Postecoglou brutally puts the boot in Tottenham player after Rangers draw: ‘It’s not acceptable’

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou singled out Timo Werner after Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Rangers, claiming the German’s performance “wasn’t acceptable”.

Werner was substituted at half-time with the score goalless at Ibrox, being replaced by Dejan Kulusevski, who ruled out Hamza Iganame’s opener with a 75th-minute equaliser.

After the match, Postecoglou astonishingly slammed Werner, putting the boot in the German forward after a first-half performance that “wasn’t acceptable”.

“When you’ve got 18-year-olds, it’s not acceptable to me,” the Spurs boss said.

“I said that to Timo, he’s a German international. In the moment we’re in right now – it’s not like we’ve got many options, I need everyone to at least be going out there and trying to give the best of themselves.

“His performance in the first half wasn’t acceptable.

“We need everybody, including him, to be contributing because we don’t have the depth to leave people out if they perform poorly.

“I expect a level of performance from some of the senior guys, and tonight wasn’t that.”

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A draw at Ibrox leaves Postecoglou under severe pressure and Spurs ninth in the Europa League, behind eighth-placed Rangers on goal difference.

“A tough game as expected, obviously with the atmosphere in the stadium,” Postecoglou said after the match. “I thought the first half was pretty tight with no clear-cut for either side.

“When they score straight after half-time the energy levels obviously go up and it’s going to be a tough one to claw back, but I thought we worked our way back in well.

“I thought the substitutes made a difference and we scored a good goal, had other good moments and a great save by Fraser [Forster] at the end.

“In the context of where we are in Europe, an important point.”

The Australian added: “They’re always difficult to play against here at Ibrox, especially on European nights.

“The nature of the contest, the atmosphere, not many teams come here and win so you kind of expect it to be a tough game.

“We weren’t anywhere near our best which I think is fair to say and at the same time, we’re in a period of games where we’re grinding through at the moment.

“Obviously [we are playing] with a fairly depleted squad. So, in the context of that, in the end, I think it was a good outcome for us.”

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Meanwhile, Rangers manager Philippe Clement praised his players and said their performance was a good advert for Scottish football.

“They took the challenge with both hands, they grabbed it and showed what we wanted them to show everybody,” he said.

“I still leave now thinking we should have won, we deserved to win the game but I think it was a very good advertisement for Scottish football to compete with a Premier League team at full strength.

“I want that mentality within my squad – that they were not satisfied with the point, they felt they were really close to winning.

“There is a lot of potential in the squad, it’s about getting experience, they need to play faster, make decisions faster and they all did tonight, so it’s a big step forward. It’s about keeping the hunger and desire to keep doing that so that’s the message to the team.

“In the first half we created good chances, more than Tottenham and we had to continue. We were not satisfied with 0-0. We wanted to impose our football and create our own chances, not park it on the 18-yard box and wait for something to fall out of the sky.

“I’m very proud about the performance because it’s the way we want to see football being played.

“Also if you see where this group of players is coming from, from a few months ago and making performances like this now, it is a big, big step forward.

“On the other side, I’m also disappointed we didn’t take the three points. That would have been even better and would have been the result we deserved today with the performance the players gave.”

Clement added: “Football is about wanting to win, this club is about that.

“I saw the same thing in my dressing room, and there I am happy I felt they were not satisfied with the draw.

“That’s the right spirit and that’s the spirit we’re going to need in the next weeks and next months to grow as a club.”