective, it’s something we need to accept responsibility for, that we have fallen short of the standards we need to have. The flip side of that is that the frustrating bit is it’s not because of the way we are playing because our football today was very similar to the Frankfurt game at home which was another game we should have won."
Ange on taking off Romero and van de Ven at half-time...
"That was pre-planned."
Ange on the positive of Richarlison scoring again...
"It was part of the exercise today to get him and Wilson, Kulusevski, Kevin Danso some game time because they have missed a hell of a lot of football. Richy has hardly played all year, Deki has been a couple of months, same with Wilson and Kevin. From that perspective it was good they all got through it and got some meaningful minutes. We could rest a few others which was also useful for us. From that perspective it was a positive."
Ange on if trying to avoid our lowest points total can be a motivation, or if it's all about the Europa League...
"I don't know what that means. I don't think you saw a team that wasn't motivated. It's not like we lost because players chucked it in. If that's what people saw then they're watching something different to me. I don't think they lacked motivation today because I thought our football was outstanding. Again, we've paid the price for lacking focus and concentration in key moments and it's another game we've let slip. I don't think motivation is an issue."
Ange on if there's a lack of leadership or experience...
"It shouldn't be because it's happened to us a few times this year. We should have learned from these things but it's a constant in our make-up at the moment and it's something we need to eradicate. At different times this year we've shown really good focus and concentration, Frankfurt being a classic case of that. Tonight, just at the start we didn't really sense the only threat that Forest were going to have was the counter-attack, which we handled really well in the second half, and set pieces. We let in two poor goals."
Ange on if he has any concerns about Vicario's confidence...
"No I don't, he's fine."
Ange on Destiny Udogie and James Maddison...
"Destiny was fine. We just left him out of the squad tonight. He put in a big physical shift on Thursday and the idea was always to rest him. I wasn't going to put him on so there was no point in putting him on the bench. Madders was pretty sore yesterday but in the last 24 hours he recovered and was keen to be on the bench. They're both fine."
Ange on the thinking behind Cuti and Micky playing 45 minutes...
"I thought they needed to play some minutes tonight because it becomes 10 days leading into Liverpool. We've got them in a really good place physically now and I just want to keep them ticking over. I felt that there was no need to play more than 45 minutes today and we needed to get a couple of others game time. I just felt that if it was Sunday, we probably wouldn't have played them, but on a Monday, especially for Micky because he's been playing just one game a week, we need to build him up because he's in a really good place at the moment, so I thought 45 minutes for both of them would be beneficial."