Asia-Pacific Tour | Ange’s verdict on Lion City Sailors and the Tour
Wed 26 July 2023, 16:08|
Tottenham Hotspur
Ange Postecoglou praised the attitude of the players both for the performance in our 5-1 win against Lion City Sailors and for their work in training during our Asia-Pacific Tour.
Richarlison led the way with a hat-trick on Wednesday as our pressure and sheer relentlessness in forward areas told in the second half against the Singapore Premier League side at the National Stadium. Giovani Lo Celso also scored after the break with Harry Kane levelling the scores on the stroke of half-time after the home side took the lead against the run of play in the first half – we had 24 efforts at goal in that first half alone.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY afterwards, Ange said: “We kind of knew… we’ve had a few punishing days for the boys, we purposely made them work hard in training because we missed the last game (against Leicester City in Bangkok).
“I knew we wouldn’t be super sharp and it kind of looked that way, particularly in front of goal, but in general, I thought we played some decent football, and our attitude was great right to the end.”
Asked what pleased him most, he replied: “There’s stuff we’ve been working on in terms of our structures and you can see the boys are working really hard to implement it. Again, we probably didn’t have the legs to get into the areas we needed to, but the endeavour was there, and that’s what you’re looking for.”
As for the Tour as a whole – on and off the pitch – Ange added: “We’re still in that phase of pre-season where we’re trying to get the conditioning up and get them to understand the game plan but, again, the pleasing thing for me on this whole trip has been the willingness to try to implement the stuff we’ve been talking about.
“In terms of on the pitch, all the players and the staff have worked really hard – from my perspective, that’s pleasing and in general, we’ve been really warmly welcome everywhere we’ve been, and that just shows what a big club we are.”
