Ange Postecoglou told Ruben Amorim ‘welcome to my world’ after his Tottenham side downed injury-stricken Manchester United to ease the mounting pressure on the Aussie.
Spurs and United have suffered dismal seasons so far but James Maddison’s strike gave Postecoglou’s team a narrow 1-0 win in North London – one that was very much required against the backdrop of fan protests aimed at Daniel Levy and the board. The pre-match chatter was dominated by the injuries plaguing United, who were only able to field one sub with prior experience in the Premier League.
The likes of Amad Diallo, Lisandro Martinez, Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo were among a list of absentees as long as your arm and they didn’t have the depth required to battle back from Maddison’s early goal. But Postecoglou knows that game inside out – he was without six major first-team stars with his own injury crisis only just beginning to ease.
So when asked if he had any sympathy for Amorim after the game, the Spurs boss responded: “If I check my office, I don’t have any sympathy cards from other coaches. He’s had to play players out of position and have kids on the bench. Welcome to my world. It’s one game. Try doing that for two months. But I thought Man Utd were good today.”
Both Spurs and United remain lampooned in the bottom half of the table and it comes after Amorim said pre-match that he feels a ‘connection’ with what Postecoglou is going through – but pointed out that he feels it harder since he’s at a ‘bigger club.’
“Of course I feel sympathy,” he said. “Especially because he is a good guy. He’s a very good coach. He wants to play football in the right way, for me that is a good thing. When we choose this profession there is a lot of good things but then you have to feel that pressure when you don’t win.
“In my opinion, with all due respect, I am at a bigger club with bigger pressure. I understand the connection and he’s a really important coach to follow his principles.
“I’m a huge fan of Ange Postecoglou. I’m from a different culture, I’m Portuguese and all the Portuguese coaches can adapt. I adapt. The simple thing is that I use one system at the moment because I believe if you work on that system you can play in different systems at the same time. That is my idea. But we are not winning games and I understand the connection between me and Ange, we have the same problems.”