Ange Postecoglou has slammed Timo Werner for his performance in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Rangers in the Europa League.
Spurs went north of the border on Thursday in desperate need of a boost, heading into the match with just one win from their last seven across all competitions.
But the Lilywhites were given no such concession, with Hamza Igamane firing Rangers ahead shortly after half-time, sending the Ibrox crowd into raptures.
Dejan Kulusevski pulled Spurs level in the 75th minute but with Rangers outshooting them 15-12 and generating 1.28 xG compared to 0.87, you cannot say Tottenham deserved even a point.
Spurs were particularly poor in the first half and one man who stood out for all the wrong reasons was Timo Werner.
The former Chelsea man attempted just one shot and failed to create a single chance. What’s more, Werner completed just 69% of his passes and was unsuccessful with all three of his dribbles, both his attempted crosses and all five of his contested ground duels.
Ange Postecoglou slams Timo Werner
Werner was hooked at half-time to get Kulusevski onto the field, with Postecoglou vindicated when the substitute found the equalising goal.
“Yeah, yeah, he wasn’t playing anywhere near the level he should,” Postecoglou told reporters of his decision to withdraw Werner (via Football.London).
The Australian elaborated: “When you’ve got 18-year-olds it’s not acceptable to me. I said that to Timo. He’s a senior international, 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 trying to give the best of themselves. His performance in the first half wasn’t acceptable.”
Postecoglou was asked how Werner took his decision, but insisted that’s ‘not really of great concern’ to him, with his primary focus the performance of the team.
“Don’t really know. It’s not really of great concern,” he said. “We need everybody including him to be contributing, because we don’t have the depth to leave people out if they’re performing poorly.
“We need them to play their part. Especially the senior guys. When I’m asking younger guys to do massive jobs, I expect a level of performance from some of the senior guys and today wasn’t that.”
