Ange Postecoglou made a passionate defence of his injury‑ravaged Tottenham squad after their 2-1 FA Cup exit at Aston Villa, arguing that no team could have survived the same level of absentees for such a prolonged period.
Postecoglou was without 11 senior players at Villa Park, where he started with four teenagers and the 21‑year‑old goalkeeper Antonio Kinsky, who was at fault for Jacob Ramsey’s opening goal. Morgan Rogers put Villa 2-0 in front before Mathys Tel’s injury-time consolation.
Postecoglou lamented how he had carried numerous injuries since mid‑November as his team have fought in four competitions – they exited the Carabao Cup at the semi‑final stage against Liverpool last Thursday. He even cited Liverpool’s shock FA Cup exit at Plymouth to illustrate his point; his Liverpool counterpart, Arne Slot, made wholesale changes and watched his team lose 1-0.
“How did Liverpool go today?” Postecoglou said. “And they did that for one game. Do that for two‑and‑a‑half months. Any team. Do that for two-and-a-half months in multiple competitions. I don’t care about me. People will judge me. But you can’t judge this group of players on what’s happened. They’ve given everything.
“Villa are one of the best teams in the country. They’ve had a week off, they didn’t play last Thursday night against Liverpool [in the Carabao Cup] We did. Same group of players.”
“I’m not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I’ve done a bad job, I’m not up to it or whatever. That’s fine. What I’m saying is you can’t be critical of players or players’ performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they’ve got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have.
“It can’t be that people think that’s an excuse. That’s just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That’s just agenda driven stuff. If it’s to get rid of me that’s fine. Good on you. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they’ve given over the past two and half months has been outstanding.
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“The players are tired. Do you think they can press like [we would like to] if we hadn’t played Thursday night? Fair chance … unless you don’t think they’re human beings.
“Why do you think Liverpool and others rotate 11 players? Why? There’s a reason and I wish I could do the same. They’re not playing anywhere near the levels that we want or expect but that’s not because they’re not trying. It’s because they can’t.
“Once we get the rest of the group in, we will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that. Whether other people can’t see that, that’s of no interest to me. If you want to measure anything on what they’re doing at the moment, other than the extreme situation they’re dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed and it’s not objective.”
The Villa manager, Unai Emery, was delighted with the result and the showing of his two loan signings, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, who came on for debuts. “We watched the skill, how they helped us and how they will help us again for the next month in different competitions,” he said.
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