Ange Postecoglou’s problems deepened as a disappointing Tottenham were held to a 1-1 Europa League draw at Rangers and the manager found it impossible to defend his striker Timo Werner.
“He wasn’t playing at anywhere near the level he should be,” said Postecoglou after substituting the German at half-time. “Timo’s first-half performance was not acceptable to me. I told Timo that he’s a German international, that I need everyone to be trying to give their best and this wasn’t an acceptable example. I expect a lot more from the senior guys.
“But we weren’t anywhere near our best, I think it’s fair to say that we’re in a period of games that we’re grinding through at the moment. But in the context of where we are in Europe and with our squad fairly depleted by injuries it was an important point.”
Spurs are ninth in the initial stage of the Europa League but, with two games to come next month they hope to finish in the top eight and proceed straight to the knockout out phase, thereby avoiding February’s play offs.
As a former Celtic manager, Postecoglou was greeted by choruses of “sacked in the morning” as Hamza Igamane gave Rangers the lead before the substitute Dejan Kulusevski equalised on a night when Fraser Forster shone in the visiting goal.
“Rangers are difficult to play against, especially here at Ibrox on European nights,” said the Australian. “With the nature of the competition and the atmosphere, not many teams can come here and win so you expect a tough game. It was a tough, tight game for us and I thought we did well to claw it back after Rangers took the lead.”
The home manager, Philippe Clement, whose side sit eighth in the Europa League table, hailed an outstanding advertisement for the game north of the border. “I think we should have won and we deserved to win but to play that well against a strong Premier League side was a very good advertisement for Scottish football,” said the Belgian. “I’m very proud about the performance. It’s a big step up for us.
“My squad are not satisfied with the draw, they wanted to win and they were really close to winning. We wanted to impose our football on Tottenham and create something for our forwards. We didn’t want to just protect our 18-yard box and wait for the ball to drop out of the sky and my players grabbed this chance to show everybody we could do something special with both hands. There is a lot of potential in my squad and, tonight, they played fast and made fast decisions.”
Postecoglou’s injury-hit group face games against Hoffenheim and Elfsborg in January. “I thought we worked our way back into the game and scored a good goal.
“It’s fair to say we’re in a bit of a struggle. Being down on numbers, the players understand that a lot of them, we’re asking for a lot of repeated efforts and it takes its toll.”
