Ange Postecoglou reflects on hard-earned Carabao Cup win over Man City
After the defeat against Crystal Palace at the weekend, Ange Postecoglou needed his players to put in a good display against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, and they duly delivered.
Spurs beat an unbelievable team
Even fielding a weakened team for the Carabao Cup, Man City have an embarrassment of riches at their disposal, and the heavily-rotated side made life uncomfortable for Spurs from start to finish.
But, the Lilywhites came out on top with a 2-1 win and continue into the next round of the cup.
Speaking to the press (via Football.London) after the game, Ange Postecoglou highlighted just how difficult City are to play against, and how happy he is with the win.
He said: “It was an important win. Obviously, in the cup competitions, you have to win to continue in it so that is the first thing.
“You’re playing against an unbelievable side and they’re going to ask you all sorts of questions and they did today. I thought we defended well as we didn’t give away many clear-cut opportunities but we did have to defend and I thought we did that well.
“In attack, we had some really top-quality moments and we had some really good chances to finish the game off that we didn’t take. But, great resilience from the boys to hold out. When you play City they’re going to ask you every question there is and for the most part I thought we handled it.”
Postecoglou got what he wanted from players
Speaking before the Carabao Cup game, Ange Postecoglou was adamant he didn’t necessarily want to see a ‘reaction’ from his players in the wake of the defeat to Palace on Sunday, and that he would expect the team to stick to their philosophy and put in a performance regardless of that result.
In his post-match press conference, Postecoglou doubled down on that, adding: “I really hope not. That’s what I’m talking about. We can’t wait for these things to change our approach. We were disappointed on the weekend because we didn’t reach the levels we needed to. But, we shouldn’t wait for those moments then to react.
“This group is still learning a lot of these things. They need to have these experiences of difficult times. How they cope with them, how they react to them is important, for sure. You don’t want difficult times to last too long.”
A statement win
Call it a reaction, call it a resolute performance, call it whatever you want, the main thing is Spurs got the win and played really well in dealing with the formidable City team. Postecoglou may not necessarily want it to be, but that is a statement of intent, and shows that his side are more than capable of challenging the best in the world.
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