Postecoglou sack beckons as Spurs boss fumes over loss of ‘identity’ in chastening Liverpool defeat

Ange Postecoglou has conceded that Liverpool “were too good for us” in Tottenham’s 4-0 Carabao Cup semi-final second leg defeat.

Tottenham took a 1-0 aggregate lead to Anfield for Thursday’s second leg clash but were comfortably beaten by Arne Slot’s men.

Cody Gakpo opened the scoring on the night before Mohamed Salah scored a penalty to put Liverpool ahead on aggregate and two up on the night.

Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk then put the tie out of reach for Spurs, who were absolutely abysmal in defeat.

👉 READ MORE: Postecoglou one game from the sack as Liverpool overwhelm Spurs’ clumsy and gutless low block

Postecoglou did at least admit that Liverpool “were too good” and deserved to win.

The Spurs boss told Sky Sports: “I guess that Liverpool deserved the victory. They were the far better team – we were not able to get a grip of the game.

“They were too good for us. We allowed them to get into the game and we were not as aggressive as we needed to be. We didn’t get the game started off in the right footing.

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“It was very difficult for us to wrestle that control back.

“We definitely needed to be braver with and without the ball. They’re a very good Liverpool team in a good spell of form and they’re very settled.”

Postecoglou added to BBC Radio 5 Live: “Liverpool were too good for us tonight. We didn’t get into the game in the way we wanted to. We allowed them to get control of it.

“When they get into a rhythm, we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to get a foothold in the game.

“We were way too passive in terms of our football with and without the ball. I think it is a lesson there for us. We cannot shy away from the football that we want to play.”

Quizzed on winning a trophy in his second season at the club, Postecoglou replied: “We have given up a good opportunity tonight and we cannot shy away from that.

“We were in a good position to get to the final.

“Nobody needs to pick me up, I just need to pick up the players.”

Postecoglou also told ITV that his side “never played to our identity and strengths and shied away” at Anfield.

“Tough night,” he said. “Credit to Liverpool they were way too good for us tonight.

“We never really got to grips with the game with or without the ball. We just allowed them to get control pretty early and it made it difficult for us to get in the game.

“Both of the first two goals we could have done better but ultimately what was really important was that we never played to our identity and strengths and shied away from the challenge a little bit.

“Overall we didn’t start well and were way too passive and let Liverpool get in a rhythm. We still have competitions to play for starting on Sunday.

“With the opportunities we do have still, we have to tackle them in our way rather than finding different ways to win games.”

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