Ange Postecoglou called for his injury-hit Tottenham squad not to be judged on their performances and said criticism of his side is “agenda-driven” after being knocked out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa.
Spurs’ hopes of lifting a domestic trophy this season were ended in the space of four days and now their only chance of silverware remains in the Europa League having lost to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-finals on Thursday.
Tottenham were without 11 first-team players for their defeat at Villa Park and Postecoglou passionately defended his squad’s efforts, referring to Liverpool’s much-changed side being beaten at the Championship’s bottom club Plymouth on Sunday.
“Take them out of any team,” he said. “How did Liverpool go today? And they just did that for one game. Do that for two and a half months. Any team, do that for two and a half months in multiple competitions.
“I don’t care about me, people will judge me or whatever. 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.”
Jacob Ramsey fires Aston Villa into an early lead against Spurs
Asked whether he would get the time to show what this squad could do, Postecoglou said: “I’m not talking about me. People can judge me, they can say I’ve done a bad job, I’m not up to it or whatever, that’s fine.
“What I’m saying is you can’t be critical of players and players’ performance during this time. If you do, then do that with everyone else when they’ve got nine or 10 or 11 players out – none of them have – and for every game.
“I’m not just saying we had to do it today. We’ve been doing this since the middle of November. You can’t judge the performance of these players or critique them on what they’ve done. All they’ve done is give all they can and that’s all you can ask for.
“My responsibility at this club is this group of players and team to get them to play in the manner I want them to that will bring us success. 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.”
When asked why his side’s attacking, all-action playing style wasn’t being shown in performances, Postecoglou said: “Because they’re tired, mate. They can’t. If we hadn’t played on Thursday night and I had rotated that team, do you think it would have been pressing a bit more aggressively today?
“Unless you don’t think they’re human beings. Unless you’re super-human and think after playing Liverpool on Thursday night they should be flying today. It doesn’t happen. They’re human beings.
Ramsey celebrates with team-mate Morgan Rogers after giving Aston Villa a first-minute lead
“Why do you think Liverpool and other teams rotate 11 players? There’s a reason. I wish I could do the same to bring freshness to the team. Of course, they’re not playing anywhere near the levels we want or expect but that’s not because they’re not trying, that’s not because they can’t. They can.
“I keep saying 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 say that or not is of no interest to me. If you want to measure anything on what they’re doing at the moment other than the fact of the extreme situation they’re dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed, it’s not objective.”
Postecoglou added: “I don’t know how else to explain it. If you can’t see that this team is trying its hardest to play under the most extreme two and a half months of asking 18-year-olds and 17-year-olds and senior players with no rest to play Thursday-Sunday, Thursday-Sunday, Thursday-Sunday, Thursday-Sunday for two and a half months. If you think that is not at all a factor of how this team is performing right now then there’s nothing else I can say.”
