Ange Postecoglou held his press conference on Sunday after Tottenham drew 2-2 with Bournemouth in the Premier League and we've got the full transcript with every word he said.
Postecoglou's side were full of nerves and mistakes in the first half and required some big early saves from Guglielmo Vicario and Bournemouth duly opened the scoring before the interval. A loose Pedro Porro pass was intercepted and Milos Kerkez ran into the space behind him and curled in a cross for Marcus Tavernier to slide home.
In the second half, Pape Matar Sarr missed a big chance at one end before Bournemouth netted a second goal when Justin Kluivert, who had an effort ruled out for offside himself, played in Evanilson and the striker chipped a shot over the onrushing Vicario.
Spurs grabbed their first goal back when Sarr curled in a cross that flew over everyone and hit the left-hand post before bouncing into the net. The scores were levelled when Son Heung-min was brought down in the Bournemouth box by Kepa and the captain stepped up to tap a calm penalty down the middle.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou after the game. Here's a full transcript with every single word the Australian said in the press conference at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
That felt like a chaotic match but you must happy with the spirit shown in getting a point?
Yeah, chaotic game for sure. We added to the chaos and it was a little bit self-inflicted, especially in the first half, just with the ball we were really careless with our passing and that allowed the game to be played on the terms Bournemouth would like with their transition football. So yeah chaotic but at 2-0 down it would have been very easy, particularly with the atmosphere as it was, for the boys to just let the game get away from us, but credit to them, they found a way to get back into the game and we got something out of it.
What did you think about Solanke, Romero and Van de Ven on their Premier League returns and the minutes they got?
Yeah, that's the key thing, they got minutes. Romero just great to get him back out there. He's such an important player for us but you could see he hasn't played for a while. I thought he grew into the game and got a lot better as it went on. Great for Dom to get 90 minutes today, he's such a workhorse for us and I'm sure he'll feel better for that. Brilliant to get Micky out there as well. I think before Thursday night that was key for us to get some minutes into these guys and thankfully they got through it unscathed.
What did you make of Lucas Bergvall's impact on the game?
Lucas was great. He has been great but he has played a lot and we've just got to be mindful of that. He's becoming an important part of our team. I thought he made a real big impact when he came on. Like I said we were sloppy when we were on the ball in the first half and he’s one who takes a bit more care with it. He's a technician and he carries the ball really well. I thought he and Sonny made a really good impact when they came on.
I guess you wouldn't have been surprised about Romero looking that rusty after so long out?
Not surprised, he hasn’t played for a very long time. He's hardly played this year to be fair. Cuti will be disappointed with that himself but at the same time what was much more important for me was how grew into his game, his defensive work, his aerial ability. I mean he was on the end of almost every cross they put into the box from corners and I think for him he will feel a lot better just having played. The idea was only to play 45 today, but he was keen to stay on for a bit longer and you could see he grew into the game and was really important for us.
How important was it to show that spirit going into such an important match on Thursday?
Yeah, it was, you can imagine the noise around if the players didn’t respond. Thursday is obviously a massive game for us and at least from that perspective, and even for the players themselves, we've obviously got a challenge on Thursday night but they overcame a fairly big challenge today and hopefully we show the same kind of mindset.
There was a lot of anxiety in the crowd and the same for the players, how important is it that that’s not the case on Thursday?
Yeah, look, again I said before, I can't sort of dictate to people how they sort of interact, but, AZ’s crowd certainly helped them on Thursday night and we need our crowd to get behind the boys on Thursday to make it an atmosphere where maybe we lose some of that nervousness and anxiety within our game. But the reality is, we as a team have to respond irrespective of the atmosphere and one may follow the other. If we start the game strong, it’ll get the place nice and loud, which will help us.
How important was experience off the bench?
It certainly helps. It is something we haven’t had for quite a while and they all made an impact, particularly Lucas and Sonny when they came on. It was a big moment for Sonny obviously taking the penalty and he showed for those big moments, he is there. Important goal for the team and he took that responsibility.
What did you make of the performance?
As I said, it was a chaotic game, not a lot of control from our perspective, which is not ideal for the way we want to play. We looked nervous, we looked anxious, especially in the first half, but within that context, to come back from two-nil down, I think the positives of that is the lads showed a really strong mindset to to get something out of the game, which to be fair, that's probably what's been missing this year. I think there's a lot of games we've lost where games have just petered out and if we had turned more of those single-goal defeats into draws like we did today, we’d be in a better position in the league.
You've had a lot of entertaining games, but that was chaotic, what is the difference with that one compared to your other games? Is it about control?
Yeah, I just never felt like we had the control or the momentum or fluency in the game to to be able to sort of still make it as high tempo as possible, but without it having the chaos of what it did today because it ended up becoming a basketball game and that really suits them. That’s kind of their template and you need to control the game more, which we want to do anyway if you want to turn it into a game where it is high tempo but less chaotic as it was today.
Feels like a while since your team played your football due to the injuries and schedule and while it was not perfect today, did the urgency and tempo feel a step in right direction?
Look, I think there was a perseverance there and probably to the angst of our supporters, but they kept trying to play and that’s important. I think that’s the best way to work your way through the struggle we had our there and even when Micky came on, you saw the drive he has and having a left-footed centre-back, it changes the dimension of how we play. There are little things there that certainly from today we can take into Thursday and the rest of the season.
Do you accept that on Thursday night you can't be as open at the back as you were today in the first half?
I think the openness just came from us giving the ball away in really key areas. Most of the time we were giving them the ball in pretty critical areas. Vic had to make some fantastic saves to keep us in it. I don't think it was a case of being open because we were throwing men forward, we just kept giving the ball away. We certainly need to be better in the way that we execute that part of our game.
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