Ange Postecoglou’s advice to fed-up Tottenham fans: Do yoga

Tongue-in-cheek tip came from the Spurs manager after he was asked about social media reaction to the club’s patchy form

Ange Postecoglou has told angry Tottenham fans to “take a breath and do some yoga” instead of criticising his players. Spurs host Brentford on Saturday in the unfamiliar position of 13th in the Premier League following one win, one draw and two defeats in their first four fixtures.
Last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal stoked up a barrage of social media disapproval that might have turned into an avalanche had not two late goals secured a 2-1 Carabao Cup win at Coventry in midweek.
The signing of striker Dominic Solanke, who cost £65 million from Bournemouth, has also been questioned after three games without a goal, which saw manager Postecoglou reply with some angry words of his own.
“People are just so quick to judge,” he said. “It’s a small sample. If he had gone 15 games without a goal or 15 games where he hasn’t contributed but I just think take a breath, do a bit of yoga.
“Think about the world for a second and make an assessment after that. We don’t have to rush to make judgment all the time.”
Did the yoga advice apply to himself? Not literally, it seemed. “No mate, I don’t have the patience for it,” he explained before adding “nothing wrong with yoga, by the way”.
But the call for consideration rather than criticism applied to the whole of his squad, not just Solanke. “That is the way we live our lives these days,” he said. “There is far more judgment than real reasoned, opinionated analysis.”
The Coventry win was secured by a stoppage-time goal from Brennan Johnson, who had deactivated his Instagram account hours previously after being abused for missing a chance in the north London derby.
Postecoglou reminded his detractors that a change of underwear would have been more likely than a goal celebration had they been in the Wales international’s boots.
“He won a game of football for us the other night with a really good finish – and at the critical moment,” he said.
“I reckon you put any of his critics in that situation and they would be looking for a change of pants pretty quickly but they don’t think about that in that moment.
“Brennan has had a dream of being a professional footballer his whole life from a little kid and now he’s living that dream.
“I’d hate to think he’s not enjoying it. I keep saying to him we’re all pretty blessed to do what we do, even in the worst of times we’re still pretty lucky to be able to do what we wanted to when we were 10 years old, not many people can say that.”
Postecoglou insisted he had no problem personally with ignoring simple criticism. Was he stubbornly swimming against the tide though? “No. I ignore the tide and just keep swimming,” he said.
The former Celtic manager conceded that modern managers do not tend to last long in the current climate of snap judgments. “The tenure of managers and the patience with anything has exponentially shortened with the expansion of so many platforms of people in one way or another trying to rush to judgment and make calls on things,” he admitted.
Does it therefore follow that ‘Angeball’ requires owners who are less quick to judge than the supporters?
“Who knows how it ends?” Postecoglou admitted. “I don’t know, no one knows. For me, it is about doing what is the right thing in my eyes to get success and hopefully change the fortunes of this fantastic football club.”
One man who will not be helping him to do that for the foreseeable future is Richarlison. The Brazil striker has been sidelined since late August with an unspecified injury concern – and Postecoglou was reluctant to discuss it.
“I think you should stop asking me about him until I give you a bit of an update,” he replied a tad tetchily to a routine team news question. “He has still not trained with the first team so he is still a bit off.”