Ange Postecoglou has defended his senior players in the wake of Tottenham Hotspur's humbling 4-0 defeat to Liverpool, insisting that Spurs are currently an easy target for criticism.
Tottenham endured a dismal night at Anfield, crashing out of the Carabao Cup semi-finals in meek fashion. The performance led to intense scrutiny from pundits, with Sky Sports analysts Jamie Redknapp and Jamie Carragher particularly scathing in their post-match assessment.
However, Postecoglou made it clear that external opinions will not serve as extra motivation for his side and insisted that he will continue to block out the noise surrounding his future in north London.
The defeat has only added pressure ahead of Sunday's FA Cup fourth-round clash at Aston Villa, where Spurs will again be without several key players.
Richarlison's withdrawal with a fresh calf injury on Thursday night means the Brazilian striker joins a growing list of absentees, including Brennan Johnson, Cristian Romero, James Maddison, and Dominic Solanke.
Despite the heavy loss, Postecoglou dismissed any notion that Tottenham's more experienced stars such as Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur, and captain Son Heung-min should shoulder the blame.
Instead, he emphasised the collective responsibility of the team and highlighted the challenges his severely-depleted squad has faced over the past few months.
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"I don’t know which people I’m meant to be proving wrong,” a weary-looking Postecoglou said as he addressed reporters on Friday morning.
“It’s irrelevant to me what other people’s opinions are. People are on the TV and the radio and in the newspapers to give opinions and I respect that. They’re allowed to do that but I don’t have any obligation to listen to any of it.
“To get fuelled by the comments of people I’ve never even met, I don’t know how you live your life, but I certainly don’t live my life that way. That’s with all respect that they’re there to give an opinion.
“It’s not like I want to be successful here so I can go to these people and say to them, ‘oh, look, you were wrong’. I don’t even know them. Why would I care where they think we’re at? They’re a million miles away from us, but they’re allowed to have their opinion.
“We’re an easy mark at the moment and look after last night, there are times you’ve just got to take it, keep your counsel and atone for it in the way that only really matters and that is with playing the football I know we can.
“I get the pile-on at the moment. It’s really easy for people to stick their boots in and question the players and all that kind of stuff. But that’s not something I question.
“I don’t put any responsibility on the senior players last night. As a collective we just didn’t tackle the challenge we had last night in the manner we needed to. That’s not (on) the senior players.
“The senior players are carrying us through this in many respects because I don’t know how many players were playing their first game at Anfield last night.
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“So, all these kind of things you try to prepare the group for but it is fair to say we didn’t handle the situation well, but that’s not on the senior players.
“I have got no issue with the senior players and we don’t have many out there to be honest.
“Certainly they are trying as hard as they can and from my perspective, my role is to try to support and provide the guidance so we can make amends for a poor performance.”
