Arne Slot pours praise on Ange Postecoglou’s ‘great work’ at Spurs

Arne Slot has lavished praise on Ange Postecoglou and said he hopes the Tottenham manager is rewarded with a trophy this season for delivering a style of play that is “a privilege” to watch.

Liverpool visit Spurs in the Premier League on Sunday and the teams will meet again in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after the latter secured their place with a thrilling 4-3 defeat of Manchester United on Thursday. Tottenham’s high-risk strategy attracted more criticism from pundits after the game, prompting Slot to issue a staunch defence of a rival manager for restoring his club’s identity.

“If I look at Tottenham and I come from Holland, but I did watch a lot of Match of the Day, I think about [David] Ginola, Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, and more recently [Luka] Modric, Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale,” the Liverpool head coach said.

“They’ve always been a certain brand of football for me and have a certain identity. I think Ange ­Postecoglou gives them that identity back completely. Ange is doing great work over there. I hope this is seen a bit more. I also hope, hope, hope that he wins a trophy – not the League Cup.

“I’m completely a fan of his team for the Europa League because people always talk about trophies and that it’s so important. For his brand of football and his style, it is so much more important and if he can combine that with winning something that would be so good for football in general because people can stop talking about it’s too attacking or ­whatever. How on earth can you play too [much] attacking football?”

Slot believes Spurs were unfortunate not to beat United by a bigger margin in their quarter-final and questioned how Postecoglou can be considered under pressure at a club that is not synonymous with silverware. “I don’t think there are many season-ticket holders in the country that can say they watch so many great games. Maybe the ones at Liverpool!” said Slot.

“I think it is a privilege to be a ­season-ticket holder at Tottenham at the moment because they play such a great style and it’s not like since Ange arrived they don’t win anything any more. Before that they were not a club that won many things, but they always won the sympathy of the fans in Europe, maybe also in England as well, I don’t know, because of the style of play they had. That is something you cannot underestimate.

“If I think about Spurs, I think about the shirt, the playing style and their identity and certain players. For me, he brought that back completely. I’ve said so many positive things about Ange now that if I say another thing it will seem like I’m his agent!”

Spurs tried to tempt Slot from­ ­Feyenoord in the summer of 2023 before turning to ­Postecoglou. Slot’s contract with the Dutch club contained a release clause that did not come into effect until this year, when Liverpool moved in for him, making negotiations difficult for ­Tottenham. He would not be drawn on how close he came to joining Spurs. “It’s the same answer that I always give you about Mo [Salah]’s contract situation and those things,” Slot said. Nor would he comment on Spurs’ claim, issued after he announced he would be staying at Feyenoord, that they had turned him down.

“So many things that are said are not true,” said Slot. “The problem is that the ones who know do not want to talk about it, and the ones who don’t know do want to talk about it. That sometimes happens in football. I’ve always preferred not to say anything about it. It might be true, it might not be true.

“I’ll leave it with what I said back then. I was really happy that I stayed at Feyenoord. That I can say.”