Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has conceded that the pre-season has included some wasted efforts for the club in the transfer market and on the pitch.
Postecoglou has been forced to deploy players out of position in friendly matches ahead of the season.
He believes that the flat performances of the Spurs side is not an accurate reflection of the work that has been done by the group.
The coach also believes that Tottenham were a little leggy in their friendly loss to Bayern as a result of pre-season conditioning work.
“I thought it was a tough game for us,” Postecoglou said after Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in South Korea on Saturday.
“Fair to say the players are feeling the effects of us working hard for the last 10 days here and we didn’t look really sharp, particularly in that first half and we had to work hard but the players, I think for us, what’s important is I think we’ll get enormous benefit out of the camp we’ve had here and I think we paid a price a little bit tonight for the work we’ve done.”
Postecoglou feels that he still gained valuable insights into his squad even if the pre-season matches didn’t run according to plan.
“It’s been important,” the coach said of player’s playing out of position.
“It’s probably been my one concern coming into it because you are playing players out of position. The games can become a little bit unrealistic.
“But I thought the guys who had to fill in this whole tour have been really good. Skippy and Jamie Donley and Emerson playing at centre-back. So I think it’s allowed us at least to get something out of the games because I think if those positions didn’t work out, it would have been hard for us to sort of analyse. But I think they’ve all contributed to us trying to get as much as we can out of this camp.”
Postecoglou turns his attention to ensuring that this squad are in shape to hit the ground running when the Premier League gets underway later this month.
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“I think for us, as I said, the really important thing was that we got 10 days of really good solid training. The guys will feel the benefits of what we’ve done here when we get back,” He added.
“Just working hard in this weather day after day, I’ve lived here, I know it can become pretty draining, mentally and physically, but I think for the most part, the players have tried to push through that and we’ll get an enormous benefit from a physical perspective out of the 10 days we were here and from the games.
“I mean, there’s some stuff there that we did really well, other stuff we’ve still got to improve on, but I think it’s allowed us to get a really good base now, fitness wise. So when we get back, we obviously got to integrate two or three other players who are coming back and I’ve got a two week lead-in to freshen them up for the season ahead.”