Ange Postecoglou held his press conference on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Tottenham's trip to Liverpool for the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg and we've got every single word he said.
Spurs will take to the pitch at Anfield with a slender 1-0 lead from the first leg and a couple more players in the shape of new signings Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso. Postecoglou spoke about both players' chances of playing in the game and discussed how the Tel move happened with his key part in convincing the 19-year-old Frenchman to come from Bayern Munich, with the option this summer to make the switch a more permanent one.
Postecoglou also provided updates on the fitness of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero and spoke about the club's January transfer window exploits.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou. Here is the full transcript from the press conference.
What's the latest team news?
In terms of availability from last week, everyone is fine and got through okay. So no issues there. Kevin [Danso] and Mathys [Tel] are both available. They have trained and are cleared to play so they are all good.
The rest of them, no one is available tomorrow. With Micky, and Romero to a certain extent, I kind of feel we have to be a bit more conservative with them. Micky got through the game alright but I don’t think he feels ready for that step up to the Premier League, the intensity of it. Same with Romero.
After losing Radu for the rest of the season, which is really disappointing for him and for us, my view is and I made the decision that I don’t want to risk losing these guys. We are going to keep them ticking over in training and try to make sure they are absolutely ready without any more setbacks. The other guys are inching closer as well but similar sort of mindset with them.
Will Kevin Danso play tomorrow? Do Gray and Dragusin need a rest?
He will play. Whether he starts or not we will take a look because we have another game three days later and that has been our existence for quite a while now. You are right, Ben (Davies), Archie, Pedro (Porro) has played every minute of football we have had for the last three months, but the boys are handling it okay and the performances are still stacking up.
It’s great to get Kevin in. He is ready to play. Whether he starts or he comes on we will make a decision. It’s really important he is part of it now because losing Radu was a massive blow so having him available is good.
You had to convince Mathys Tel to join after he seemed to reject the club beforehand?
It’s a simplistic way of looking at it. People need to understand that you are talking about a 19yo player who has to make a major decision about his career. It’s not so much that he rejected us or anyone else. Rightly so he was getting as much information as possible. More than anything I think he just wanted to be comfortable with the decision. The sense I get was he didn’t want to be pushed in a certain direction. I think it is credit to him that he took his time and spoke to the right people.
I had a conversation with him and mine was purely about football. I think he will find a really great place for him in terms of where he is in his career. He obviously wants to play and we have already shown that irrespective of age you will get an opportunity here. And I think the way we play would suit him and certainly with what we have in the next few months and more importantly what we are building beyond I thought it would be a perfect fit for his next step. At the same time I think it was right to take as long as he did and he was totally comfortable with it.
Are you 100% convinced Tel wants to be here?
You'll be fully aware that there have long been frustrations over the trophy drought?
I hadn't noticed mate.
How do you get the players to play the game not the occasion?
Yes, you got to do both. It is a big occasion for us, the club and the fans. It's a semi-final. Irrespective, I don't think Liverpool will be any less anxious than us for the fixture of a semi-final, a second leg, it is tight and a big game for both clubs. You recognise that, embrace that but ultimately you want to be successful then these are the games you want to be involved in. There is no point in having trepidation about it because the alternative is you will be watching two other teams on the TV and you would be sitting on the couch wishing you were there. We are going to be there and we've got a chance and we will go for it.
Did you feel you needed one more defender?
Yes, well, no. I don't think so - but to a certain extent [we might be short]. Look, losing Radu was a blow. He has been good for us for a period of time, played every game, still only 22 as a centre-back. You know, us getting Kevin in will be a great solution for us, with Radu and Ben and the other guys coming back, but losing Radu put us in a position where we maybe looked at signing someone else, knowing we have some significant return in the coming weeks like Destiny, Romero, Micky and all these guys.
Again, it had to be the right fit and I didn't think there was a right fit for us out there to be honest. Bringing three players in January is probably the maximum you need to do and, given our injury situation, it would probably be less than that. But with our three, I am really happy that they are the right players and right fit with our football. I think it has been a positive window.
You said you wanted to bring everyone together, do these transfers show the club is at least behind you?
I said before that I felt it hasn't been. I have felt all along that everyone in the football club is supportive of what we are trying to achieve and the direction we're on. That hasn't changed. Look, it wasn't an easy window for us or anyone. I think maybe a couple of clubs may feel, we got what we want done, but it was tricky. I said at the start that Europe has complicated it with the new format, all sorts of challenges, and a lot of us were looking for similar players like centre-backs or attacking players. it was a tricky market. Ideally, we would have wanted things done early but we got what we needed to get done and that has given us a platform to push on.
Can you tell us that Danso and Tel were long-term targets and not reactionary?
I don't think we'd be signing 21-year-olds and 19-year-olds reactively. If it was reactive we'd be signing 35-year-olds. So the nature of the players signed shows they're not just about now, they're about us continuing to build. I certainly see Toni, Mathys and Kevin very much part of a short, medium and long-term strategy here, for sure. They're all really good fits for what we're doing.
Is there any frustration at signings coming late in the window? Could they have been done earlier like Kinsky?
But they couldn't be [done any earlier]. That's the thing. That would be me saying, 'You know, the club didn't really care about our situation, they just twiddled their thumbs until the 29th and then went for it'. I know how hard people were working, I don't think people were actively working against me to get what I want done. So no, I wasn't frustrated. Ideally we all wanted things to happen earlier but like a lot of clubs it was a difficult window. January is generally but this one even more so. All you can ask of people, whether it's players, staff or people I work alongside is that they're doing everything in their power to achieve an outcome. If they're doing that, there's no point getting frustrated, you just have to have faith and trust we'll get the thing done.
Last year you went out of both domestic cups early and bemoaned not enough fixtures, this year, are you playing too many?
