Ange Postecoglou said his Tottenham team were “really wasteful” in the second half, despite a comfortable 2-0 win over Fulham lifting them two points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Son Heung-min and James Maddison scored either side of half-time as Spurs continued their winning run and Postecoglou broke the Premier League record for the most points won from a manager’s first nine games.
“It’s credit to everyone”, the Aussie said about that record. “We’ve made a really encouraging start to the season with results and performances. We’ve been really consistent. I thought first half we had to be pretty patient. Fulham were very well organised, particularly defensively.
“We’ve got to make sure that we stay really discipline with our approach”, he added. “I thought we were really wasteful with the ball in the second half. I’ve been around long enough to know that if you try to take liberties with the game you’re going down pretty quickly.
“The opportunities were there for us to improve. In the second half with the ball we weren’t anywhere near the level we’ve been at this season. My role within that is to give feedback to the players. That’s what they want: to hear that and get better.”
Postecoglou again insisted that assertions that Tottenham are already a sustainable winning machine are premature, saying: “I’ve said every week that we’ve got a long way to go. That doesn’t change. We’re nine games in and at the beginning of building something. We can be better — absolutely we can.”
The Spurs manager lauded his players’ energy levels, adding: “To press like we do, consistently, takes a hell of a lot of effort and commitment from the boys. That side of our game got us to victory tonight. We’ve got to be better on the ball.”
