Presser points | Galatasaray 3-2 Spurs | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media at Rams Park, Istanbul, after our 3-2 defeat against Galatasaray in UEFA Europa League MD4 on Thursday evening.

Will Lankshear scored his first senior goal to level Yunus Akgun's early strike, but a double from Victor Osimhen put the home side in the driving seat by half-time. Lankshear was then sent off for two bookable offenses on the hour, but our 10 men responded well, Dominic Solanke pulled a goal back and we pushed until the end, ultimately to no avail.

Here's what Ange had to say...

Overall view

First up, Ange was asked for his thoughts on the team's performance...

Ange: "Obviously, disappointing result. First half wasn't great, we just didn't handle things well at all, particularly with the ball, just really wasteful and gave it away way too many times, unnecessarily. That allows them to get a foothold in the areas that they're good at. They've got some good players in the front third and we just allowed that to happen way too often and ultimately paid a price for it because we always finish strongly and I knew we would in the second half. Obviously, going down to 10 men didn't help, but even with 10 men, I thought we probably played the best football we did all game and got our second goal, had some opportunities to get a third, but I thought we were looking the better side. So, disappointing outcome, unfortunately, brought on by a disappointing first half."

Galatasaray

Ange was asked if he expected Galatasaray to play as they did...

Ange: "We expected a tough game here. Obviously, they've been in good form all year and undefeated at home, and I thought the game was as expected. They have some dangerous players and you need to control the game with the ball better than we did tonight. I think that first half ultimately cost us the game. Galatasaray are a good side. We know that. They're in a good position in the Europa League as are we. Hopefully that continues."

Will Lankshear

Ange was asked about the young striker, who scored his first senior goal, but was later sent off...

Ange: "Yeah, look, Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team. Obviously, he hasn't had a lot of experience at senior football so he would have learnt a lot today. The red card, it was a bit of over-enthusiasm in that moment to give away a foul, but he'll learn from that. The same with Lucas (Bergvall), giving him an understanding of the levels here. It is not easy when you are playing away in Europe. You can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it. I thought Archie (Gray) was great. It was a tough game for us defensively at different times but I think we'll get so much growth out of him because he's not playing in his position. I guess for three teenagers in the starting line-up, I think they'll learn a lot from it and hopefully it helps with their development."

Back to the first half...

Ange was asked, 'why did you struggle to control the game in the first half? Did the atmosphere play a part or is that part of the risk when you make so many changes? Or were Galatasaray too good?'

Ange: "No, I don’t think so. It was probably a combination of all those things. I just felt it was self-inflicted. We had real simple solutions out there to keep the ball and, as we showed with 10 men, it wasn’t that difficult to do. We just didn’t. Individuals within that needed to be stronger on the ball and make sure we play the kind of football we try to do every week, and we didn't do that. Maybe it was a little bit the changes I made and the environment or the atmosphere or whatever you want to call it, the opposition. The moments that stick out to me are when there was no pressure on us and we are still giving the ball away. I think we need to be better in those moments, because if we are better in those moments then you minimise the threat the opposition has, but also we get a foothold in the game in the areas we want to. We did it with 10 men. We were playing through them quite easily with 10 men, but with 11 we just didn’t have anywhere near the conviction we needed to, so that’s disappointing."