Ange reacts to Spurs' late comeback to draw 2-2 against Bournemouth

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Tottenham Hotspurs manager Ange Postecoglou reacts to Spurs' late comeback to draw 2-2 against Bournemouth  09/03/2025  Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Transcript

00:00It was a chaotic game, but were you able to dispiritise the opponent?

00:04Yeah, chaotic game for sure.

00:07Yeah, we kind of added to the chaos a little bit.

00:09I think some of it was self-inflicted, especially in the first half.

00:13Yeah, just with the ball, we were kind of really careless with our passing.

00:18And, yeah, that allowed a game we played on the terms Bournemouth would like

00:25with their transition football.

00:27So, yeah, chaotic.

00:29Yeah, but like I said, a 2-0 down would have been very easy,

00:33particularly with the atmosphere as it was,

00:36for the boys to kind of just let the game get away from us.

00:39But, yeah, credit to them.

00:41They found a way to get back in the game, and, yeah, we got something out of it.

00:46Don't they all get minutes?

00:49Yeah, that's a key thing.

00:51They got minutes, and, you know, I think Romero,

00:54just great to get him back out there.

00:56He was such an important player for us.

00:58He hadn't played for a while.

01:00But I thought he grew into the game, and he got a lot better as it went on.

01:03And great for Dom to get 90 minutes today.

01:07He's such a workhorse for us, and I'm sure he'll feel better for that.

01:10And, yeah, brilliant to get Mickie out there as well.

01:13So, yeah, I think before Thursday night,

01:16that was key for us to get some minutes into these guys,

01:19and thankfully they got through it unscathed.

01:22You know, you've spoken about it a lot,

01:23but what do you make of Lucas Birdwell's impact?

01:25Yeah, Lucas is great.

01:26He's been great.

01:27But he has played a lot, so, again, you know,

01:30we've just got to be mindful of, you know,

01:32he's becoming an important part of our team.

01:34And, yeah, I thought he made a real big impact when he came on.

01:38Like I said, we were just sloppy with the ball in the first half,

01:41and he's one that takes a bit more care with it.

01:43He's a technician, and he carries the ball really well.

01:46So I thought he made a real good impact when he came on.

01:49And you mentioned that Romero,

01:51he hadn't played for a while,

01:53and he was pretty loose with the cross in particular at the start,

01:56which put the team in trouble a few times.

01:58Were you not surprised that he was a bit rusty?

02:02Well, I mean, not surprised?

02:04No, I mean, he hasn't played for a very long time,

02:06and he's hardly played this year, to be fair.

02:08So, yeah, you know, Keita would be disappointed with that himself.

02:12But at the same time, what was much more important for me

02:15was how he grew into his game, his defensive work, his aerial ability.

02:19I mean, he was on the end of just about every cross

02:21we put in the box from corners, and defensively.

02:25And I think for him, he'll just feel a lot better having played,

02:28sort of, you know, the idea was only play 45 today,

02:31but he was keen to stay on for a bit longer.

02:33And you can see, like I said,

02:35he grew into the game and really important for us.

02:38It feels like, first, this game is a crucial one for the season.

02:41How important is it to show that spirit, that fight back,

02:44and not lose this game, given where it was at after that?

02:48Yeah, look, it was,

02:50because, you know, you can imagine, sort of, the noise around

02:53if the players didn't respond.

02:57And, like I said, Thursday night was obviously a massive game for us.

03:02And, you know, at least from that perspective,

03:06and I think even for the players themselves, you know,

03:08we've obviously got a challenge on Thursday night,

03:10but, you know, they overcome a fairly big challenge today,

03:13and hopefully we show the same sort of mindset.

03:16You mentioned the atmosphere.

03:17I felt like there was a lot of anxiety in the crowd,

03:19and that felt like it was in the players.

03:21How important is that, not the case for you?

03:24Yeah, look, again, I've said before,

03:27I can't, sort of, dictate to people, you know,

03:30how they, sort of, interact.

