Postecoglou determined to prove doubters wrong at Tottenham / Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS - AFP
Postecoglou determined to prove doubters wrong at Tottenham
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said his resolve to bring success to the struggling Premier League club has been strengthened by a tough run of results, despite being confronted by angry supporters.
The former Australia boss exchanged words with some fans in the travelling support after Thursday's 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth left Spurs down in 10th.
Postecoglou pledged earlier this season to end Tottenham's 16-year wait to win a trophy during his second campaign in charge.
"I am here, I am going to fight to make sure we bring success to this football club. Nothing really changes," Postecoglou said on Friday.
"Where there is doubt, whether that is internally or externally, it just gets my resolve stronger to make sure we get it right."
When pressed on his interaction with supporters after the Bournemouth defeat, the 59-year-old added: "They aren't behind me, they are behind the club. I have got no interest in who is behind me.
"Last night you have to figure the fans who travel to Bournemouth are fairly hardcore supporters. They weren't happy with what they saw and they felt like they needed to give some feedback. I took the feedback onboard and we move on."
Spurs face the top two, Liverpool and Chelsea, in two of their next three Premier League games.
In between times they also take on Rangers in the Europa League and have a League Cup quarter-final tie against Manchester United over the next two weeks.
Postecoglou's men have won just once in their last six games in all competitions -- a remarkable 4-0 victory at Manchester City which ended the English champions' two-year unbeaten home run.
Injuries to goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario and first choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero have not helped and Spurs were dealt another defensive blow when Ben Davies was forced off injured against Bournemouth.
Postecoglou, though, believes his side have been masters of their own downfall too often in recent weeks.
"For me the disappointment last night, there was a repeat of cycle of us going into games, starting well enough but then allowing the opposition to get a grip on it by either conceding a sloppy goal -- like we did last night -- or not taking our opportunities," he added.
"We need to break that cycle, irrespective of where we are at the moment. We know we are really thin on the ground in terms of squad numbers. We know there is not a lot of opportunity to rotate and rest players. We paid the price with Benny (Davies) last night.
"Those are known things. What also is known is we repeatedly shot ourselves in the foot in games like last night and we need to change that."
P.Smid--RTC
