Ange Postecoglou said he had “nothing to address” after Tottenham defenders Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal had to be separated by goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario during the team’s 4-2 defeat at Liverpool.
Despite two late goals by Richarlison and Son Heung-min, Spurs were unable to salvage a point from the game and are now relying on fourth-placed Aston Villa collecting just a point from their final two games, combined with Spurs winning their three remaining fixtures, to qualify for the Champions League.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
Tensions within the Spurs team appeared to flare as the two teams left the field at half-time, with Romero and Royal in heated argument following Andy Robertson’s goal for Liverpool just before the interval.
Vicario raced from his penalty area to drag Romero away from Royal, but when asked about the incident after the game, Spurs manager Postecoglou said he had no issue with his players.
“Look the lads, they care you know,” Postecogkou said. “They are frustrated, they are not happy with the current situation and they want to address it. It just shows they care, so I don’t need to address anything.”
Spurs have now lost 11 of their last 25 league games and suffered three successive away defeats, against Newcastle, Chelsea and Liverpool. But despite seeing his side concede four goals in the opening hour at Anfield, Postecoglou said Spurs were better than in recent weeks.
“Our last two away games at Newcastle and Chelsea weren’t great, not only the performance but the results as well,” he said.
“At least today I actually thought we played more like ourselves and we at least endeavoured to be the kind of team we want to be.
“I thought first half, we actually played well, it’s just whenever we got to the final third just nothing came of it and I think it allowed Liverpool to get comfortable and the flip side of that, when they got into our box, they were looking dangerous with the players they have.
“Obviously them getting the two goals made it difficult for us and in the second half, they obviously scored a couple of exceptional goals.
“I still thought our football was good in general and at least in the last half hour, our front third started to click a little bit more and looked a little bit more dangerous. A couple of goals, created a couple more chances.
“It is disappointing obviously when you lose but at least today, I can hold on to the fact that we looked more like ourselves.”