Spurs vs Newcastle | Ange’s preview: “The players are determined to turn things around”
Ange Postecoglou is looking for the team to show a cutting edge against Newcastle United as we return to Premier League action at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday (4.30pm UK).
It’s well documented that we’ve led in our last five fixtures but failed to capitalise, in different circumstances, particularly against Villa and West Ham in our last two home matches, both 2-1 defeats. Indeed, we had twice as many efforts at goal as West Ham on Thursday night – 22-11 in our favour – but just the one goal to show for it.
Newcastle arrive in N17 on the back of a recent 10-match unbeaten run in the Premier League, winning seven, that lifted them from 14th to sixth. However, like us, a squad coping with injuries suffered a setback with a 3-0 loss at Everton, also on Thursday night.
Speaking to us on Friday, Ange said: “Newcastle are the other team in the competition that have had an injury aspect to their team as much as us, but they’ve been resilient through it and they’ll be disappointed with their result last night (Thursday), like we are. They’ll come here determined to turn that around and it will be a tough challenge for us.
“Tactically, it will depend on how the game develops early on. I guess from our perspective, again, what’s important is that we impose ourselves on the game, which we have done for the most part, but not just impose ourselves, also make sure we have that cutting edge to take advantage of the dominance we’ve had in games, which we haven’t done up until now, particularly in recent games, and especially against a team like Newcastle, because they are always a goal threat. So, if we are dominant in periods, we need to take advantage of that.
“We want to set our standards in terms of the way we want to play, and we’re not going to waver on that. I’m sure the players are as determined as anyone to turn things around in terms of the result process but, at the same time, not wavering from the football we want to play.”