Ange Postecoglou is a man who isn’t shy about speaking his opinion about his football club and his players, but in the 18 months in charge of Tottenham Hotspur, he has rarely singled out one of his players for negative criticism for their performance on the pitch. He broke new ground in that respect on Thursday night in the press conference following Spurs’ 1-1 Europa League draw against Rangers in Glasgow.
Speaking to the assembled media, Big Ange did not hold back, directing pointed comments directly at German international and on-loan winger Timo Werner for a perceived lack of effort. Werner had a pretty awful match against Rangers, misplacing several passes and demonstrating poor decisionmaking; he was hooked at halftime, a rarity for Postecoglou, and replaced with Dejan Kulusevski.
“Yeah, yeah, [Timo] wasn’t playing anywhere near the level he should.
“When you’ve got 18-year-olds it’s not acceptable to me. I said that to Timo. He’s a senior international, he’s a German international. In the moment we’re in right now, it’s not like we’ve got many options. I need everyone to at least be going out there trying to give the best of themselves. His performance in the first half wasn’t acceptable.
“I don’t really know [how he took it]. It’s not really of great concern. We need everybody including him to be contributing, because we don’t have the depth to leave people out if they’re performing poorly. We need them to play their part. Especially the senior guys. When I’m asking younger guys to do massive jobs, I expect a level of performance from some of the senior guys and today wasn’t that.”
Whoof. I’m not sure I’d qualify this as throwing a player under the bus — Ange admitted he’d already spoken to Timo about it and this didn’t feel to me like some of the stuff we used to hear from Jose Mourinho or (to a lesser degree) Antonio Conte. And in truth, Timo played a very poor match in Glasgow.
But I have to say I’m not thrilled with Ange airing this in public rather than keeping it between himself and the player. Ange has had harsh words for Yves Bissouma for his off-pitch behavior, but he is generally very disciplined with his messaging and protects his players when speaking in public. Timo’s performance must have really cheesed him off, and part of me wonders whether Ange will come to regret these comments and try to walk them back a bit in the future.
But the thing is, he’s not wrong. With Spurs as wafer thin as they are right now, they absolutely cannot afford a senior member of the squad to be a passenger, and Timo was very much that on Thursday night. His comments give the impression that, if Wilson Odobert or Mikey Moore or even Richarlison were healthy, they’d be getting opportunities to play ahead of Werner right now. And it also makes me wonder whether the club, if given the opportunity to strengthen in the January transfer window, might consider terminating Werner’s loan.
In contrast, Ange spoke warmly about Archie Gray, who started at central defender alongside Radu Dragusin in a very intense European atmosphere and held his own. Lucas Bergvall also put in a bright shift, with Ange stating that the plan was to start him but he was feeling sick before kick-off.
“[Archie] is 18, it’s a big experience for him. I thought he handled himself really well. We’re asking him to do something that as an 18-year-old in his first year at this level, to play in an unfamiliar position in such big games, I thought it’s outstanding what he’s doing.
“I thought Lucas was excellent when he came on as well. He was due to start tonight but wasn’t feeling well today. He was a bit under the weather today. We had to keep him on the bench, but that’s a massive positive for us. Those two as 18-year-olds to be already contributing and experiencing these things will be of enormous benefit to us.”
A point against the team third in the table in Scotland might feel a little disappointing for a club like Spurs, but the point is an important one — it puts Spurs right at the break between a bye to the Round of 16 and the Round of 32 with arguably their two easiest matches to come — at Hoffenheim and home to Elfsborg. Spurs’ European qualification hopes are still very much in their own hands.