Gus Poyet insists that Tottenham looked “confused” in their 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday, while he has reacted to the Djed Spence and Micky van der Ven incident.
Despite the defeat to the Blues, Spurs are still ahead of their London rivals on goal difference with Tottenham fifth in the Premier League table.
Spurs were extremely disappointing against Chelsea with the visitors to north London unlucky not to leave with a bigger margin of victory.
Reacting to Tottenham’s performance against Chelsea, Poyet exclusively told Football365 in association with BetWright: “Obviously we were all expecting more from Spurs. I think sometimes, when you get to this kind of derby… I don’t pay too much attention to how the teams arrive to this game. You know how they come from the previous game, because it’s unique. So I was expecting, let’s say, a more competitive, more equal game.
“I think Chelsea players, they are playing at the moment, like the style and the way they want to play. Spurs to me looked like they were a little bit confused, and it was difficult to get into the pace of the game, like they were never in the rhythm. Then when the best player in Spurs is probably the goalkeeper, that tells you everything about it.”
When asked why they were “confused, Poyet added: “I think the team, more or less, is the team that we were expecting. It’s just that I think Spurs is in a process of change. I don’t forget how Ange was playing in the beginning, with that incredible high line and it was craziness. There were 3, 4, 5, 6 goals. I said in the beginning of the season, that season, if you want to see goals, go watch Spurs. Winning or losing is another matter.
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“So any other manager coming after that, it will be a process. Obviously. I don’t think that the squad of Spurs has too much in common with the squad of Brentford. Completely different the style of a player. So there is a little bit of adaptation both ways, from the coach to the players and the players to the coach. And I think that’s been the season so far.
“There have been games like Paris Saint-Germain, you go ‘wow’ and then the next game, you go, ‘what happened?’ Up and down because of that new way of playing.
“But then it’s a derby and the derbies, they are there to be won because it has nothing to do with their identity. They have nothing to do with a change of coach. It’s just a matter of the players going in there and performing.
“It didn’t look like Tottenham was playing a derby properly. They were just in between. Do we attack? Do we defend? We keep the ball? Do we play long? We work for a corner, for a throw-in. It was like a little bit of everything, and at the end, it was nothing. So bad day and the bad day is clear when the game finished and everything that happened after the game, which shows that it was a really big frustration in that stadium.”
Poyet: I think it was frustration of the players
At full-time, Spence and Van der Ven seemingly ignored Thomas Frank’s offer of a handshake with the Tottenham boss giving the duo a angry stare as they walked down the tunnel.
Reacting to the incident, Poyet added: “It’s not because of Frank because I don’t know him, and I think he’s a great coach, but I said it maybe two years ago, for some reason that nobody knows, the coaches, they start finishing the game in England, and they started walking onto the pitch.
“I don’t like it. Me, I’m a little bit old-fashioned, shake hands with the opposition, get in [the tunnel]. The stars are the players. I made one mistake here in Korea in my first game at home. That was a very important game, and the people from the media asked me to go close to the fans, and I stayed a little bit longer, and I said to them, that’s it.
“Me, I clap the fans, shake hands, and I go in. Okay? Then there are special celebrations. Special days, no, but the last two or three years, finish the game, shake hands. And the cameras, they follow the coaches onto the pitch.
“So I think it became like a habit, and that habit makes you be in positions that we should avoid, let’s say, with your players, with the opposite players, and the referees.
“Because if you go in, you don’t complain. If you go in front of the referee, there is something you want to talk about, maybe you complain and you get a yellow card. So I like it the old way.
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“So now this way of the coach going into the middle part, being on the screen and being, you know, the person who gets the most attention at the end of the game, brings the possibility of issues, and it’s not nice, because then you need to resolve it, even if you do it indoors, it’s been public, and now you’re asking me about that.
“So I think it was frustration of the players and let’s hope it’s a one-off, it can happen.
“I’ll make another example. I don’t set straight rules when I change a player, that the player comes in and out, and has to shake hands with me. No, you want to say something, then do; if you want to go in, go in. I was the worst when I was coming out. I’m not going to change now that I’m a coach, I’m not that hypocritical.
“So even when you change a player who is a little bit passionate, stay away because you don’t know why it’s coming. So try to be intelligent. But I think Frank probably didn’t know, and the players, they were frustrated because of the result, frustrated because of the way they played, and probably really frustrated about the reaction of the fans.
“There was a massive boo in there so I don’t think it’s a great time to talk to them, whatever he tried to say, you know, even stay, because that’s another thing. England is different to the world, but anywhere in the world, if you get that reaction from the fans, that booing, the players, they go in. You’re not going to stay to be booed. But okay, England is different.”
Tottenham ‘need to go and make things happen’ at home
When asked why Tottenham are better away from home, Poyet replied: “Normally it’s the responsibility of taking the game into your own hands. Away from home, you go with less responsibilities, maybe you feel secure, and you are in a different kind of… as a team.
“And then at home, you need to take it. You need to go and make things happen. So maybe the team, at the moment, feels better playing away from home or the results show that. So, it takes time, and the manager needs time for that to, you know, let’s say, ‘Okay, we know that away from home we’re going to be okay. Okay, how can we, you know, change at home to have better results.'”