Tottenham lost 2-1 to Nottingham Forest in their last Premier League match of the season, dropping to 16th place in the table.

Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference: “This is another game we lost when we shouldn’t have, and this has been a big part of our season – making things difficult for ourselves at key moments.

Conceding soft goals is embarrassing because our football was excellent and we completely dominated the game. Even with the two goals we conceded, I still feel we deserved to win this match.”

This is your 18th Premier League defeat – what can you say to the fans?
I don’t need to say anything to the fans. They are as disappointed and angry as we are. I know this number of defeats is too many.

However, I don’t need to say anything to the fans. They are clearly not happy with our results, but neither am I or the players. From our perspective, this is something we have to take responsibility for – we have fallen short of the standards we should have.

The flip side is that the disappointing part is not how we played, because our football today was very similar to the home game against Frankfurt where we should have won like today.

Was taking off Romero and Van de Ven at halftime pre-planned?
Yes, it was.

Richarlison scoring again
This was part of today’s plan to give him and Wilson, Kulusevski and Kevin Danso playing time because they have missed many games. Richy has hardly played all year, and in that respect it was good that they all came through injuries and got minutes. We could have rested a few others, which would have been good for us too.

Do you think trying to avoid the club’s worst-ever points total could motivate the players in the Premier League, or is it all about the Europa League?
I don’t know what that means. I don’t think you’ve seen a team that lacks motivation. It’s not like we lost because the players gave up on the league. If people saw it that way, then they were watching something different from me. I don’t think they lacked motivation today because I thought our football was excellent.

But again we paid for a lack of focus and precision at key moments, and this is another game we lost. So I don’t think motivation is an issue.

Are you concerned about Vicario’s confidence given his mistakes?
No, no. No, I’m not concerned, he’s fine.