Presser points | Newcastle 2-1 Spurs | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media after our 2-1 loss against Newcastle United at St James' Park on Sunday.

Here's today's match report - and here's what Ange had to say...

Overall thoughts

It was put to Ange that he must be wondering how we were going home without any points?

Ange: "Yeah, obviously, very similar I guess to our first away game when we controlled it for the most part, nullified most of the threats that Newcastle have. It's obviously a difficult opponent here at home. The crowd create a pretty strong atmosphere for the home side, little things go their way but I thought for the most part we handled that really well. Then we gained the ascendancy in the game and we just needed to kill it off and we didn't and a disappointing second goal. I thought we switched off a little bit but the game should have been well over by then. So, another sore one unfortunately where we haven't got the rewards for our play, but ultimately it's three strong performances from the first three games. The results don't reflect it in that way."

Did we miss a natural striker?

Ange was asked if the team missed the presence of Dominic Solanke and Richarlison...

Ange: "Yeah, potentially, but I still think even outside of that we just had some really good opportunities, a little bit more composure. Fair play to Pope, I thought he had an outstanding game. But I thought we could have tested him a few more times with just some better decision-making. It's not just the opportunities we did create. I thought there was another probably six to 10 moments where we could have created even more opportunities. That's been a constant theme for us that we're trying to break through."

Radu Dragusin

Radu came in for his first start of the season in place of injured Micky van de Ven - update on Micky here - and Ange was asked what he thought of Radu's display...

Ange: "I thought he was good, Radu. It was a great opportunity to expose him. I mean, he's only 22. He's still a young man, especially for a defender and I thought exposing him to this atmosphere and the threat, the particular threat that Newcastle posed with Isak up front, he had to be really concentrated and I thought he was. I think he's going to play a big part in our season. Him coming through that, that whole experience, will set him up well."

Johnson for Sarr...

Ange was asked about his half-time substitution - bringing on Brennan Johnson for Pape Matar Sarr...

Ange: "Pape had been booked and like part of his game, he just really gets stuck into the opposition, and on the flip side, Lloyd Kelly had been booked as well. So I just thought, with Brennan coming on and running at them I just felt we run over the top of them in the second half. I got that sense just before half-time and I thought if we can get the ball to our wide players we can cause them some problems and and it did. It worked out that way, but we simply just didn't take advantage of it."

Outside the box...

Ange was asked if the team had been instructed to fire in shots from range...

Ange: "No, when an opposition defence stays deep, it's pretty hard to get in there. There are 10 bodies in there at times. Apart from Isak, everyone else is in there. But yeah, we worked our way into that area pretty well, but there were other times when we got even closer to goal in the box and obviously, like I said, we just lacked a little bit of composure, sometimes our positioning was off where we should have been with work and we let them off the hook."