Ange Postecoglou has accused his Tottenham players of getting ‘carried away’ with their half-time lead as they collapsed to a humiliating defeat to Brighton.
The Lilywhites took a 2-0 lead into the break at the Amex Stadium thanks to goals from Brennan Johnson and James Maddison, rounding off what was a dominant first-half display.
However, things only got much, much worse from there, with Spurs conceding three goals within 21 minutes of the second-half restart to seal an embarrassing 3-2 defeat.
Spurs were completely off the pace in the second half, losing out on far too many duels and allowing Brighton’s forwards to breeze past them with ease.
Postecoglou looked beyond fuming after the match, almost to the point of being speechless.
The Australian did manage to muster up some post-match interviews, however, in which he accused his players of getting too ‘carried away’ with their first-half performance.
“Disappointing. Frustrated and absolutely gutted with that,” a hoarse Postecoglou said (via BBC Sport). “Worst defeat since I’ve been here. Unacceptable second half. Nowhere near where we should be. We got carried away with how were were going.
“We kind of accepted our fate and it is hard to understand as we’ve not done that while I’ve been here. We paid the price.
“The problem is we are travelling along too smoothly, football and life will trip you up if you get too far ahead of yourself.”
Postecoglou says there is ‘no message’ for his Spurs players
Postecoglou says the ‘responsibility’ for Sunday’s collapse is his and that he has ‘no message’ for his players, who must now process the result during the international break.
“There is no message. It is a terrible loss for us – as bad as it gets. Only one way to fix it and that’s my responsibility,” Postecoglou continued.
“We lost all our duels and if you’re not competitive it is not going to work – we were not competitive.
“They all go on international duty, the majority of them. They will process it individually and I will process it when everyone gets back.”