Ange Postecoglou plays down touchline exchange with Shaun Cooper

ANDONI Iraola explained his side’s attempts to play a high line against Tottenham Hotspur, stating “you have to squeeze whenever you play long”.

Cherries’ back four frequently stepped up in a bid to catch their hosts offside during their 3-1 defeat.

The offside trap backfired for Spurs’ second, with substitute Max Aarons out of line, inadvertently playing Heung-Min Son onside.

Cherries caught their hosts offside on four occasions, whilst they also saw a goal chalked off late on as Alex Scott was narrowly ahead of play.

Asked about the tactic, Iraola explained to the Daily Echo: “They play with a high line. We wanted to also find the box with runs to the space.

“You have to squeeze whenever you play long. You have to squeeze quickly, otherwise your team will be very long.

“That’s what we were trying to do, but they were trying to do the same.

“They also played it to our box, try to squeeze, try to play high.

“It was, I think, quite an open game. We could find the spaces. I think we managed to play a lot of the time very close to their box.

“I would say, especially for 60 minutes, I think even if we were losing, we had the game where we wanted, but we miss the chances to score the (equaliser).

“And they scored the second one, where we continued pushing, we continued working. But from there it was obviously more difficult.”