Postecoglou encouraged by aggressive Tottenham despite West Ham defeat

Ange Postecoglou was left enthused Tuesday by Tottenham's willingness to embrace a high-octane style despite his Spurs coaching reign starting with a 3-2 pre-season friendly defeat to West Ham in Perth.

Much like Postecoglou's previous teams, Tottenham played aggressively to entertain a crowd of 46,266 at a rain-sodden Optus Stadium.

But their late rally was thwarted by Gianluca Scamacca's late strike in the 78th minute.

In a taste of what's ahead under Postecoglou, Spurs constantly pressed forward with their defenders given latitude to roam up and down the touchline.

They dictated the contest with 72 per cent of possession and had 30 shots on goal to four.

But Tottenham rued a slew of missed opportunities and had several defensive lapses which proved costly.

"I'm trying to provide a structure and security to encourage them to release that fear and play that football," Postecoglou said.

"That's the team we want to be. There will be missteps along the way.

"We've got to be all in and for the most part we tried, but it sometimes didn't flow because we weren't sure what positions to take up."

Postecoglou remained bullish about Tottenham's defence despite two early goals conceded to set pieces.

"We haven't really done a lot of work on our structures on set pieces," Postecoglou said.

"For the most part, defensively, the pressure was really good. We didn't allow them too many chances.

"But we don't want to be conceding goals from (the opponent having)limited chances."

Tottenham stormed back into the contest after half-time when Postecoglou flipped the entire team with Giovani Lo Celso and Destiny Udogie dazzling with goals.

"The guys who came on in the second-half did really well," Postecoglou said.

"We've been working with the