Ange: Reaction to angry Spurs fans misinterpreted

LONDON -- Ange Postecolgou has said his actions were misinterpreted after the Tottenham Hotspur head coach appeared to cup his ear and wave in the direction of the travelling Spurs fans when he thought Pape Matar Sarr had scored the equaliser in the team's 1-0 loss to Chelsea on Thursday.

The under-pressure coach made the gesture in the direction of the Spurs supporters while standing on the edge of his technical during the celebrations for the 70th-minute goal that was subsequently disallowed following a VAR check for a foul on Moiss Caicedo in the build-up.

Postecoglou's celebration-of-sorts came six minutes after some of the travelling supporters chanted "you don't know what you're doing" when Postecoglou introduced Sarr and Brennan Johnson in place of Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert.

"It's incredible how things get interpreted," Postecolgou told a news conference. "We'd just scored. I just wanted to hear them cheer because I mean we've been through a tough time and I thought it was a cracking goal and I wanted them to get really excited because I felt at that point we could potentially go on and win the game. I just felt momentum was on our way.

"It doesn't bother me, it's not the first time they've booed my substitutions or my decisions. That's fine. They're allowed to do that, but we'd just scored a goal, just scored an equaliser. I was just hoping that we could get some excitement.

"People want to read into that, that somehow I'm trying to make a point about something. I said I felt we've been through a tough time, but I just felt there was a bit of a momentum shift there and if they get really behind the lads, I thought we had the momentum to finish on top of them."

The north London club are enduring a torrid season, with Thursday's loss at Stamford Bridge condemning Spurs to their 16th defeat of the season - the most they have suffered after 30 games of a Premier League campaign.

Spurs' fans have been broadly understanding of the club's situation for most of this season after an injury crisis left the Australian with a heavily depleted squad for long stretches. Sections of the fanbase have opted to direct their frustration at chairman Daniel Levy and his running of the club instead of blaming the manager.

But Postecoglou's popularity with the fans has dipped of late, with the team failing to improve their results despite the return of several key players from injury.

Asked aboout the fans singing against him, Postecoglou said: "It doesn't affect me. If that's what the fans feel and if they feel that I'm not doing a good job, then they've got every right to express it. They pay their hard earned [money], they follow the club. They're the ones that will be here long after I'm gone, so it doesn't affect me.

"What I kind of try and focus on is the things I can control. I can't control fans, I can't control many things, but I can control our football and the way we play and the way we conduct ourselves, and that's what I concentrate on."

Spurs are 14th in the Premier League table with only the prospect of winning the Europa League -- where they face Eintracht Frankfurt in quarterfinals -- remaining in their bid to salvage their season.

The decision to disallow Sarr's strike was one of two lengthy VAR checks in the game -- Moiss Caicedo also had a goal chalked off for a marginal offside -- and the incidents prompted Postecoglou to reiterate his ongoing frustrations with the officiating system.

"Whether I think it's a foul or not, what does it matter?" Postecoglou said. "What matters is VAR was called in for clear and obvious errors, right? I've said this a few times already.

"How long did it take tonight? Six minutes for a clear and obvious error. Who cares if it's a foul or not? There's so many incidents that are very similar out there now.