What Ange Postecoglou said in furious X-rated blast at shocked Spurs players in Chelsea defeat

Ange Postecoglou snapped and screamed at his Tottenham players to show some bravery during their damaging defeat against Chelsea.

Spurs suffered a severe setback to their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League on Thursday night as they were defeated 2-0 by their London rivals. Trevoh Chalobah scored the first goal for the Blues with a header from Conor Gallagher’s free kick, and Nicolas Jackson added a second with a rebound after Cole Palmer hit the crossbar.

The defeat was Tottenham’s second in five days against rivals following the 3-2 north London derby defeat vs Arsenal. Even though they still have a game in hand, fourth place suddenly seems far away as they trail Aston Villa by seven points in fifth place.

In their lackluster effort against Chelsea, Spurs disappointed Postecoglou. The TV cameras caught him ranting at his players from the sidelines in the 32nd minute, with the score at 1-0.

With a loud cry, he commanded Cristian Romero and Pape Sarr, saying, “Pape, stop passing it f***ing backwards! Send it on to other people! You give it to other people. About the outburst in the Sky Sports commentary, Gary Neville remarked, “He’s having a right go at Sarr and Romero.” He snapped!

“Angry Ange! Honestly I’ve never seen him so angry and animated,” Karen Carney said at half-time. “They kept getting into midfield and giving it away and really it’s about [Brennan] Johnson and Son [Heung-min], they missed the ball and they lost possession and gave away this free-kick that led to the goal.”

After failing to get the response he was hoping for, Postecoglou called for substitutions in the sixty-third minute, substituting Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, James Maddison, and Rodrigo Bentancur for Sarr, Yves Bissouma, and Richarlison. However, the triple substitution did not have the intended impact, as Jackson scored Chelsea’s game-winning second goal.

In the post-match interview, Postecoglou was still very much in the mix. He replied, “I have to take responsibility for that; it is on me. It wasn’t good enough.” “I am the manager and the one who promoted them, and it was insufficient. Our performance in the first half indicated that my message wasn’t being understood.”

“Come on mate, we didn’t play well. Do you want me to write you a dossier of where it went wrong?” he said in response to a question about the message he was attempting to convey to his players. We seem to have lost some of our faith and conviction in our football, and it is my responsibility to make that right.

It was our style of play, and we were far from adequate, that mattered, not that we let up the [first] goal. I’m responsible for that. For a while now, we’ve been somewhat of a grind, but that’s part of the challenge and part of our development. We have to put up a show, and sometimes that means working hard. We didn’t have much today.”