Ange Postecoglou has said that his ambitions may well exceed Dejan Kulusevski's for Tottenham Hotspur and wants James Maddison to spread his self-confidence to others in the squad.
Kulusevski has been one of the best players in the Premier League this season, with his switch into a deeper role in Spurs' midfield opening up new dimensions to his game. The 24-year-old, who has been captaining Sweden in recent months, has a strong belief in his own ability.
"He's very ambitious about how good he can be and that's a great thing," said Postecoglou. "He's still relatively young and for his position, there's a lot of improvement in him. I've just got a feeling with Deki that he's not going to settle for any level apart from being the absolute best and it's great for us."
When asked whether there was pressure on Tottenham to keep progressing to match Kulusevski's ambitions, Postecoglou was unimpressed.
"That would suggest that I’m not as ambitious as him. I’m pretty sure I’m as ambitious as Deki is," said the Australian. "Whatever he has in his mind, maybe [mine will] even exceed that."
Another player with plenty of self-belief is Maddison. After scoring twice against Manchester City in Spurs' 4-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium last weekend, the midfielder declared that he's "at the age now where I’m able to go and show you that this team is much better with me in it".
Postecoglou made it clear that it's not a front with Maddison and that the 28-year-old has really got that enormous belief in himself.
"I don’t think he puts that on. He is genuine in that. He does have enormous self-belief which is a great thing to have in life. We all want to have that self-confidence in whatever area we are involved in. That comes through with the way he talks and the way he trains and the way he plays," said the Australian.
"He wants to be the catalyst for things and it’s good because it’s a good mix in terms of leadership but again the challenge for Madders and all these guys is to turn that into a positive force where the team benefits as much as he does individually. I’m trying to give room for this team to grow and the individuals within it to grow and make more of an impact on each other as much as themselves, because there are probably guys in the team who would love to have Madders’ self-belief in their own game and he can help in that area.
"He was brilliant at the weekend. I think his season has been pretty decent. He had a little bit of a flat spot, I think we did as a team as well but yeah he’s in a good space.
Postecoglou has always said that he's not one to dish out the hugs when players are feeling down after being left out of his team.
"I’m not in the happiness business but they are all here to help us be successful whether you’re playing or not because sometimes when you come on for 10 minutes you can help us change a course of our season so for me you’re a member of this squad, no-one is guaranteed anything," he said.
"I don’t say to players you are going to play 55 games, it’s unlikely anyone will do that, in fact no-one will. So if [Maddison] misses a couple of games, he’s disappointed, that’s fine. What I am looking at is when you do play, make your biggest possible impact and that’s what he did."
Another midfielder Postecoglou will call upon in the weeks ahead is Yves Bissouma, who has become even more key to the side in the wake of Rodrigo Bentancur's seven-game suspension. So has the Mali international rebuilt the trust with his manager after his nitrous oxide incident before the season began?
“Biss has been really good. He’s playing some really good football. He’s really impacted in the right way on the field. I think if anything he’s growing, he’s taking more of a leadership role out there, which we want him to. He’s captain of his country," he said.
"I keep impressing on these guys, him and Deki and others, to really start taking control of this team in their own way, because they are leaders in their own way. Biss has been on and off the field, doing all the right things. I think that’s reflected in his performances. As I said at the time, he made a mistake, like a lot of us do. Our job is to try to help him make better choices in the future and he’s been no problem."
On whether Bissouma has learnt his lesson, Postecoglou added: "Yeah, but that’s the case for everyone. If you repeat your mistakes at some point people will say ‘OK, well obviously whatever we’re doing is not working'. But I’ve never sensed with Biss that he’s in some sort of last-chance saloon.
“It was disappointing what he did and we addressed that and some other issues. With all these things, our role in that is then to help him, not just to isolate him and let him find his own way, but to try to assist him to get to a better place to make better choices and he has.”