Ange Postecoglou explains why he took Pape Matar Sarr off at half-time

Ange Postecoglou believes that his decision to bring on Brennan Johnson for Pape Sarr worked as intended in the second half but his side were not able to take advantage of their chances.

Tottenham bossed the game against Newcastle

The game at St James’ Park followed an all too predictable pattern, with Tottenham dominating possession and playing most of their football in the Newcastle half.

However, a lack of cutting-edge in the final third once again proved the away side’s doing as Spurs fans will be left scratching their heads as to how their side only scored one goal through the 90 minutes.

The Lilywhites also conceded two poor goals, with their defensive organisation leaving a lot to be desired for Antony Gordon’s and Alexander Isak’s strikes.

Why did Pape Matar Sarr come off?

Postecoglou decided to go all-out attack in the second-half by replacing Sarr with Johnson in the interval, and the Australian explained that it was because the midfielder had been cautioned and he felt Spurs could hurt the Magpies down the flanks.

When asked why he made the half-time substitution, the Tottenham boss told Football.London: “Only because Pape had been booked and like part of his game, he just really gets stuck into the opposition, and on the flip side, Lloyd Kelly had been booked as well.

“So I just thought, with Brennan coming on and running at them I just felt we run over the top of them in the second half.

“I got that sense just before half-time and I thought if we can get the ball to our wide players we can cause them some problems and it did. It worked out that way, but we simply just didn’t take advantage of it.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I do not think one can argue that the change did not have the desired effect but one does have to wonder what the point of getting low crosses into the box is when Son prefers to wait for the cutback rather than making those darting runs into the six-yard box.

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