Pressure showing on Postecoglou? Spurs boss lashes out at winger following Rangers UEL draw | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou was pulling no punches following his Tottenham Hotspur side’s 1-1 draw away at Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday.

The Lilywhites came from behind to salvage a draw at Ibrox, with Dejan Kulusevski striking in the 75th minute to cancel out Hamza Igamane’s 47th-minute opener.

However, Spurs had Fraser Forster to thank for their point on Thursday, with the former Celtic goalkeeper making no fewer than five saves to deny a Rangers side that attempted 15 shots to the tune of 1.49 Expected Goals, compared to just 12 and 0.87, respectively, from Tottenham.

The likes of Cyriel Dessers and Vaclav Cerny missed huge opportunities to seal a memorable victory for Rangers. However, the Glasgow giants are still in the eighth and final round of 16 spot in the Europa Laegue table with 11 points on the board from six games, level on points with Spurs.

Postecoglou must surely be worrying about his job security now, with Spurs without a win in any of their last five matches across all competitions since thrashing Man City 4-0 in late November.

The Australian did, however, get one major decision right on Thursday, introducing Kulusevski at half-time to replace Timo Werner, with the former going on to score Tottenham’s only goal of the match, as mentioned.

But it wasn’t a difficult decision to withdraw Werner, either, with the German failing to create a chance and attempting just one shot, while he only completed 69% of his passes, had four touches in the opposition box and failed to complete any of his three attempted dribbles or two attempted crosses.

Whether it was the pressure getting to him or simply an angry reaction to a sub-par performance, Postecoglou did not mince his words when criticising Werner after the match.

“When you’ve got 18-year-olds, it’s not acceptable to me,” he said of the former Chelsea man, continuing: “I said that to Timo, he’s a German international. In the moment we’re in right now – it’s not like we’ve got many options, I need everyone to at least be going out there and trying to give the best of themselves.

“His performance in the first half wasn’t acceptable.

“We need everybody, including him, to be contributing because we don’t have the depth to leave people out if they perform poorly.

“I expect a level of performance from some of the senior guys, and tonight wasn’t that.”

Former Scotland striker James McFadden hailed the performance of Forster, who saved Spurs in what was another difficult evening, which will do little to ingratiate a beleaguered Postecoglou to the Tottenham fanbase.

“I watched a lot of Celtic under Ange Postecoglou and I was looking to see the same type of themes and passages of play,” McFadden said of the Australian manager, adding: “But there weren’t too many, to be honest. The confidence is not quite at the level. There is definitely a lack of freshness.

“Fraser Forster made a couple of outstanding saves for them. Thankfully for them, they had him in the goal because it could’ve been a defeat for them.”

Things need to improve rapidly for Postecoglou if he’s to keep his Tottenham job, starting with this weekend’s trip to Premier League basement boys Southampton.

The Saints have just one win and five points on the board from their 15 matches so far, so failure to win there would be unforgivable. And off the back of another poor night here in Glasgow, it could prove fatal for Postecoglou.