Ange Postecoglou hits out at ‘offensive’ criticism and suggests his ‘silly accent’ is behind some of negative comments towards Spurs boss

Ange Postecoglou has lashed out at ‘offensive’ comments made towards him and claimed that some of the criticism could be down to his accent.

His Tottenham team came out on top in a memorable seven-goal thriller on Thursday to take them to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup and within touching distance of long-awaited silverware.

They looked to be out of sight after they claimed a 3-0 lead thanks to a brace from Dominic Solanke, either side of a Dejan Kulusevski tap-in from a poor Lisandro Martinez clearance.

But two howlers by goalkeeper Fraser Forster invited United back into the tie. First, a misplaced pass enabled Bruno Fernandes to set up Joshua Zirkzee. Then a poor touch from a back pass delayed his clearance which was charged down by Amad Diallo and into the net.

A late Heung-Min Son strike directly from a corner settled the nerves, before the Red Devils pulled back a consolation goal through Jonny Evans.

And Postecoglou has come out firing after the win, labelling some of the comments directed at him ‘offensive’ and giving a reason why he might be prone to so much criticism. 

He said: ‘There is some stuff out there that I find, and at the appropriate time I’ll call it out, just offensive towards me.  

‘I’m up here with a silly accent and maybe I don’t take things as seriously as people want me to and I’m fairly dismissive of them, but that’s all right. 

‘I love my life and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

Through last night’s chaos, 18-year-old Archie Gray kept a calm head despite the midfielder being shoved to centre-back amid an injury crisis, and Postecoglou has now heaped praise on the talent. 

He said: ‘I said last week, I think he’s been outstanding, we have no choice, we have no other centre-backs so you put an 18-year-old there and he’s handled it brilliantly.

‘Both from a footballing perspective but also, if you do it for one game you can sort of get away with it, but he’s done it multiple games against pretty decent oppositions.

‘Like I said as an 18-year-old he’s handling it so well and it’s not like he’s surrounded by experience, obviously the goalkeeper is out, two centre-backs are out, a left-back was out last night so him and Radu [Dragusin] are handling it awfully well. 

‘I keep saying you take out the goalkeeper, two centre-backs and a left-back from any team and I’m sure it’ll have an effect and the fact that our guys are still trying to play in the manner we want to play. It’s a credit to them.’

Gray joined Spurs from Leeds in the summer for around £40million after impressing for the Championship side in their promotion push last year.

He has found opportunities hard to come by this season but has featured in every match of his club’s Europa League and EFL Cup campaigns.

A recent spate of injuries, to the likes of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, have handed the 18-year-old a chance in the first team, albeit somewhat out of position at centre-back.

He provided a solid presence in the backline during Spurs’ 5-0 mauling of Southampton last weekend before turning in another assured display on Thursday night. 

In the aftermath of the exciting cup tie, an under-pressure Postecoglou came out firing and defended his playing style.

‘Are you not entertained,’ he said, channelling Russell Crowe from the film Gladiator.

‘What do you want? Do you want a scrambling one nil? I know the TV studio is probably going to be in a meltdown over my lack of tactics but, you know what, I love the fact that we go out there and just take it to our opposition.

‘Even though we’ve got so many absences at the moment, goalkeeper, both centre halves, left backs, we’ve got kids on the bench, and yet these boys are maintaining their principles about trying to play the football we want to be.

‘We played so well, we were well in control of the game and then, a bit like our season has gone, we self-inflicted some pain on ourselves. 

‘It should have been a lot more comfortable but we still can’t get away from the fact this group of players is doing an unbelievable job getting us through this. 

‘I am so proud of the players.’