fbpx
Connect with us

Aston Villa

Ange Postecoglou makes quite the claim as he bites back at reporters after FA Cup defeat

Ange Postecoglou makes quite the claim as he bites back at reporters after Tottenham’s 2-1 FA Cup defeat at Aston Villa.

Jacob Ramsey gave Villa lead inside 60 seconds after a mistake from Antonin Kinsky mistake; Morgan Rogers doubled Villa’s lead in second half; Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio made their Villa debuts; and Mathys Tel scores injury-time consolation.

But the Tottenham boss, who was without 11 first-team players due to injury, is defiant as he defends his ‘outstanding’ squad from criticism.

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou, speaking to BBC One: “Obviously disappointed we don’t progress. It wasn’t a great start, that’s the last thing you want, and we really struggled to get some control. Then we had an enormous chance at 1-0 we didn’t take to equalise.

“We got a better grip of the game but unfortunately fell short. When you go a goal down it gives the opposition momentum and confidence. You want to wrestle control early and we didn’t do that.

“We were still in the game [at half-time]. We just needed to hang in there. The second half was a lot more like ourselves. The second goal sort of made it a bit more difficult but I always felt we were a threat – unfortunately just not enough.

“We still scored, we had opportunities to create more chances. We were always still in the game but conceding an early goal and a second makes it hard.”

 Postecoglou, speaking to BBC One, on the rest of the season: “Nothing really changes. We have a couple of weeks now where we don’t have midweek games.

“This group has done an unbelievable job for two and a half months. I can’t praise them enough, playing twice a week since November. They’ll get the chance to reset now and finish the season strong.

“Europe is still very important to us, we’re still in a great spot there, and we’ll hope to get some players back over the next two weeks.

“We’ll get players back which will help, we had 11 first-team players out today. Take that out of any team for one game and they would struggle – we’ve been doing that for two and a half months.

“The players are going out there and giving everything they can. It would be a lot better if they had some help.”

“People can judge me. They can say I’ve done a bad job, I’m not up to it or whatever. That’s fine,” Postecoglou added.

“What I’m saying is you can’t be critical of our players’ performances at this time.

“If you want to measure anything on what they’re doing at the moment, other than the extreme situation they’re dealing with, then I think your analysis is skewed and it’s not objective.

“If it’s to get rid of me that’s fine. Good on you. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they’ve given over the past two and a half months has been outstanding.”

He has seen 12 first-team players absent for the late January win over Elfsborg, which secured passage to the Europa League last 16.

“[It’s been] Two and a half months of asking 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds and senior players with no rest to play Thursday and Sunday [every week]. If you think that is not at all a factor in how this team is performing, then there’s nothing else I can say,” said Postecoglou.

“I think this group of players, once we get the rest of the group in, will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that. Whether other people can see that is of no interest to me.”

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery speaking to BBC One: “I am very happy. It was a fantastic match against a very good team, Tottenham, and we played really well. After a long time, we are in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

“I know how much this competition means for our supporters and us, and I am happy for the fans. We are playing more or less as we planned. We dominated and played with confidence and personality – everything we did today was more or less very good.”

On Jacob Ramsey: “He played really well. We are happy when the player is scoring. He had more chances. Of course, we need his best performances from Ramsey. He is getting better and being consistent without injuries. We will need players who are physically good for the rest of the season.

“There are players coming back in the coming weeks. We also have players like Donyell Malen, Andres Garcia, Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford and hopefully, we can build the team in the structure we want to create.”

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery speaking to BBC One, on Morgan Rogers: “Morgan is performing fantastic. His commitment to do his task every day from the first minute to 90 is great. We did a lot of positive things today.

“It will be very demanding for us in this competition, so we will need to improve and increase our level. We are with the motivation to get something in this competition as well as the Premier League and Champions League. We still have a lot of work to do.”

On Rashford’s debut: “We have to protect every player and try to adapt them into our structure and use their skills. Asensio, Rashford and Malen are versatile players in the attacking third. We can feel confident to have them.

“We are very demanding in our way because we want to be in the top six or top five in the Premier League as well as in the Champions League, where we are in the last 16.”

Aston Villa goalscorer Jacob Ramsey speaking on BBC One: “I don’t think I have been in an FA Cup fifth round for a long, long while. I’ve been in the first team for four or five years and we have been getting knocked out in the first or second game. So, we wanted to put on a performance for the fans and we did that today.”

On his goal: “To be fair, when I hit it, it was on my weak side and I thought the goalkeeper was going to catch it. But luckily for me, it went in the back of the net.”

On Villa’s new additions: “I think it’s probably one of the best squads we have had. We have got experience with [Marcus] Rashford and [Marco] Asensio coming on and Donyell Malen starting. The squad depth is unbelievable. The starting players have got to raise their game now because the players coming on are a big threat.”

Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers, speaking on BBC One: “The second goal was important, we played well but we hadn’t killed the game off.

“We probably could have scored a few more but overall we are happy with the performance and the win.

“I’m trying to improve, trying to get better, but the team are trying to create something and we’ll see where it takes us.”

On the January arrivals of players like Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio: “It pushes us along, we want to take what we can from the experienced players in the squad.

“It’s massive to have people like that in the building and hopefully we can just push each other.”

Twitter users reacted after Ange Postecoglou makes quite the claim as he bites back at reporters after FA Cup defeat…

@FulhamTransfer: In context if Fulham lost 11 players from their squad we’d be seeing Lemar Gordon & Terrel Works playing week in week out. Seems evident to me these guys are running on empty & Ange wasn’t backed in the market… He deserves a full squad to work with before people call for his head.

@Gazby77: Spurs injury situation is one of the worst ever seen in the PL.. He makes fair points, but I’m still not convinced he has the ability to see things and tweak anything from game to game.

@1882_Tottenham: In my opinion he is correct here. Where he was wrong was not demanding a better squad from the chairman to be able to rotate more

@deniswhite1114: Fair point. Villa though played the majority of this game without CB’s. Two Midfielders slotted in there tonight. Villa currently have a allot of injuries also and have played two games a week with months now also.

@Glover151:
1) Why do we have so many injuries?
2) Why have we been losing 50% or more of our games since November 2023?
3) who instructs Porro to play that high up?
4) why are our wingers hugging the touch line and our fullbacks used as 10s?
Sorry Ange. No one is blaming the players.

@L_Hodge: Actually a refreshing manager who speaks honestly and passionately not throwing his players under the bus. Frankly, you have to adapt and reinforce like Villa have which is down to the owners backing and he has very little. He will be a miss for spurs when sacked, in the long run

@djclederman: My manager, with him to the very end. If you can’t see what the team is going through, you shouldn’t be watching professional football – it’s really not difficult to understand.

@FassbenderProf: So Liverpool got beat off Plymouth cos they played a few kids, fringe players and not their first choice two CB’s, that’s been Spurs for the last 2 1/2 months

@BrunoMagicHat: Players are injured due to the intense Ange ball tactics. His high line is also easy to play against… Manager rating = before average

@jjiszatt: Call me dumb, I still back him 🤍 with this squad through thick and thin… #coys

@mionomedev: Could get sacked but first time in years that a Spurs manager hasn’t just chucked his players under the bus when shit hits the fan, fair play

@Bayst_9: What an interview this 👏🏼

@Trevorlloyd92: I mean… he isn’t wrong… and he’s right about Liverpool. They made 7 or 8 changes today, played their back ups and lost. We’ve been doing that for 2 months. Should certain results have been better? Absolutely. But, the players are dead out. You can see it

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Aston Villa