‘He’d had enough’… Alasdair Gold reveals what he saw a frustrated Ange Postecoglou do at half-time vs Luton

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Journalist Alasdair Gold has revealed what he saw Ange Postecoglou do at half-time on Saturday in Tottenham Hotspur’s win over Luton Town.

Yet another frustrating first half of football saw Spurs go into the break chasing the score after their visitors took an early lead.

The Lilywhites have made a habit of making slow starts to their games, but regularly that has been overcome by a sensational second half display.

But Saturday’s turnaround saw Ange Postecoglou make a number of changes to get the levels of performance he demands.

And it seems as if the Australian was left a frustrated figure by one player when the whistle was blown for half time.

What Ange Postecoglou did at half-time vs Luton

The first 45 minutes of the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium saw mistakes capitalised on by the visitors and missed opportunities from Spurs.

One player who failed to impress was the Sweden international Dejan Kulusevski.

Having returned from international duty having performed a Postecoglou-inspired team talk during one of Sweden’s friendlies, Kulusevski found himself on the end of the Australian’s frustration.

It was a 45 minutes of football which Kulusevski will want back having really failed to make much of an impression on the game.

Of course, this could have been completely different after Heung-min Son and Timo Werner squandered two golden opportunities which were set-up by the Swede.

But ending the half behind, journalist Alasdair Gold has revealed what he saw Postecoglou doing as soon as the referee blew his whistle.

He said: “There was a moment when, you could tell it was coming, as soon as Jarred Gillett the referee put the whistle to his lips and blew for half-time, Ange Postecoglou turned to Brennan Johnson, pointed to him essentially saying, ‘get ready you’re coming on.’ He’d seen enough, he’d had enough.

“Kulusevski just kept doing, we’ve spoken about this before, he has this habit of – a far too predictable habit – cutting inside. Naturally, because he is a left-footed player playing on the right and you could just see it was bunching up the players in the middle of the pitch.”

What Postecoglou said about Kulusevski after the match

It really was a 45 minutes which Kulusevski will want to forget in a hurry.

For a player who has not really been showing the levels which Spurs fans have come to expect from him in recent months, it wasn’t an inspiring display.

Here is a summary of Kulusevski’s display against Luton.

• 45 minutes played
• 2 big chances created
• 67% pass success rate
• 2/7 ground duels won
• 10x possession lost
• 3 fouls
• 2x dribbled past
• 0/1 aerial duels won

Statistics via SofaScore.

Having been hooked at half-time for Brennan Johnson, the Swede then had to watch the Welshman completely change the game from his position.

As he has been for weeks now, Johnson was absolutely electric when he came on and provided the cross for the equaliser and then the assist for Son’s winner.

And after the game, Postecoglou commented on what he had saw from Kulusevski and it was apparent he was not overly impressed.

He said: “I think Deki was trying to get maybe too involved in the game a little bit. He went looking for the ball, he’s that kind of player – wants to be on the ball all the time.

“I just thought we had a different structure in the second half. It’s not about the individual players, it’s about the overall structure that they have to follow.”

With a quick turnaround to their trip to West Ham on Tuesday night, it is likely to have left the Australian with a fairly easy decision to make at right wing.