'Worst defeat ever': Ange Postecoglou admits Tottenham have a mentality problem after setting unwanted record
Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham's 3-2 defeat to Brighton is the worst of his tenure as manager.
Spurs moved towards victory midway through Sunday's clash at the Amex Stadium thanks to goals by Brennan Johnson and James Maddison. But somehow they left empty-handed.
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Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck scored 21 minutes after the restart to seal a surprise victory. Brighton Turn around.
The defeat is Postecoglou's 17th in 51 games in all competitions since taking over last summer.
The scoreline wasn't as bad as their heaviest defeat, 4-0 at Newcastle last season, but they will be willing to forget this one quickly.
“Yes, that's disappointing,” he told Sky Sports after a contrasting level of performance in the first and second half of the match.
“I'm frustrated, absolutely gutted by it, it's probably the worst defeat we've had since I've been here.
“Unacceptable second half, we were nowhere near where we should be, maybe we just got carried away with how we were going.”
When asked if there was any problem with his team's mentality, he said: “Yes, I think so.
“In the second half, I just don't think… we accepted our fate, which is a little hard to understand because we haven't done that since I've been here, we've generally followed everything.
“But when you don't, you pay a price and we pay the price.”
Spurs also made unwanted history with Sunday's result, as they are the first Premier League team to lose ten games when taking a 2-0 lead.
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The record-breaking result left former Spurs star Dimitar Berbatov stunned.
“Is it possible that Spurs were telling themselves at half-time that they had won the game?” Berbatov asked the rest of the panel on Sky Sports.
“Is that also a possibility? Coming from us (Berbatov, Les Ferdinand and Steve Sidwell), who used to play.
“Maybe they thought it was going to be easy in the second half.
“Maybe they underestimated Brighton a little bit and that was probably the mistake too as in the second half Spurs weren't there.
“From the first half, everything disappeared and we were looking here in disbelief, what is happening?”
Although the result against Brighton is only the first time this has happened under Postecoglou, fans will no doubt be concerned.
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They have lost for the third time in the Premier League this season, with Newcastle and north London side Arsenal the other teams to have beaten them.
By comparison, Spurs were unbeaten at this point last season and didn't lose until November, when they lost 4-2 to Chelsea.
They occupy ninth place in the standings with ten points and will now have to wait two weeks to give an answer due to the international break.
Spurs will host London rivals West Ham on Saturday 19 October, live on talkSPORT, in a bid to revive their European qualification chances.
