Presser points | Brighton 3-2 Spurs | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media after our 3-2 loss against Brighton at the Amex in the Premier League on Sunday.

Here's what he had to say...

Overview

Naturally, the line of questioning from the media at the Amex was for Ange's views on how we let slip a 2-0 lead at half-time as Brighton staged a second half comeback to win 3-2...

What do you put that second half turnaround down to?

Ange: "Look, we didn't do what you need to do at this level, it's kind of non-negotiable. We just weren't competitive. We didn't win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn't deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it."

Was there complacency?

Ange: "Not really sure. But wherever it comes from, it doesn't really matter, it's irrelevant. It's unacceptable at the end of the day. You can kind of understand that you're not going to win every game. But there's the manner you lose games. And that's the first time since I've been here that we've lost the game in that manner. And like I said, unacceptable."

What can you do about it?

Ange: "There's a lot I can do about it. That's why I'm in the role. If I couldn't do anything about it I'd get somebody else to sit here."

Second sense

Ange was asked if he could sense at half-time that something like this was going to happen in the second half...

Ange: "Well like I said, I haven't seen it before, and I certainly didn't feel like that's the way the game was going to go. You understand that at 2-0 obviously they're going to come out and be fairly aggressive in their approach, but that's not the first time we've faced that and we've usually dealt with it pretty well. But obviously today we failed to do the things we needed to do."

Sonny and Richy

Ange was asked if it was games like this where the team miss Heung-Min Son and Richy...

Ange: "No, it's got nothing to do with it, absolutely zero to do with it. If we were missing them then we wouldn't have played like we did in the first half, or like we have in the last few games. So it's got nothing to do with it. Like I said, there's a certain level of competitiveness you need to bring in every contest, irrespective of the level, and we didn't do that in the second 45. And rightly so, we got punished for it."

New learnings?

Ange was asked, 'have you learned something new about your team?'

Ange: "I don't know if I learned something new but I certainly experienced something new. With all these things, straight after a game you're emotional about it. That's probably the most disappointing loss I've had since I've been here, in terms of the way we went about it and it's something I need to assess."

Have you said all of this in the dressing room to the players?

Ange: "Yeah, feedback is always what I believe. I don't hide things. I'm sure the players are disappointed, but I don't really care about that. They should be disappointing. Our supporters are disappointed, I'm disappointed, but I want them to understand football is not about losing a game of football, that happens. The disappointment comes from us not doing the very basics of what's expected at the highest level from a competitive standpoint."

Over confidence?

It was put to Ange, 'are you suggesting that after a couple of positive results, there was a bit of overconfidence from the players?'

"Look, it's not a couple of positive results. It was five wins, let's just keep things in context here. I understand the extremes of what we do. What I'm saying is that we didn't do the basics of everything we've done to get to this point, good, bad or otherwise. Even when we didn't win at Newcastle, we played well and fought hard to the last second to win that game of football. We didn't do that today and every time we've played that's been an element of our game but I didn't see that today. Why has that happened? The reasons, we can go into a million different aspects and in the cold light of day there may be some logic to it and it may be what you're saying. Again for me that's irrelevant. It's for me to address and fix and the responsibility falls at my feet and that's what I need to do."