Jesus, it's amazing. I sit here and I talk and I often wonder when my words leave my mouth and hit someone else's ears if there's a correlation there. Because obviously I didn't bemoan anything. We wanted more games last year because we weren't in Europe. There's a big piece missing in your question there, it wasn't just the [domestic] cups. We've had already eight European games that we didn't have last year. So by its nature -- and of course we've done well in the cups, fantastic for us - it has added to our fixture schedule and like other clubs in our situation -- and there aren't many, there's only a couple - if you've got injuries that hampers you. So I didn't bemoan last year and I'm not saying there's too many this year. It's our situation. Obviously with our injury situation it's made it a hell of a lot more challenging. It is what it is. What it does mean is we're still in four competitions at the moment and I can only see that as a positive for us.
You're 1-0 up going to Anfield in a big game, is the game when you have to tweak things and change your philosophy?
It depends, it's whether you want to pay attention. It depends what you think that philosophy is. My philosophy to try to win games of football. We're going to try to win a game of football tomorrow night, which will get us to the final of a cup, which will be a great opportunity for us.
If people haven’t understood my philosophy after 26 years of management, then nothing I don't think anything I say now is going to change any of that.
With Micky, is it just a fitness thing or is he feeling some discomfort there?
It's a bit of everything. He doesn't feel like... he got through the game no problem, but we had a look at the figures towards the physical [side] you know, he does a lot more training and he got through it OK, but the Premier League's a whole different beast and after losing Radu, I kind of sat down and thought about what we've got ahead of us still, look, don't get me wrong, we've got a couple of massive games this week for sure, but we've also afforded ourselves a couple of weeks, hopefully without midweek fixtures, and beyond that, Europe kicks in, which is massive for us.
Hopefully we're in the final of the Carabao Cup, hopefully we're still in the FA Cup. I just don't see the sense right now in risking that. Having Kevin in is a massive bonus for us, so no he's not, and he hasn't re-injured the injury or anything like that, it's just that I just feel we need to get more into him. I think he feels he needs to get more into him, same with Romero, so it'll just be a wait and see approach.
With Mathys Tel, there's talk back in Germany that maybe he wants to be more of a central striker going forward, where do you envisage him playing the most in your system?
Oh mate, Archie wanted to be a central midfielder, so who knows where Mathys will end up. Look, he's got the attributes to play, I think, as a nine for sure, but he's played wide really successfully as well. That's the beauty of him coming into us, at the moment we're going to need him probably in all of those areas because it's fair to say, as much as we've got issues at the back, we've probably got bigger issues in the front third at the moment, we're missing three wingers and our striker.
I get people are still dismissing the fact that tomorrow night we're still gonna have nine, maybe 10 first team players out of our starting line-up, so having Mathys who can play both wide and central. Richy's doing great for us at the moment, but again he's coming off not playing for a while and we've got to be really careful with him. Sonny's playing all the time, we've got Mikey he's a 17-year-old, we've got Deki who can play in there, so having him we can play either side. I reckon in the short term until we get some numbers back, I think he can fill all three roles.
You've got to decide on your Europa League squad with too many players to fit and you can make three changes, have you decided who is in and who is out?
I’m waiting for your article first, mate. Once you’ve analysed it, assessed it, then I’ll have a deep dive and try to come out with an outcome that satisfies everyone. What we do know is we can make three changes. Obviously Radu is going to be a logical one there and then the rest we have a bit of time. A lot of it will depend between now and then on who we can kind of get back and hopefully we keep everyone healthy.
Probably more a question for Johan Lange or Daniel Levy, but was there a reason why Kevin Danso could not come in sooner and maybe help for Everton or Leicester?
Again it’s a process you need to go through. There were certain other things at play for us and for Kevin to be honest. As much as you try to understand the pressing need, with all these things there has to be an agreement from three parties. We are not the only ones involved. For those three to get aligned and for it to happen really quickly is rare. I mean we got sort of lucky with Toni (Kinsky) because it was their off-season and we could work really quickly there, but most of the other deals got done in the last week. Look, it would have been great to get in Kevin early but I am really pleased to get him in. He’s a great guy and has already endeared himself to the group in terms of the kind of person he is. We still managed to get a couple of key results in the last couple of games, which really helps our season and now with him in there, it gives us a boost.
This is a big match and probably biggest of your Spurs career. Do you change anything for big matches or keep everyone as normal as possible?
No like I said before, I think you need to embrace the challenge in front of you and it’s very easy to say it’s just going to be another game because it’s not. Everyone knows the consequences of it, both us and the opposition. We’re playing away from home and you know certainly their crowd will give them a great deal of energy, which we have to deal with. And it’s a cup game so there is a possibility of extra-time, a possibility of penalties, so all those things are factored into it, so you’re preparation and information is a little bit different and you want to make it into a big game because ultimately you need to understand behaviour in big games and what it means and how you can overcome the challenges. So, (preparation) changes a little bit. The fundamentals of how we play won’t change, but in terms of how we go about it will be a bit different.
Is the win at Manchester City a good blueprint. They started well, you got through, scored and took control?
Yeah, I mean to a certain extent. I think the first game we played against Liverpool here, because it was a tight game and if you can limit the ability of Liverpool to create a lot of chances, which we did on the night and we probably created the better chances. That is more and maybe it is slightly different away from home, but I felt that night we were really controlled in our football, we pressed really well, we really denied them any clear-cut opportunities which is difficult against them and we were always a threat the other way.
We obviously scored but had one millimetres offside with Dom, missed a big chance with Pedro, so that is more of the blueprint we want to take into it, because Liverpool are obviously a different team to Man City. They are different to most other teams, particularly in the way they attack and we’ll have to be on our game in certain aspects, but also understand we have the capability to hurt them as well.
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