The Football Faithful
·29 November 2024
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Yahoo sportsThe Football Faithful
·29 November 2024
Ange Postecoglou has insisted he would rather Tottenham entertain than grind out results in less exciting fashion.
Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw by AS Roma in the Europa League on Thursday night, with Mats Hummels scoring a stoppage-time equaliser for the Italian side.
The North Londoners twice led and missed a wealth of good chances to win the game, before dropping points for the second successive European game.
Postecoglou’s front-footed approach has been questioned this season as Spurs have lacked consistency in their performances, but the Australian doubled down on his demand for entertaining football from his side.
Asked whether his side should aim to ‘to win ahead of artistic merit’ over their next three Europa League games, Postecoglou said: “Why can’t it just be entertaining? Isn’t it why we all come? Would you really prefer us to sketch out a couple of 0-0 draws and a 1-0 win and we get through? I don’t know.
“I would much rather we’re exciting to watch and maybe it is edge of the seat stuff and sometimes we don’t get the reward, like we could have tonight, but no, if you want those kind of games, there are plenty in world football you can watch every weekend.
“I’d like to think when you tune into us you’ll be entertained.”
Heung-min Son was guilty of missing several good opportunities for Spurs but Postecoglou dismissed the suggestion the Spurs captain was lacking confidence in front of goal.
“I don’t know if he’s lacking confidence. Sonny’s had a disrupted year for us, so that doesn’t help. Yeah, he had some good chances tonight to get the goal and he’s getting in those areas. Look, he’s got the quality to take those chances and we know he’s done it consistently for almost a decade, but he’s had a disrupted season being in and out. You can see he is getting back to full fitness now, which is the main thing for us.
“We’re quite thin in those wide areas, so he’s playing and we’ve got to make sure we are careful with him, Brennan and Timo because they are the only wingers we’ve got left and will have for the foreseeable future. I thought tonight, it wasn’t just Sonny.
“There were quite a few really good chances, we hit the post three times as well and a couple cleared off the line. I still felt there were a couple of occasions where a bit more composure would have finished the game off.”