‘It shows they care’: Ange Postecoglou defends Spurs duo after Anfield bust-up

Ange Postecoglou claimed he had no issues with the Tottenham defenders Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal becoming embroiled in a half-time row at Anfield as it showed “they care” about the club’s plummeting form.

Spurs were well beaten by ­Liverpool in Jürgen Klopp’s penultimate home game with Mohamed Salah, recalled to the starting lineup following a spat with his manager at West Ham, sparking the win.

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The visitors were fortunate to be only two goals down at the break when Romero and Emerson squared up to each other on the pitch. The Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario sprinted over to intervene.

“I didn’t see it but it shows they care,” Postecoglou said. “It hurts them. They are not going to just be happy with the current situation because they care and they want to improve. There is nothing wrong with that as long as it is constructive. They care and they want to change the situation.”

Spurs’ aims of Champions League qualification are almost certainly over following a fourth Premier League defeat in succession. The visitors trailed 4-0 after 59 minutes at Anfield, before the substitute ­Richarlison led a late rally, yet Postecoglou claimed their performance was an improvement on recent away defeats.

The Spurs manager said: “Hugely disappointing outcome, of course, but at least we were more like ­ourselves today compared to ­Newcastle and Chelsea. Those results weren’t great either, but we didn’t try to play our football.

“In the first half today some of our pressing was back to where it should be. We lacked a cutting edge and had nothing in the final third and that makes the opposition look ­comfortable. At 4-0 we have a mountain to climb but when we play like ourselves we put pressure on the opposition. We scored two and could have had a couple more. At least we tried to play a version of ourselves.”

Klopp blamed his ­substitutions for contributing towards Spurs’ late recovery and lavished praise on Salah on his return to Liverpool’s starting lineup.

The Liverpool manager said: “Anfield was a special place today again because the boys played outstanding, until we didn’t. At 4-0 up I made the changes and we lost organisation definitely in that moment and then you could see how good Tottenham could be if we would have let them before. But we were good in pretty much all areas. “The goals were outstanding. Mo was outstanding and really happy for him that he could play the way he played today. We can see what he’s capable of.”