00:00I guess having had a few weeks to think about it, why do you think you've lost?
00:10Well, I said, I think, you know, apart from, like I said, the feelings you have, it's about, well, how do I, I can't, you know, I can't give feelings as a feedback to players.
00:23I had to give them something and, you know, the stats showed that we were very passive in the second half, even from a physical standpoint.
00:29We pride ourselves on being, you know, the fittest team, the most intense team in the comp and, you know, our physical stats nosedived to the start of the second half.
00:39So, I just feel we went out there with the kind of attitude of, you know, we'll weather a bit of a storm and then finish strong and the game's over and done with because we were so dominant in the first half.
00:52And, you know, in elite sport, you can't do that.
00:54You drop one or two percent and you're dropping off a cliff.
00:57You're not just, you know, your performance doesn't drop a little bit, you drop, you know.
01:01And, you know, Brighton obviously were hurting from the first half.
01:06They had a point to prove.
01:07They're at home.
01:08The crowd will get behind them, all those kind of things.
01:09And I just don't think we handled it well and we stopped doing the things that fundamentally are, you know, the foundation of our football.
01:16And, you know, it's not me saying we weren't competitive or it looked like we didn't have any effort.
01:24There was data to back that up that we, especially in that 20-minute spell, we just weren't running.
01:30You know, if you're not running, then everything else becomes a consequence of that.
01:38Wonderful, mate.
01:40Yeah, beautiful.
01:47Yeah, look, it's hard, but you know what?
01:51It's not about me.
01:52So, you know, that's the first thing.
01:54You've got to separate yourself from that and just, you know, this is not about me.
01:58It's about sort of what we're trying to do to make ourselves the football team we want to be.
02:05And I think what time does give you and, you know, I'd like to think that even if it wasn't the international break, the next day gives you perspective.
02:15Like I said, you can't dismiss the first half.
02:17You can't just focus on the second half and that's your only feedback.
02:23And you can't dismiss the five games we won before that either.
02:26You know, so it's all those kind of things.
02:29Time allows you to reflect a little bit better.
02:31And like I said, then it just gives you perspective to then look at, you know, how am I going to...
02:37One thing is to say, all right, I'm disappointed, I'm angry, whatever, their feelings.
02:42But how am I going to help the players?
02:44So the next time that happens, we deal with it better.
02:47And, you know, like I said, you deal then with the facts of, you know, stuff that we think is important that we didn't do in the second half.
02:57But, you know, if it is about me, I was miserable for nine days.
03:02And just finally, when you have a defeat like that, a man like that, a loss,
03:08an accusation that often comes whenever anything has to be like that is a lack of leadership in the team.
03:14Obviously, we're missing a captain.
03:18I presume you don't have any concerns about the leadership?
03:21Or is that something that you want to see players grow?
03:25Yeah, no, I do.
03:26I think, you know, part of the feedback is to the players is that, you know, if you're feeling that happening out there,
03:31then, you know, the best way to arrest that is individuals to take action, to know what to do.
03:38Now, but the challenge with that is because people, when they talk about leaders,
03:42I think, oh, well, it's the captain, but that's where you fall into the trap,
03:45because it might be the captain that's having a bad day.
03:47Leadership can be shown by the youngest player out there.
03:49I keep saying that.
03:50Anyone, every individual has a capacity to show leadership, you know,
03:54whether that's in a football field, in your workplace, wherever, you know.
03:57You could be the most inexperienced person that doesn't act, that inspires others, you know.
04:02So leadership is, in that moment, taking ownership of something.
04:06And I think we didn't have anyone who did that through that time.
04:11So, you know, that is part of the discussion with the players, you know,
04:15because maybe they are waiting for, I don't know, Romero or somebody like that to do it.
04:19But if they're not doing it, well, you can't just stand by and let it happen.
04:23You know, if you're Mickey Van Der Veen, then you can do it.
04:26You know, if you're Brennan Johnson, then you can do it, you know.
