It's been a difficult season for Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham and his players are now being told to take matters into their own hands
Wayne Rooney has urged Tottenham's players to ditch Angeball if they want to end their home woes.
A fortunate cross-shot from Pape Matar Sarr and Son Heung-min penalty rescued a point for Spurs at home to Bournemouth on March 9, but it leaves the ex Celtic boss with just one win in his last 10 home Premier League matches. And the prickly Aussie appeared to take aim at his own supporters ahead of a huge Europa League clash with AZ on March 13.
Spurs found themselves struggling to get out of their own half in the clash with the Cherries as Bournemouth's press caught out the London club time and again. However with stubborn Ange refusing to back down from his principles, Manchester United hero Rooney now believes his players need to take matters into their own hands.
The former England star was asked by Match of the Day 2 host Mark Chapman if he would want his players ignoring instructions during a game, and said: "100 percent, you have to give players the opportunity to make decisions. That’s football, you can set the team up however you want to set the team up, but a lot of it is players making decisions.
"The opposition analyse you, they do things to stop you playing to your strengths." Former Republic of Ireland keeper Shay Given responded: "Do you think the modern player has the freedom to do that, or is the manager more saying don’t?"
To which Rooney doubled down, adding: "I think that Ange has made it clear he wants to stick to his principles, but I think there are certain moments in games where you have to take control. Whether that’s the goalkeeper, the captain on the pitch or the manager himself.
"Someone has to take control. Because of what Bournemouth were with the press, Tottenham were so naïve and kept getting caught. We talk about game management a lot, we could clearly see that Bournemouth would get success from it and that Tottenham were struggling to play through them.
"The goalkeeper definitely has to take control, say we’re going to go long and push everybody up. Then Bournemouth might drop off and they’ve got more space to play."