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Ange Postecoglou demands 'better appreciation' for Tottenham players as under-fire boss is quizzed on his future after FA Cup elimination

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<p>Spurs lost 2-1 to Villa on Sunday, falling a goal behind within a minute through Jacob Ramsey, before Morgan Rogers added a second after the hour. Mathys Tel pulled a goal back in injury time but Tottenham were eliminated from the competition regardless, having also crashed out of the Carabao Cup on Thursday, <a href="https://www.goal.com/en/lists/liverpool-player-ratings-vs-tottenham-mohamed-salah-virgil-van-dijk-carabao-cup-final/bltb880e792581e6662" target="_blank">when they lost 4-0 to Liverpool</a>.</p>

WHAT HAPPENED?

<p>Spurs have been in dire form and are 14th in the Premier League. Postecoglou has maintained that he <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/tottenham-boss-ange-postecoglou-baffled-by-criticism-always-win-things-in-second-year-comment/blt547bc43ea4b41c62" target="_blank">"always wins something"</a> in his second year at a club, but now the club can only potentially lift the Europa League. That may also be their only way to qualify for the Champions League.</p>

THE BIGGER PICTURE

<p>Postecoglou told reporters: "It’s a disappointing result, cup competition. We wanted to progress, we didn’t do that tonight – that’s disappointing. We didn’t get off to a great start. It doesn’t help when you are playing away from home, especially a place like Villa, to concede so early, it gives them momentum and confidence, gets the crowd going. We were struggling to stay in the game. Having said that we had a big chance to equalise which could have settled things down for us."</p><p>He added: "I'm not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I've done a bad job, I'm not up to it or whatever. That's fine. What I'm saying is you can't be critical of players or players' performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they've got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have. and have to play every week. And not for one game. I'm not just saying we had to do this today. We've been doing this since the middle of November and you can't judge performances of these players and critique them on what they've done.  All they've done is given all they can and that's all you can ask for. Me, that's not of interest to me. My responsibility at this football club is this group of players and this team, to get them to play in the manner I want them to and bring us success. Whether people think I can do that or not, that's for others to judge."</p>

WHAT POSTECOGLOU SAID

<p>Spurs face Manchester United next Sunday in a huge Premier League game. Postecoglou would appear to desperately need a win.</p>

WHAT NEXT?

Ange Postecoglou demands 'better appreciation' for Tottenham players as under-fire boss is quizzed on his future after FA Cup elimination | Goal.com

Ange Postecoglou has demanded more appreciation for his Tottenham players despite their 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Ange Postecoglou demands &apos;better appreciation&apos; for Tottenham players as under-fire boss is quizzed on his future after FA Cup elimination

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