'More than normal' - Aston Villa boss Unai Emery gives verdict on Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham future
Tottenham exited their second cup competition in four days as they lost 2-1 at Aston Villa in the FA Cup
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has backed Tottenham Hotspur to return to last season’s form once their injury woes start to ease as he defended Ange Postecoglou’s recent record at the club.
Spurs crashed out of their second cup competition in four days as they lost 2-1 at Villa Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup. That followed a 4-0 loss at the hands of Liverpool in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
After the game, Postecoglou launched a passionate defence of his players as he pointed to how the injury problems have taken their toll with a lack of rotation resulting in more fatigue. He also highlighted how a rotated Liverpool side lost to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup - and says Spurs have been dealing with a weakened squad for months now.
Emery defends Postecoglou
Asked about Postecoglou after Sunday’s win, Villa boss Emery pointed to Spurs’ injury record and praised the club’s playing style. He also believes that things will improve in future under Postecoglou once the injury picture begins to look brighter in North London.
“I can analyse his work last year and the first six months of this season and I really appreciate a lot how Tottenham are playing with their style. Last year they performed fantastic. Of course, every team has their injured players - they have more than normal,” said Emery via Birmingham World.
“The potential they can have with every player being available is a little bit lower without them. I think we played a very good match today to stop them. They played well but it was not enough to beat us in this match. When they are going to recover players, they will perform again like they were doing.”
Emery praises atmosphere
Villa scored in the first minute against Spurs while a second goal just after the hour proved decisive as Mathys Tel scored a late consolation for Spurs in the first minute of stoppage time.
“Every player and the supporters here really created a great atmosphere today,” Emery added. “We started very good, scoring one goal in the first minute and then we were creating chances. We didn’t concede a lot to them. We were playing with some players like Andrés García, like Lamare Bogarde after Ezri Konsa got injured. He played very well. Donyell Malen played very well. How we were playing the last 30 minutes with Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford was really good because we have to create again and build our team, progressing our structure as soon as possible, getting the performances like we did today.”
He added: “The players we added in the last month have started helping us a lot and we’re very motivated and excited to watch again how we can recover our capacity, our performances in the next weeks and months playing in different competitions – FA Cup, Champions League and Premier League. After the result, which is most important for us, it’s how we played and how we got our performance, collectively and individually, that I am happy with. I’m very demanding about how we can get better for the next matches in Premier League, the next matches in Champions League and the next matches in FA Cup.”