03:33But, you know, AZ's crowd certainly helped them on Thursday night,

03:38and, you know, we need our crowd to get behind the boys on Thursday

03:41to make it an atmosphere where, yeah,

03:43maybe we lose some of that nervousness and anxiety within our game.

03:46But the reality of it is we've, you know,

03:49we as a team have to respond irrespective of whether the atmosphere,

03:53one may follow the other, you know.

03:55Maybe if we start the game strong,

03:57it'll get the place nice and loud, which will help us.

04:04And, Jim, how important was it to have that, kind of,

04:07experience on the bench to change the game the second half?

04:11Yeah, look, it certainly helps.

04:12It's something we haven't had for quite a while.

04:14And, yeah, I thought, you know, they all made an impact,

04:17you know, particularly Lucas and Sonny when they came on.

04:20And, you know, it was a big moment for Sonny, obviously,

04:22taking the penalty.

04:24And, you know, he showed, you know, for those big moments he's there

04:28and an important goal for the team.

04:30And, you know, he took that responsibility.

04:33What did you make of the performance on the goal?

04:36As I said, it was a chaotic game,

04:39not a lot of control from our perspective,

04:42which is not ideal for the way we want to play.

04:46Like I said, we looked nervous.

04:47We looked anxious, especially in the first half.

04:51But within that context, like I said, to come back from 2-0 down,

04:54I think, you know, the positives of that is that the lads showed

04:58a really strong mindset to get something out of the game,

05:01which, to be fair, that's probably what's been missing this year.

05:04I think there's a lot of games we've lost where games have just petered out

05:07and, you know, if we had sort of turned more of those single-goal defeats

05:11we had into draws like we did today,

05:13we'd be in a better position in the league.

05:15A lot of your games can often be very entertaining,

05:18but also seem quite chaotic.

05:20What's the difference between a game like that

05:22compared to some of those other fixtures you've had this time?

05:25Is it about control?

05:26Yeah, yeah, just I never felt like we sort of had the control

05:30or the sort of momentum or fluency in the game

05:34to be able to sort of still make it as kind of high-tempo as possible

05:40but without it having the chaos of what it did today

05:43because it ended up becoming a basketball game

05:46and that really suits them.

05:48That's kind of their template

05:50and you need to sort of control the game more,

05:53which we want to do anyway,

05:55if you want to sort of turn it into a game where it's high-tempo

05:58but less sort of chaotic than what it was today.

06:02And because of the injuries and the sort of schedule,

06:04it feels like a while since the team's really played

06:06or started football, even though it wasn't perfect.

06:08Did you kind of feel with the tempo and the urgency,

06:11or was it kind of a step in the right direction?

06:13Look, I think there was a perseverance there probably

06:17to the angst of our supporters that they kept trying to play

06:21and I think that's important.

06:23I think it's the best way to work your way through

06:25the struggle we had out there.

06:28And like I said, I think even when Mickey came on

06:33and you saw the drive he has

06:35and he's having a left-footed sort of centre-back,

06:38it just changes the dimensions of how we play.

06:41So there's little things there that I think certainly from today

06:47we'll be able to take into Thursday and the rest of the season.

06:50Mike, last one, please.

06:53Angelo, no complaints about entertainment,

06:55not for the first time this season,

06:57but do you accept that on Thursday night

06:59you can't afford to be as open at the back

07:01as you were in the first half?

07:03Yeah, look, I think the openness just came from us giving the ball away

07:08in really key areas.

07:10I mean, most of the time we were giving the ball

07:12in pretty critical areas

07:16and Vic had the ball off some fantastic saves

07:19to sort of keep us in it.

07:21So I don't think it was a case of being open.

07:23It wasn't like we were throwing men forward.

07:27It's just that we were giving the ball away.

07:29So we certainly need to be better

07:31at the way we kind of execute that part of our game.

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