Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham fans have ‘every right to be disappointed’ after he was subjected to fervent boos following the defeat to Bournemouth.
Spurs’ turbulent and chaotic season continued on Thursday night as they were beaten 1-0 by Bournemouth.
Dean Huijsen’s early header separated the sides at the Vitality Stadium but in truth Bournemouth should have won by more, wasting several chances to extend their lead.
Tottenham produced a brilliant performance to thrash Manchester City 4-0 just two weeks ago but the north London side have since drawn with Roma and Fulham and lost to Bournemouth.
The defeat on the south coast leaves Spurs just 10th in the Premier League, six points outside the Champions League places.
‘It is not good enough,’ Postecoglou told Amazon Prime. ‘We again fell into the trap of starting the game really well, we were in control and then we conceded a really poor goal.
‘Then we kind of lost our way a little bit and allowed Bournemouth to play the game that they wanted to. We had our moments in the second half but we could not get a goal.
‘I don’t know if they had more urgency but we have this sort of propensity to shoot ourselves in the foot when we should be controlling games.
‘They are hard to beat here and what you should not do is give them a goal that gives them the momentum they need.
‘We started to play with a bit more conviction at the beginning of the second half and made some good chances.
‘Again we made things difficult for ourselves by allowing the opposition to take the game in the direction that they want.’
Postecoglou faced intense boos as he went over to applaud the travelling away fans and appeared to exchange a few words with at least one supporter before heading back to the dug-out.
‘The fans have every right to be disappointed with the way it went tonight,’ he said. ‘I got some pretty direct feedback [on the pitch at the end] with the way that we are going at the moment and that is rightly so.
‘They are all big games coming up. We have to get ourselves out of the space we are in at the minute where we can’t get a real grip on the season.’
Asked what the fan said to him, Postecoglou added: ‘Yeah, that’s probably not for here mate.’
The former Celtic boss then reiterated that he was not overly bothered by the negative interaction.
‘I’ve got no issue with it,’ he insisted. ‘I didn’t like what was being said because I’m a human being but you’ve got to cop it.
‘I’ve been around long enough to know that if things don’t go well, you’ve got to understand the frustration and disappointment.
‘They’re right disappointed tonight because again we’ve let a game of football get away from us. That’s ok, I’m ok with all of that.’
While it was a disappointing night for Spurs, Bournemouth’s promising run under Andoni Iraola continued as the Cherries climbed into the top-half of the Premier League.
Bournemouth captain Adam Smith said: ‘At home we are a force, even away from home, we press high and we don’t care about who the opponent is. Here the crowd gets behind us and our mentality is top.
‘It was frustrating that we had a few good chances, especially at the end, and didn’t score. Teams like this you have to finish them off.
‘Credit to the defenders though who did fantastically at the other end and it was another great win.
‘We have got so many exciting players. The club has done so well in recruiting big talents and we have so many options to come off the bench too.
‘The club is moving forward for sure, we have a new training ground coming, the owner wants to build a new stadium as well. We just need to keep building forward.
‘The sky is the limit, for sure. The owner wants to do big things, we have got a great manager as well, it is only positive things going forward.
‘After we beat Man City and Arsenal we went to Brentford away and it is teams like that which we struggle with sometimes.
‘We need to get up for those games, especially against the teams in and around us. This league is so tough and it is only getting better, which is scary.’
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