Tottenham Hotspur lost 1-2 to Newcastle United at home in the 20th round of the Premier League. Faced with such a result, Tottenham manager Postecoglou gave an in-depth analysis of the game and a series of topics in the post-match press conference.
Postecoglou opened the game by expressing his pride in the performance of his players: "Even though we failed to win, I am very proud of the performance of my players. Their performance was impeccable, and despite the strength of our opponents, we also showed a lot of strength. It was a good match and we had every reason to win. On any other day, I believe we would have won."
Speaking about Newcastle United's first goal, Postecoglou deftly avoided any discussion of the referee's decision: "I don't want to comment on this any further. I know people expect my opinion but my position is clear, in a fair, equal and logical game we should have won. That's the truth."
Postecoglou was extremely complimentary about the debut performance of new signing Brandon Austin: "He was outstanding, the whole team was outstanding. Faced with such complexities as Radu and Archie struggling to get on the pitch from their hospital beds, Radu running out of steam after half-time and Brandon not being told he would play until the day before the game. I am immensely proud of the players' resilience."
Talking about the sudden illness in the team, Postecoglou revealed, "It's an illness that affects the health of the players and has kept players such as Radu, Archie and Frazier out of practice all week. We actually only had 11 healthy players in practice on Thursday. But I don't care about that, I just care about the players doing well and playing great soccer."
On the decision to place Bissouma, Maddison and Sunseri on the bench, Postecoglou explained, "It was based on thorough consideration. I think we need more running ability and energy early in the game. As the game progressed, we could utilize the experience of the substitutes. I think this adjustment was effective and we were particularly strong late in the game."
Speaking about Dominic Solanke's excellent performance in front of Tuchel, Postecoglou said, "He was excellent, but I think the whole team played quite well. I take my hat off to the players for putting in a performance like that considering the challenges we're facing and the situation we're in at the moment."
When asked if the performance gave him the confidence to turn things around, Postecoglou firmly responded, "I never lack confidence. I know we didn't do well, but I see a lot of positives. We need to win games and usually when you play well and do most things right, you will be rewarded. Unfortunately, we didn't do that this time."
Finally, faced with a direct question about whether or not he was angry with the referee's enforcement, Postecoglou once again chose to avoid the question, "I know you want me to comment, but I won't. I think everything is clear. I'm not interested in this type of discussion. What I will say is that in any fair, equal and logically sound game, we will win."
