Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou spoke out in the wake of his side’s defeat to Liverpool (Image: SKY SPORTS)
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou blasted his players for being too “passive” after they were humiliated by in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals. The Lilywhites held a 1-0 aggregate lead from the first leg but were blown away by their opponents at Anfield.
Cody Gakpo levelled the tie with the opening goal of the evening 11 minutes before half time, before lashed a penalty into the top corner just after the interval.
Dominic Szoboszlai put the tie to bed with a third strike after 75 minutes, with Virgil van Dijk adding a fourth five minutes later.
And after the match, Postecoglou told Radio 5 Live: “ were too good for us tonight, we didn’t really get into the game in the way we wanted to. We allowed them to get control of it pretty early.
It’s a very difficult place to come at the best of times but when we allow them to get into that rhythm, we didn’t really give ourselves an opportunity to get into the game.
“I thought we were way too passive in terms of our football both with and without the ball. There’s a lesson in there for us. We can’t shy away from playing the football we want to play. That gives us the best chance of success and we didn’t do that tonight.
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Tottenham were thumped by Liverpool in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Thursday (Image: GETTY)
“We’ve given up a good opportunity tonight and we can’t shy away from that. We were in a good position to get to a final. You can always fall short but the manner in which we fell short, it’s not really who we want to be so it’s disappointing.”
And after being asked whether there was anyone who could pick Postecoglou up from the low, the Australian exclaimed: “
“No one needs to pick me up. We should be really motivated after tonight to come out on Sunday and put in a performance which is more reflective of who we are.”
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will be in FA Cup action against Aston Villa at the weekend as they eye up a place in the fifth round.
Postecoglou teased a trophy earlier this season and will be under pressure to overcome the Villans amid a difficult run of results.
Spurs have suffered a precipitous downturn in fortunes in recent months and lost eight matches in 10 league outings between the start of December and the end of January. But they have qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League and still have two trophies to play for.