Ange’s verdict on West Ham: “Every player tried to do what we’ve been working on”
Tue 18 July 2023, 17:35|
Tottenham Hotspur
Ange Postecoglou took plenty of encouragement despite a 3-2 loss against West Ham in the first match of our Asia-Pacific Tour in Perth on Tuesday.
The scoreline didn’t really reflect the performance as we racked up 30 efforts at goal to West Ham’s four and enjoyed 71% possession in front of 46,266 fans at the Optus Stadium.
However, West Ham took the friendly honours as goals from Danny Ings and Divin Mubama gave them a 2-0 lead at the break, we hit back to level via Gio Lo Celso and a first Spurs goal for Destiny Udogie in the second half only for Gianluca Scamacca to race clear and slot home the winner with 12 minutes left. Lukasz Fabianski made a host of saves, notably denying Manor Solomon, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison, who also hit the post.
Speaking afterwards to SPURSPLAY, Ange said: “Yes, there were a lot of positives, the first thing for me was just to see the players’ willingness to try and implement some of the things we’ve been working on. We’ve been working hard in training, so they’re not going to feel 100 per cent, but their endeavour to try and play the football we want to play, particularly our pressing, these kind of things, we’ve only given them limited information, but it was good to see some of those things in practice.”
‘Areas we’re still working on’
Ange: “We’ve got some quality footballers and if you set up the structure, that’s what it allows them to do. At the same time, we’ve got to work hard defensively to make sure we get into those areas more often. I thought in both halves we did that pretty well. We dominated the game but, obviously, there are still areas we’re still working on and fairly glaring in terms of the goals we conceded. But that’s on me, we haven’t really organised ourselves and structured ourselves in that sense, that’s something for us to work on.”
‘The rewards will come’
Ange: “The main thing for me is that every player out there was trying to do what we’ve been working on. That’s the key for me. That gives me the encouragement to keep going and feeding more into them, and hopefully they take that on board. Obviously, they’re disappointed with the outcome, but in terms of the football, they’ll be at least getting encouragement that if they continue to play the way we do, the rewards will come.”
‘Results always matter’
Ange: “Results always matter, so, from our perspective, we want to be a team that plays good football and dominates games. We obviously want to win, but that’s not the most important thing right now for me. Winning tonight and not playing the kind of football we want... I’d be disappointed with that. We’ve work to do, we know that, no surprises there, but really encouraged with the way the boys have been working hard in training and, secondly, their endeavours try and win the game.”
