Postecoglou tells Son to carry on if he loses his finger after Spurs’ ‘persist’ to come back vs Palace

Jason Soutar
Ange Postecoglou tells Heung-min Son he can play even if he loses a finger.
Ange Postecoglou tells Heung-min Son he can play even if he loses a finger.

“It’s a finger. even if he loses it, it won’t really matter. He can still play, he’s fine.” That might be the most Ange Postecoglou quote of the season.

Tottenham came from behind to win for the fifth time in the Premier League this season on Saturday, overturning Eberechi Eze’s opener for Crystal Palace to win 3-1.

Captain Son secured the comeback win with a tidy finish late on and Postecoglou played down his finger injury, insisting he can carry on fine if it has to be removed.

Finger removal aside, the Spurs boss singled out Brennan Johnson’s performance against the Eagles.

The Welsh winger came off the bench with the score at 1-0 and helped inspire the comeback victory.

Read more: History repeating as Tottenham win from behind, again, after largely failing to convince, again

“I thought Brennan was good but I thought all of them were good tonight,” Postecoglou said. “In those moments we work hard with our wide players to make sure they’re in the right areas and a couple of times tonight we just weren’t when the ball was flashed across.

“Brennan did fantastically well to win back possession and when he’s played it across it’s the other winger that’s there. From our perspective that’s a really important part because it’s not by accident.

“Again you’ve got to be there and I thought Timo, he missed the chance in the first half and he was a constant threat to them and was in the right area for the goal.”

On his side’s performance, Big Ange said: “Persistence, some quality, belief. It wasn’t easy game with them sitting so deep. We needed a goal to open them up but still kept composed and disciplined.

“When they got their goal it was only time they got the ball in our half. The reaction was outstanding.

“It was a game we should have won a lot more comfortably but we had real belief in the process and were not getting swayed by things not going our way. I thought the mentality was first rate.”

Timo Werner grabbed his first Spurs goal after missing a big chance in the first half, and Postecoglou said the German had a “good game”.

“For all of the attacking players goals are important,” he said. “I thought he was having good game generally [despite first-half miss].

“He didn’t stop believing, got into the right area and outstanding work from Brennan [Johnson, who provided the cross].”

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