Postecoglou upbeat as Spurs lose at Liverpool

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou was happier with his players after defeat at Liverpool.

Spurs scored the last two goals via Richarlison and Heung-min Son as they lost 4-2.

Postecoglou said: "Our last two away games at Newcastle and Chelsea weren't great, not only the performance but the results as well. 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 player 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."

On whether the substitutes made the difference, he said: "I thought before that, we played some really good stuff under pressure to get out of the front third, but just whenever we got to the front third, just nothing came of it and when that happens, the opposition get comfortable and if we were able to even just create a couple of goalscoring opportunities for ourselves, it would've maybe set Liverpool back a little bit. I still thought [we did] in genera but our games coming on had some creativity and Richy's (Richarlison) presence up front helped us."

On their defending, he said: "Some of it wasn't great from our perspective as well, but they are a quality team obviously here at home. We paid the price for the mistakes we made and that is what is going to happen at this level. In general, our defensive work in terms of our pressing work was a lot better than it was midweek."