Sat 10 August 2024, 22:00
Tottenham HotspurAnge Postecoglou reflected on our 3-2 defeat to FC Bayern on Saturday as a 'mixed bag'.
Facing the German giants in our final pre-season outing and for the second time in a week after last Saturday's clash in Seoul, Korea, despite a fine brace from Dejan Kulusevski, three goals in 28 first-half minutes was enough to see Bayern to victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Having taken the lead in lightning quick time - 23 seconds to be precise - through our Swedish forward, goals from Dayot Upamecano (16 minutes), Serge Gnabry (31) and Thomas Muller (44) turned the game on its head. Deki reduced the Bavarian side's advantage just past the hour mark, linking up neatly with fellow Swede Lucas Bergvall - who was making his home debut - but we were unable to find a leveller, seeing Vincent Kompany's side lift the Visit Malta Cup.
While it ended in defeat, there were plenty of bright moments in the game. For Ange though, the most important thing to take away from the game was the return to action of a number of key figures in the squad - namely Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udoige and Rodrigo Bentancur - while he was also pleased the team came out of the game unscathed.
There some meaningful minutes for guys who have just come back... it important for us today to get at least 45 minutes into some of the guys.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, Ange said, "It was a little bit of a mixed bag – some good stuff, some not so good stuff, some meaningful minutes for guys who have just come back which was important for us today to get at least 45 minutes into some of the guys.
"It was good to get them (Romero, Van de Ven and Bentancur) some game time. Destiny (Udogie) as well – he’s missed a lot of football. They’ve only had a week of training, Destiny a bit longer but, with this being the only game (they had), we felt it important to at least get 45 minutes (into them) because, psychologically, just getting through 45 minutes will be important.
"And now we have a good 10 days to work with them. They came back in good condition, which is important for us and I think having those 45 minutes today will be good for them.
Reflecting on our pre-season campaign as whole, Ange admitted that work getting the players into shape for the new season had gone well, but he still feels there is work to be done and is hoping we can continue to progress over the next 10 days so the squad will be ready for our Premier League opener with Leicester City (Monday 19 August) and will be able to reach the next level this term.
"Pre-season has been good in terms of the work we have done with the players, he said. "It’s always a bit disjointed until you have everyone together and this is the first week we’ve had everyone in but, in general, they are all in good physical condition, which I think is the main thing and knock on wood, we don’t have any injuries. Hopefully we got through today alright. Hopefully we have a whole fit squad for that first game because once the games start, we’re going to need the full squad. So, from that point of view, it has been positive.
"We’ve still got 10 days of training. The games are part of that; they’re just part of pre-season. The idea is we use every game we have, whether it is a game or training, to be ready for the first game and that is the most important thing.
"And there always need to be an evolution. We need to be better than we were last year because the competition certainly doesn’t stand still, it’s not like the other teams are going to be where they were last year. We’ve got to improve in all of our areas. We’ve still got some work to do.
"I think the foundations we put in place last year gives us the opportunity to kick on and now we’ve just got to push the players and they have to push themselves to the next level because we had an okay season last year but we know we want to go to another level and bring success to this football club and that’s going to require us being better than we were."
