Ange Postecoglou didn’t hold back in his assessment of Yves Bissouma as he called on the Tottenham midfielder to pull his weight more.
Spurs endured another difficult afternoon on Sunday as they suffered a 2-0 defeat at Fulham.
Second-half goals by Rodrigo Muniz and Ryan Sessegnon consigned the north Londoners to a 15th Premier League defeat of the season.
It was another dismal performance from Spurs but one player drew particular criticism from Postecoglou in Bissouma.
The Australian admitted that a lack of minutes in recent weeks for Bissouma may have contributed to him struggling to stamp his authority on the game.
However, Postecoglou still believes he needs more from the Mali international.
“I feel Biss sometimes lets the game drift by him, he needs to be more dominant,” Postecoglou said, as quoted by the BBC.
“Today, we needed more in that position. I had needed him to play because he hasn’t played a lot.
“At the same time, I need him to perform. It is safe to say maybe Biss and a few guys lack a bit of confidence but at this stage of the season we need people to perform.”
The result means Tottenham are 13th in the Premier League table and ten points adrift of tenth-placed Bournemouth.
“A disappointing outcome obviously. A tight game, it was always going to be a tight game, there wasn’t really much in it,” Postecoglou added.
“I thought, especially in the second half, I thought we were growing to the game, I thought we had the better chances at 0-0 to get ahead and then we gave them a really soft goal and then the game just got away from us.
“So it’s another day where we’re disappointed to lose.
I don’t think Fulham really created much, I think Vic [Guglielmo Vicario] had a save to make and we had a couple of big chances to go 1-0 up.
“But we’ve done that a fair bit this year, conceding a soft goal and when you do that, especially away from home, then it just gives the opposition a chance to grow into the game.”
Next up for Spurs after the international break is a trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on April 3.
