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Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has stressed that he is “just not interested” in pragmatism ahead of his side’s upcoming Premier League match with Fulham.
Spurs took the lead twice but were pegged back by Roma in the Europa League on Thursday night, with Mats Hummels scoring a 91st-minute equaliser for the Italian side.
It continued Tottenham’s inconsistent season and Postecoglou defended his approach, saying: “Look, I don’t know how many ways I can say this.
“There’s plenty of room for pragmatism in walks of life and in football as well. But I’m just not interested in it.
“I don’t know why I need to change my approach to be like everyone else wants me to be,” he added.
“I’ll continue to push this team to be a bit different, to play football in a different way and maybe when I’m long gone you’ll all pine for my entertainment, and you’ll have had your fill of pragmatism.
“But look, if we were pragmatic I’d say at 2-0 up at City away, we’d have probably settled and we wouldn’t have got the victory we did and made it a special moment for our club.”
Spurs have come in for both praise and criticism so far this season, with superb results against the likes of City and Manchester United mixed in with surprise losses against Ipswich and Crystal Palace.
And their approach to matches has also received mixed reviews, with some calling Spurs one of the most exciting teams in the league, and others criticising an approach that has occasionally worked against them, perhaps most notably in last season’s 4-1 home loss to Chelsea, when Spurs were down to nine men.
But the 59-year-old said that he continues to think about “the possibilities of what could be if we continue down this road, rather than holding on to what we have”, adding that “we haven’t achieved anything yet, we haven’t had success, we haven’t done all the things we want to do”.
“So if I start being pragmatic now, maybe we’ll never get there. Last night we weren’t at our highest level but, jeez, I thought for 20 minutes we were as exciting as we’ve been since I’ve been here.
“We should have got a third goal to kill the game off but we were exciting to watch. And that’s what I want,” he added.
Spurs sit sixth in the table ahead of the weekend fixtures, though they are just three points behind Chelsea in third.
