Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - May 5, 2024 Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou with Liverpool's Andrew Robertson and Wataru Endo after the match REUTERS/Carl Recine
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - Ange Postecoglou refused to accept his Tottenham Hotspur team have a mentality issue as they slumped to a 4-2 defeat at Liverpool on Sunday -- their fourth Premier League loss in a row.
It is the first time in 20 years that Tottenham have lost four league games in a row and a season that was so full of promise is petering out in disappointing fashion.
While Tottenham avoided humiliation at Anfield by battling back from 4-0 down to make the scoreline respectable, it was still a humbling afternoon for the north London club.
They have now lost to Newcastle United 4-0, Arsenal 3-2, Chelsea 2-0 and Liverpool 4-2 in those games -- results which have asked questions of Tottenham's resilience.
But Postecoglou said he was impressed with Tottenham's approach on Sunday.
"It's got to nothing to do (with mentality)," he told reporters. "If you come to Anfield and don't try and play, maybe that shows you don't have the mentality.
"We tried to play, we definitely tried to play, so I don't think it's a mentality issue at all. In fact, I think it's the polar opposite of that.
"The mentality at least tonight was there for us to go out and try and be a version of ourselves. We're short absolutely but it gives me something to work with."
Tottenham remain in fifth place with three games to go and with fixtures against Sheffield United and Burnley to come they should hang on for a place in the Europa League.
Postecoglou said Sunday's display was far better than the defeats by Newcastle and Chelsea.
"At 4-0 we've got a mountain to climb but again when we play like ourselves we always finish strong because we put pressure on the opposition and it eventually takes its toll," he said.
"We got a couple of goals and we maybe could have had a couple more. It's disappointing but at least we tried to play and looked like a version of ourselves.
"I don't think we were playing badly, I know we were losing 4-0 and against Arsenal I don't think we were playing badly, the difference was in the two boxes we kind of lacked a cutting edge and the opposition were good opposition."
The introduction off the bench of Richarlison had a positive impact on Tottenham with the Brazilian scoring to start a mini-fight back by the visitors.
"It's fair to say before he came on we never looked threatening at all whenever we got into those areas," he said.
"Him coming on, I thought Sonny (Son Heung-min) improved on the left and Brennan (Johnson) improved on the right. Just gave us a bit more of a presence."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
