Under-fire Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has leapt to the defence of young stars and hit out at ‘agenda-driven stuff’ aimed at his side.
Three days on from their limp exit from the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage against Liverpool, Spurs were dumped out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa on Sunday evening.
Tottenham found themselves a goal down after just one minute with goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky at fault, letting Jacob Ramsey’s effort past him all too easily.
Premier League legend Alan Shearer was critical of the 21-year-old after his ‘howler’, commenting ‘what on earth is he doing?’ while on commentary duty as Spurs suffered the worst possible start.
Postecoglou has been managing an almighty injury crisis over the last two months with Dominic Solanke, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Guglielmo Vicario, Radu Dragusin, Destiny Udogie and James Maddison all still sidelined.
First-choice centre-half pairing Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven have also endured injury-hit campaigns.
Postecoglou was without 11 first-team players in total on Sunday with the Australian passionately defending the group.
‘I don’t care about me, people will judge me or whatever,’ he said in his post-match press conference.
‘But you can’t judge this group of players on what’s happened. They’ve given everything. Two 18-year-olds, a 17-year-old, a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old goalkeeper starting against one of the best teams in the country at home.
‘They [Villa] had a week off, they didn’t play on Thursday night against Liverpool. We did. Same group of players, not a change. You can’t measure this group of players on that and their performance. It’s too easy for people to be critical of them. I have huge admiration and respect for them.’
Postecoglou demanded ‘better appreciation’ of the demands placed on the group of players who have been fit during a packed fixture schedule, taking a swipe at criticism that ‘is not anywhere near close to objective analysis’.
‘Whether people think I can do that or not is for others to judge but there’s got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months.
‘It can’t be that people think that is an excuse. That’s just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That’s just agenda-driven stuff.
‘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 last two and a half months has been outstanding. It’s a credit to them, I can’t speak highly enough of them.’
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