Tottenham Hotspur fans are unhappy with Ange Postecoglou over his treatment of one of his best players who was only given a few minutes to try and make an impact against Ipswich Town.
Spurs suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Ipswich Town as the Tractor Boys secured their first Premier League win since 2002. Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap netted two first-half goals which proved decisive as the visitors held on for a 2-1 win in North London.
Meanwhile, Postecoglou’s team have now lost five of their first 11 Premier League matches and will head into the international break all the way down in tenth.
After the game, the Spurs boss was slammed by supporters for his poor substitutions in the defeat as they believe one player, in particular, should have been given more minutes.
Tottenham fans unhappy with Postecoglou’s treatment of Maddison
That player was James Maddison, who was given just six minutes to try and make an impact off the bench at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was clear as day from the off that the players who started were not at the races and changes needed to happen quickly.
Maddison has been nowhere near his best recently but given his ability to create chances and pick locks, he could have been the ideal change.
Instead, the Australian manager waited until the 84th minute to bring him on for Brennan Johnson. Spurs fans were left fuming with his decision and have taken to X to share their frustration.
One Spurs fan was fuming at the manager for his treatment of Maddison, writing: “Asking James Maddison to come on with 7 minutes left and expecting him to change the game is disrespectful. A player of his quality being benched often for a team like Tottenham is just arrogance by Ange Postecoglou.”
Another supporter said: “I can’t work out why we didn’t start with both Kuluseveski and Maddison. Surely Ipswich wouldn’t have posed a problem to us in midfield.”
“Bringing on Werner to put Son in the ten with Kulu instead of just putting on Maddison for the ten is wild. Werner did nothing yet again and Son does nothing centrally,” claimed another.
Finally, one fan claims the midfielder should have come on at the break: “It’s on the players first and foremost but it’s also on Ange for his only sub being Werner until the 85th minute. Not a clue what he was doing with the subs today, Maddison should’ve been on at halftime.”
How poor were Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham subs vs Ipswich?
Tottenham’s first-half performance was shocking and during the interval was the moment to make changes, however, Postecoglou decided to stick with what he had until the 66th minute.
The Lilywhites managed to create just one big chance in the first 45 minutes and defensively, they were all over the place. His first change saw him bring on Timo Werner for Pape Matar Sarr, who was forced off with an injury.
Werner played on the left and Heung-min Son moved into the middle, a change that made little sense given Maddison was sat on the bench. His only other two changes came in the 84th minute with Maddison and Yves Bissouma replacing Johnson and Rodrigo Bentancur. When his Spurs team were in desperate need of changes, Postecoglou got it horribly wrong against Ipswich.
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