Former Watford skipper Troy Deeney has defended Ange Postecoglou amid criticism following Tottenham’s defeat to Brighton.
After a slow start to the season, Tottenham did turn things around as they went on a five-match winning streak across competitions. But, it seems all their hard work came crashing down with a defeat against Brighton prior to the international break. They had a 2-0 lead heading into half-time but ended up losing 3-2 when the final whistle blew.
Ange Postecoglou has received a lot of criticism following their defeat at the hands of the Seagulls. But, Troy Deeney feels the manager is not the one at fault. He feels sorry for the Australian boss and calls out the Spurs defence who ended up conceding thrice and giving away the game at American Express Stadium.
In a recent appearance on TikTok, Deeney said: “I actually feel sorry for the fella you know.
“You look at how Spurs play, they play some good stuff, they attack well and score loads of goals, but when it comes to defending, people blame the manager for defending, but how can you put on a session that stops people mis-kicking a ball?
“You can’t do anything about poor defending, the last goal for example, Rutter shouldn’t be getting that, foul him, then when you get to the byline Bentancur is there, just get it.
“I think when you look at Ange, I would challenge people to look at the goals they concede, they’re not structural damage ones, they’re not struggling, it’s man to man, me vs you, that’s more mentality.”
As long as Spurs win, everyone tends to praise Postecoglou for his attacking approach but as soon as things don’t go their way his tactics are questioned. The fact that he plays with an extremely high backline always comes into the limelight along with their inability to deal with set-pieces.
Deeney feels people need to change how they look at Spurs’ defensive errors. He believes these are mistakes at an individual level and it has nothing to do with the defensive structure that has been used by the former Celtic boss. It’s the mentality of the defenders that cost them the game.
He feels Postecoglou has got them playing an attacking and attractive brand of football. The manager is doing great things at the club and he can’t be blamed for people not doing their job defensively.
