Ange Postecoglou has vehemently rejected the idea that his team are poor at defending set pieces.
The data places Tottenham Hotspur as one of the poorest teams in the league with respect to set-piece defending. Among teams still playing in the Premier League in the past four seasons, only Nottingham Forest with 23 goals conceded from set-pieces have conceded more than the Australian’s squad, who have conceded 18 in that time.
Although the former Celtic manager is in only his second season at the helm of affairs at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, he saw his team concede quite a number of goals from set pieces last season. They were close to a big result on Sunday afternoon in the North London derby until a headed goal from Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães following a set-piece situation broke the deadlock and cost them three points in front of their fans.
This has worried Spurs fans and media pundits who asked the manager what the deal was with his team’s horrific set-piece defending.
“I know that, for some reason, people think I don’t care about set-pieces,” Postecoglou told reporters after the game. “I understand the narrative, but we work on them all the time.
“We held them [Arsenal] well for the most part, but switched off for one and paid a price. They’re obviously a very big threat from set-pieces and it only takes one.
“It wasn’t just [Cristian] Romero, others switched off too. The delivery was spot on and Gabriel is a threat in those situations.
“We paid a price for it, but you learn from that and you move on. It’s my burden to carry and I’m fine with that.
“For me, it’s about the finer details of us getting to where we want to be — for us, the way forward is to try to turn the football we’re playing into something meaningful.”
Postecoglou, who also defiantly stated that he was going to bring Spurs a trophy this season, has lost seven of his last 11 games as manager of the Lilywhites. He spoke generally about the game and talked about how his team needed more belief in themselves.
“A lot of times, with more belief or conviction in the final third we could have taken more of our opportunities,” he said. “We lacked conviction to make the most of them.
“It has been the story of our season so far, we played in their half and created chances but we lack a bit of belief in the final third. That’s what we need to fix. It was always going to be decided in moments and they capitalised on theirs.
“We’ve just got to keep working at it, guide the players in the right way.”
