Ange Postecoglou has suggested he may stop answering questions about his attacking approach and reiterated his intention to continue his uncompromising style despite suffering a 6-3 home defeat to Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Arne Slot’s side moved four points clear of Chelsea with a game-in-hand after easing to a win which began with two headed goals from Luis Díaz and Alexis Mac Allister.
James Maddison halved the deficit before Dominik Szoboszlai restored Liverpool’s advantage in first-half stoppage time.
Mohamed Salah then scored twice before Spurs rallied through goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke only for Diaz to add Liverpool’s sixth with five minutes left.
The result leaves Spurs sitting 11th in the table and having conceded 15 goals in their last six games across all competitions, Postecoglou was asked whether there were any other factors in their lack of clean sheets aside from injuries to key players in goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, centre-backs Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and left-backs Ben Davies and Destiny Udogie.
“You know what? I’m just going to stop answering these questions,” the Spurs boss told BBC Sport. “If people can’t see the obvious I’m not going to point it out. Look, make of it what you want, yes we’re conceding goals.
“If you want to discount the fact we’re missing a goalkeeper, two centre-backs and a left-back as well and that hasn’t coincided with what we’re doing… I don’t know what to say anymore. I think people make up their minds in their own way. They either think what I’m doing is good or they don’t and that’s fine.”
Pushed later on in the post-match press conference over whether Tottenham will benefit from committing to his attacking style in the long run, Postecoglou replied: “I think I have been really patient the last 18 months sitting up here answering the same questions over and over again.
“If people want me to change my approach, it’s not going to change. We are doing it for a reason, we are doing it because we think it will help us to be successful.
“If people don’t understand the circumstances we are in at the moment, the challenges we have from a squad perspective which are as obvious as you want to make them. I get the idea that people think that I should just flip a switch and change and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team.
“It is what it is. I’m just going to continue, stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want. In the interim we are going to accept there are going to be challenges along the way.”
