Hayters TV
·19 December 2024
Hayters TV
·19 December 2024
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou insists he will continue to tell his goalkeepers to play out from the back despite mistakes from Fraser Forster almost gifting Manchester United a way back into their Carabao Cup quarter-final tie.
Spurs overcame United 4-3 in a thriller, and were even 3-0 up at one point. Goals from Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski put them in cruise control, before Fraser Forster committed two huge errors that let United back into the game.
But Postecoglou insists that he is not deterred from playing out from the back: “Look, fair to say in 26 years there’s been a few of them, but I’ve always felt the pros well outweigh the cons of those kind of things, and those moments are rare, but when they happen, they kind of stand out and today there was obviously two, and I think the first one affected Fraser for that next period.
“I don’t think we could be the team we are, if we didn’t maintain our conviction around our beliefs. I know people will say ‘well just don’t take any risks’ and all that sort of stuff, but then we wouldn’t be scoring four goals and five goals.
“It’s the hardest thing in the game to do, score goals, and we’re doing it with bare bones of a squad. I think it’s a massive credit to this group of players that we’re performing at that level.”
Forster had a night to forget, but Heung-min Son bailed him out of any nail-biting concerns, scoring Spurs’ fourth to take them through to the semi finals.
“He is disappointed because he was outstanding for us,” Postecoglou said. “Even before then in the first half I thought he was really good with his feet, he found some great solutions.
“The first one probably affected his confidence a little bit and he lost a bit of belief and the second one compounded it. But he is a big boy mate and he is another one who has stood up for us big time in this period.”
Tottenham’s quest for a first trophy since 2008 sees them pitted against Liverpool in the semi final.