Ange Postecoglou stood by the end of the tunnel to applaud every last one of his Tottenham players from the pitch. It had been a most untypical performance, back at the venue where his Spurs tenure began and yet the show of defensive grit and resilience, qualities they have been accused of lacking in recent weeks, and the precious they were taking back across London, had clearly made him a very proud manager.

'Difficult place to come, difficult place to win at, difficult place to keep them out,' said Postecoglou, with nod to Brentford's fine home record. 'They're getting throw-ins into the box, set pieces, crosses, you're just going to have to defend the box irrespective of how you want to tactically approach it, and I just thought the lads handled that awfully well. 'I still felt we had the quality of our football to hurt them the other way. Our second goal was outstanding.'.

Postecoglou put the change of style down to weariness and fading energy levels among those players carrying Spurs through this injury crisis. Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou was delighted with his players after the 2-0 win at Brentford. Pape Matar Sarr scored Tottenham's second late on - a goal described as 'outstanding'. 'They're human beings, not robots,' he said. 'People want to dismiss it. They want to talk about excuses but that's the reality. I know the reality. These guys are giving everything.

'We knew we couldn't go out there and dominate. Brentford had a week to prepare. We had 50-something hours. With the same group of players. With that context, the performance was outstanding.'. Spurs have completed the signing of Kevin Danso from Lens, a loan deal which will become permanent in the summer for £21million, and he will be in contention for the Carabao Cup semi final at Liverpool on Thursday pending a work permit and international clearance.

'He's a great fit for us,' said Postecoglou. 'Strong one-on-one, quick, dynamic, he wants to play on the ball, and at a stage of his career where he's really determined to kick on now and make an impact.'. Radu Dragusin will see a specialist today(MON) to assess the extent of knee injury that Postecoglou admits 'doesn't look good'. Micky van de Ven, who returned after three months of hamstring trouble in the Europa League on Thursday, should be available for Anfield.

'I'd rather he has another full week of training, get ready for Thursday night,' added the Spurs boss. Brentford boss Thomas Frank saw the defeat as a missed opportunity. 'We did a lot of things right,' said Frank. 'We created good situations, more than 30 crosses and 20 shots but didn't create enough big chances. 'They defended the box maybe the best we've seen all season. Not committing players forward, aware of our threat behind. Very clever, very good and then in a tightish game we need to win set piece battle. And we didn't.'.