04:29So there's – and that's got to be part of our growth as a team.
04:32You know, I still think, you know, as a group, we're still –
04:36there's still areas of kind of that sort of behaviour where, you know, we still need to grow.
04:43And sometimes, you know, again, you know we're designing and it's not great,
04:48but going through situations like that is how it's sort of laid bare
04:53and then you can deal with it from there on.
04:57And you said there that previous collapses before your time were irrelevant.
05:02But there is this kind of perception about Tottenham as a club,
05:04that they have this soft centre.
05:06It happens to them more often than other clubs.
05:09And your predecessor, as a kind of parting shot, infamously said,
05:13you can change the manager, but this is going to keep happening in this club.
05:17Is there anything in that, do you think?
05:19I mean, is part of your job still to sort of change the –
05:23Well, mate, if I accept that, what am I doing here, seriously?
05:27Like, if I accept that, that this is somehow, you know, impossible to change,
05:34I'm really stealing the liver.
05:36Like, seriously, why am I here?
05:38Like, I don't believe that and I never have.
05:40So – and if I fail to do that, the failure's on me.
05:43It's got nothing to do with the club.
05:44It's on me.
05:45Because I know that coming into it.
05:46I know that the club hasn't won anything for X amount of time.
05:49I know the tag on the club.
05:51I know all these things when I accept the position.
05:53So there's no good in me coming in now and saying,
05:55well, yeah, I accept the position.
05:56Well, you know what?
05:57I can't do this.
05:58This is impossible.
05:59This club is – doesn't matter who they're –
06:00well, I shouldn't have stepped into it.
06:02I made the decision to step into it, knowing all these things.
06:06The same thing you know, I know.
06:07It's not a secret.
06:08It's not like – it's only when you get in here,
06:10oh, my God, I didn't know that.
06:12Jesus Christ.
06:13The club hasn't won anything for 14 years.
06:15Can you believe it?
06:16You know, you accept that challenge.
06:18I accepted that challenge.
06:19So I'm not – I can't sit up here now and complain that it's hard.
06:23Well, no, that's why I'm here.
06:24And it's up to me to change that.
06:26And if I don't change that, the failure's on me.
06:28It's on no one else.
06:29Because I've accepted that.
06:30So – and the reason I don't think the past is irrelevant
06:34because I can't change that.
06:35I can't do anything.
06:36I wasn't here.
06:37I wasn't part of it.
06:38And maybe it was impossible.
06:39I don't know.
06:40But where I sit here right now, I don't see it as impossible.
06:42I think it is achievable.
06:43And that's what I'm going to try and do with everything I have in my power
06:48to change.
06:49Is it harder to change that intangible mentality, whatever it is,
06:53than change the style of play?
06:56No, not necessarily.
06:57No, I think they're both equally challenging.
06:59You know, in other places it's been more about the style of play.
07:02The mentality's been there, but the style of play.
07:04And that's still equally as challenging because, you know,
07:07some clubs, you know, don't want to change it
07:11or don't feel comfortable changing the way they play,
07:13even though that's what they're seeking because it's kind of –
07:16it's a lot more sort of risky to go this way.
07:19So I think where it is challenging, whether it's football
07:24or whether it's mentality, it's when it's existed for a long period of time,
07:28irrespective of what it is.
07:30And it might not even be football or it might be something else.
07:33Anything that's existed for a long time is obviously difficult to change.
07:37It's very challenging.
07:38But like I said, you accept that challenge
07:41and you do what you can to change it.
07:43We'll have one from Matt and then one from Gary.
07:46When you say stats are down, running down at the start of the second half,
07:50can you give us any context on that?
07:52We don't have your powers of analysis and software and things like that.
07:56But, you know, how much?
07:59Yeah, it's not that complicated, mate,
08:00because I'm not that sort of intrinsically involved in it.
08:05But it's fair to say that our sheer volume of running
08:14probably dropped 20% to 30% in that 20-minute period.
