Ange Postecoglou accepted responsibility for Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-2 defeat at Everton after a poor first-half defensive display left them without a victory in six Premier League games.
Spurs are floundering in 15th place as a result of winning just one of their last 11 league games. Their concession of three first-half goals against the division’s lowest scorers was a damning indictment of their midseason troubles.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Iliman Ndiaye scored for Everton before Archie Gray put through his own net to leave Spurs with “a mountain to climb”. Although Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison narrowed the deficit in the second half, it was another concerning performance.
“It wasn’t a great first half. I guess the majority of that is down to me,” said Postecoglou. “I changed the team and changed the structure [to a three-man defence]. We had a couple of setbacks in terms of player availability and we struggled to get control of the game and allowed Everton to capitalise on that.
“Obviously at half-time we had a mountain to climb. Fair play to the players, they kept going until the end but ultimately fell short.
“I have the responsibility of the group of players. I do have to try and get us through this and that’s what I’ve got to focus on. For me to focus on anything else is abstaining myself from the responsibility I have. I’m just determined to get us out of this.”
Tottenham were without ten first-team players, including Dominic Solanke who is set to be out for “a few weeks”, and lost Radu Dragusin at half time after the defender sustained a cut to the head. Such deficiencies leave Postecoglou with a limited hand.
Asked whether he could address the issue in the closing weeks of the transfer market the Spurs head coach added: “As far as I know at the moment there’s nothing imminent. I assume between now and the end of the window hopefully something comes up.
“I separate myself from that. The club’s doing its best [but it’s] more about helping the players than helping me because they’re the ones we’re asking some massive jobs. We had a 17-year-old [Mikey Moore] out there trying to win games of football for us.”
'Goals will give us confidence'
David Moyes welcomed the first win since his return as Everton manager last week, and the club's first league win at home to Tottenham since December 2012, when he was previously in charge.
“I’m just really pleased to give fans something to shout about,” Moyes said. “We scored three and had another couple of opportunities, the keeper saves one onto the post and the first-half performance was excellent. The aim was to go and get the fourth goal.”
Calvert-Lewin’s third goal of the campaign was his first in 17 matches and Everton’s first since Boxing Day after they had failed to score in nine of their last 11 games.
“Everyone will know we’ve used Dominic as an example. He had three chances in midweek and today he’s got a goal and probably could have had more,” added Moyes.
“The goal will give him great confidence but the whole team looked a different outfit today and played really well, passed it well but we gave it away a lot as well, mostly in the second half. We need to try to eradicate we give the ball away cheaply when we don’t need to at times.”
