‘I don’t need validation from anybody’ – Postecoglou on Carragher criticism | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou says he will not be deterred by criticism of his Tottenham team, following comments from Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher after Tottenham’s win over Manchester United.

Spurs led 3-0 in the game but allowed United to get the score back to 3-2 following two errors from goalkeeper Fraser Forster, with Carragher questioning why Postecoglou’s side “never change how they play no matter what the game state is”.

The game finished 4-3 with Tottenham progressing to the Carabao Cup semi-finals and asked about the comments, Postecoglou said: “Jamie Carragher, mate, you can name him. It’s alright, he’ll enjoy that.

“People tell me he likes me so that’s a good thing. They tell me ‘did you hear what he said? But he likes you as a person!’.

“It’s all valid but I don’t need validation from anybody to do what I do. Whether you agree with my approach or not, there’s validity in both and I don’t have an issue with that.

“I love the fact that people are talking about our games and analysing our games and I think that’s important as well for this football club. I’d rather that than us be anonymous and no one talk about us or we’re just grinding out an existence.

“As I’ve always said, you’ve got to be prepared for scrutiny, prepared for criticism, it’s how you react to that that’s more important.

“I don’t think one (approach) is any less credible than the other in any respect. What I’m saying is I don’t need validity either way. It won’t change what I believe because what I believe is borne from a lifetime of experiences and values that I won’t let anyone tamper with from the outside.

“I’ve said before, whether it’s Jamie or anyone else scrutinising or criticising our approach, that’s healthy because how you react to that is much more important than that itself.

“If you jump at it every time then that kind of tells me we don’t really have a lot of belief in building and what we’re doing, if we’re always worried about what someone is saying or we need someone to say good things.

“If it’s coming from the right sort of place, someone like Jamie is there to give his opinion and he’s not going to say he has nothing to say. He’s going to give an opinion.”

Postecoglou, however, admits some of the criticism has irked him.

“Some of the other stuff I kind of don’t understand because I think it’s just about getting some headlines but again if you react to that it says more about yourself than anything else,” he continued.

“There’s some stuff out there that I find, and there will probably be a time I’ll call it out, just offensive towards me. I’m up here, I’ve got a silly accent and maybe don’t take things as seriously as people want me to and are fairly dismissive of me but that’s alright, I love my life and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.”