Jermain Defoe can not believe what he saw from Tottenham in the second half against Amex Stadium, questioning why Postecoglou’s side did not push bodies back and see out the game.
Spurs only have themselves to blame for throwing away the points against Brighton as the home side scored three quickfire goals at the start of the second period.
The Lilywhites lacked any conviction on the ball and were extremely sloppy defensively, with all three goals being preventable by the likes of Destiny Udogie, Micky Van de Ven, and Cristian Romero.
Even more starkly, they never really looked likely to get an equaliser after the home side’s third goal, with the Tottenham players appearing shell-shocked.
Defoe has now questioned why his former side did not defend with a low block at the start of the second half instead of continuing to push bodies forward.
The 42-year-old told Optus Sport about Tottenham’s loss: “The game changes, you can’t always be like ‘this is how we’re going to play’.
“If you get two goals, you may have to change a little bit, the environment, the score, you can’t always play the same. For 10 minutes, sit behind the ball. It was disappointing in terms of Tottenham.”
While Defoe seems to think that Tottenham’s undoing was refusing to depart from Plan A, Postecoglou suggested just the opposite in his post-match press conference.
The Spurs boss suggested that his side lacked the usual intensity and belief that we see from them in the second half, which was the reason why they struggled to cope with the Brighton onslaught.
Postecoglou told Football.London: “Look, we didn’t do what you need to do at this level, it’s kind of non-negotiable. We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it.
“You can kind of understand that you’re not going to win every game. But there’s the manner you lose games. And that’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve lost the game in that manner. And like I said, unacceptable.
“There are certain elements of this team that have been pretty consistent throughout my tenure, and that is one, even on our not-so-good days we’ve always fought and been competitive. I think that’s been a non-negotiable.
“Like I said, today’s the first day I actually felt like we didn’t deliver in those areas. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s with the ball. Like I said, sport is as much about competition as it is about anything else. And if you don’t compete, you allow the opponent to overrun you in that manner, you’re not going to get anything out of it.”
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