Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has said that he has no interest in how Timo Werner received his “assessment” of his performance in Thursday’s 1-1 Europa League draw with Rangers in which he said the forward’s display “wasn’t acceptable.”
Werner was replaced by Dejan Kulusevski at half-time after struggling in the first half at Ibrox and was the subject of some choice words from his coach who also referenced the impact of two teenagers — Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall — in helping salvage a point in Glasgow.
“I think when you’ve got 18-year-olds, it’s not acceptable to me,” Postecoglou said on Thursday. “I said that to Timo, he’s a senior international, a Germany international. In the moment we’re in right now, it’s not like we’ve got many, kind of, options.
“I need everyone to at least be going out there trying to give the best of themselves. His performance in the first half wasn’t acceptable.”
Speaking the morning after the game, Postecoglou reiterated that Werner, and some of the other senior players within the Spurs squad, need to step up to help what is an injury-depleted team.
“It wasn’t criticism, it was assessment,” Postecoglou told a news conference on Friday. “I mean, if we played poorly, we played poorly … And I said with Timo, it wasn’t about whether he played well or not, but we had a real difficult game last night.
“I’m asking 18-year-olds to do some massive jobs and you’ve got senior players — and he’s a senior player, he’s an international, he’s won a Champions League — that there’s a level of application and performance you need to, sort of, rise to or to help the team and he didn’t reach that.
“I think me taking him off at half time was a statement enough … It wasn’t criticism, it’s just an assessment of his performance and on a really challenging night for us, which we knew going into it, it needs to be better.”
Asked how he felt Werner might have responded to his manager’s comments, Postecoglou said: “Look, I’ve got no time for that sort of stuff anymore. We are in a fight here you know? Collectively, we’re in a fight.
“I’m not going to go around worrying about people’s bruised egos. This football club, we want to achieve things, we want to be successful and we’re down to the bare bones in players. I’m not going to, for somebody in that dressing room who’s fit and able to contribute, that feels like he needs something extra in this moment, he’s probably not the right type.
“I need guys who — and we had some last night — who understand the situation we’re in. We’ve got 15 fit players. In some positions we’ve only got two players. So, I am not going to go around trying to get extra out of people if they don’t give extra right now. Well, it kind of gives me an indication of where they’re at.”
Tottenham have registered just four away victories in the Premier League in 2024 — a 4-0 win over Aston Villa and 3-0 success over Sheffield United in the 2023-24 campaign, as well as a 3-0 victory over Manchester United and 4-0 triumph over Manchester City this season.
Spurs travel to face bottom-of-the-table Southampton on Sunday in need of a comprehensive win.
Asked by ESPN whether his attacking style of play is intrinsically more difficult to implement away from home, Postecoglou said: “No, not necessarily. I don’t think so. Look, again, I get that people kind of think that attacking football means you never defend or you don’t care about defending, but it’s not. It’s just like I said, it’s more about your intent when you go into every game and our intent is to go and try and win every game, not to treat games in a different manner.
“Now, is that more difficult? Well, what’s the opposite? The opposite is that you go into a game trying not to lose. Well that’s not guaranteed success either. So the only guaranteed success is when you get it all right.”
Tottenham are 11th in the Premier League table, seven points behind fourth-placed Man City, while Southampton are bottom, eight points from safety.