Postecoglou overheard ripping into players as boss 'disappointed' at not 'killing' Swansea off

Nottingham Forest manager Ange Postecoglou was overheard ripping into his players after a 3-2 loss to Swansea City, before telling reporters his side should’ve “killed” the game before.

Postecoglou has now managed two Forest games and lost both. First was a largely expected loss, with Premier League giants Arsenal beating the City Ground outfit 3-0.

But a League Cup tie against Championship Swansea was an opportunity to get a first win on the board. It looked to be going well for Postecoglou’s side, who were 2-0 up going into the second half.

But Cameron Burgess pulled one back with 20 minutes or regular time to go, before Zan Vipotnik scored in stoppage time to level things and Burgess cropped up again with a fiery strike in the 97th minute to progress to the next round.

Before he was due to speak to the media, Postecoglou was overheard ripping into his players by BBC journalist Chris Wathan.

He wrote: ‘We await the arrival of the managers in the press conference room that, as it happens, is right next to the away dressing room.

‘The walls aren’t too thick so it’s safe to say Postecoglou raised his voice when speaking to his players after that.’

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Postecoglou himself revealed his clear disappointment in his side for not closing out the game after having a two-goal lead.

He said: “I thought it was a game we should’ve killed off long before it got to the stage that it did.

“I thought we’d be comfortable and the game would finish easily. This is the nature of cup football, when you’ve got the team where we had them you have to finish them off.

“I think the players thought it would naturally finish that way, we paid a heavy price, we have to improve.

“They had two shots from outside the box in the first-half and they didn’t test us until right at the end.

“There were players on the pitch who needed football and were rusty. Even without that context, we should’ve ended the game.

“I’m just frustrated that we didn’t realise the danger that developed by not being more clinical with our football and killing off the game when we could’ve.

“We don’t have time for philosophical views, the opportunity was to progress. We should’ve seen it out, we’re out of the cup and that’s disappointing.

“There should not be any deflation in the team, there should be determination to make things right.”

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