Presser points | AZ Alkmaar 1-0 Spurs | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media at the AFAS Stadion after our 1-0 defeat against AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of our UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 tie on Thursday evening.

Here's what he had to say...

Ange on what went wrong...

"It wasn’t great from us tonight, pretty much in all facets of the game. We didn’t really get to grips with any part of the game. We struggled to gain any momentum with the ball, we weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be without the ball. It was a tricky surface, but having said that, we knew that from (training). We just didn’t tackle the challenges we had out there in a positive way. That allowed AZ to get into a rhythm, which when you’re playing away from home, it is difficult to stem the tide."

Ange on players 'being up for it'...

"Look, it’s a combination of things, but we’ll analyse it and have a look at the areas where we struggled with, but it’s fair to say it was nowhere near the level it needed to be."

Ange on Dominic Solanke's injury late in the game...

"I am not even sure. It looks like a knock, but I haven’t really seen it. Hopefully, nothing too bad."

Ange on a 'lack of effort and attitude'...

"I don’t think it’s a matter of effort or attitude. I don’t think it is going out there and not trying, but like I said, we didn’t really come to grips and have the right mindset to tackle an away fixture in Europe. It is always tough and we obviously conceded the goal, which was a disappointing set of events, but even after that we didn’t really settle down into the game at all. You are going to face some pressure when you play away from home in Europe and weather the storm and get to grips with it, but we never really did so that was a disappointment."

Ange on having confidence we can break AZ down in the second leg next week...

"I don't have any doubt about our ability to break them down, but obviously we have to play a little bit differently to how we did tonight, not just with ball, but without the ball too. We've got to be a lot more aggressive than we were tonight. We were just lacking a bit of aggression in everything we did. We were a little bit hesitant with the ball, hesitant in our pressing and we can't be that way. If we address those things I'm sure we'll be in a position to at least cause them more problems that we did tonight. It's only 1-0 so I guess that’s a positive in that we didn’t let the game get away from us."