Ange Postecoglou held his press conference on Friday ahead of Tottenham's FA Cup fourth round clash at Aston Villa and we've got every word the Australian said in a transcript.
Spurs arrived back at their Hotspur Way training complex at 2am on Friday after their heavy Carabao Cup semi-final second leg loss at Liverpool but there was no rest for Postecoglou is he had hold an FA Cup press conference. Tottenham were dreadful in their 4-0 loss at Anfield on Thursday evening and lost an 11th player to injury with Richarlison suffering a calf problem in the first half.
Postecoglou did give debuts to new signings Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel and he spoke about both players on Friday as well as the currently absent and injured players for the trip to Villa Park on Sunday, with his team desperate for energy and fresh legs.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold managed to get back from Liverpool in order to be among those putting the questions to Postecoglou. Here is the full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
What are your reflections this morning, any more clarity on where it went wrong?
Not a lot of clarity, when you're talking a few hours later, still the emotions of it. As I said last night, it was a disappointing night for us, a disappointing night for the club. Disappointing night in terms of the opportunity we had. I said after the game we didn't really perform to the levels we needed to. Liverpool were too good for us.
Is anyone coming back on Sunday?
No.
Have you seen a reaction from the players when you've spoken to them?
Most of them are still sleeping, we got back at 2am. What's more important for them is they rest up. I'll give them the feedback, gave them feedback after the game. I don't need to give them too much feedback, we're all disappointed with the way things went last night. But the reality is in 48 hours or so we've got a big game coming up. Recovery and go again.
Do you believe that if the players had anything about them they'd realise?
There's plenty about them. I get the pile-on at the moment, it's really easy for people to stick their boots in. And question the players and all that kind of stuff. That's not something I question. We were disappointed last night didn't go the way we wanted to, didn't really perform at the levels we wanted to. That's doesn't define this group of players by any stretch, in my eyes. We'll go out there on Sunday and put in more of a performance that reflects where we're at."
Are you confident of getting a reaction?
Like I said, I have a great deal of belief in this group of players, and what they're going through, and how they're dealing with it. They were disappointed last night. We're all disappointed. But we'll learn from it. And we'll move on.
With criticism, do you have to take it all on your shoulders?
No, it's not about taking it on my shoulders. As I said last night, it doesn't really direct me, what I do, what I think. We're an easy mark at the moment, I get that. Obviously making a semi-final is an absolute disaster because we didn't play well last night. I assume not making the semi-final would have put us in a better place. But that's the way people are seeing us at the moment. We're an easy mark, like I said. When we have a disappointing night, like we did last night, gives an opportunity for everyone to go as hard as they can. That's fine. There's only one way to change that, that's with us. Just getting back out there and playing the football I know we can. And getting a result on Sunday.
Sometimes when teams have been under fire, they've used that to prove people wrong, is that what you're going to do on Sunday?
No because I don't know which people I'm meant to be proving wrong. I said last night, it's irrelevant to me what other people's opinions are. People are on the TV and the radio and in the newspapers to give opinions and I respect that. They're allowed to do that but I don’t have any obligation to listen to any of it.
To get fuelled by the comments of people I’ve never even met, I don’t know how you live your life, but I certainly don't live my life that way. That's with all respect that they're there to give an opinion. It's not like I want to be successful here so I can go to these people and say to them 'oh, look, you were wrong'. I don't even know them. Why would I care where they think we're at? They're a million miles away from us, but they're allowed to have their opinion.
We're an easy mark at the moment, and look after last night, there are times you've just got to take it, keep your counsel and atone for it in the way that only really matters and that is with playing the football I know we can.
Is it a good thing that Sunday is coming so quickly to get it out of your system or would you prefer a week on the training ground?
We're 48 hours away from a game, I would much rather have had eight days to prepare like the other teams.
You said it might have been seven to 10 days ago that you were hoping to have a bunch of players back in seven to 10 days, is it a disappointment that none of them are available for such a big game?
No, I didn't think anyone...we thought maybe Micky was a chance for Thursday. I didn't think this week, it was the start of next week where we're still hopeful we'll get at least two, maybe three back for the Man United game. We've got two full weeks of training, which I think over these two weeks we'll get the majority of the players back with a bit of luck, provided we don't lose anyone else like we lost Richy last night.
I knew this week was going to be a challenging week in terms of personnel, because we just weren't going to get anyone back, so there's no sort of disappointment that anyone missed out.
On Richarlison, we've spoken before about the fragmented nature of his time at Tottenham, is it getting to the point now where it's maybe worrying for the long-term future as well, because he just cannot get any kind of head of steam going?
It's disappointing for him and you know, obviously he was emotional last night because he worked really hard to get himself back but again, it's another setback that he's going to have to deal with, we're going to have to deal with and hopefully get him back as soon as possible.
One positive from the game, Kevin Danso, did he at least prove exactly why you wanted to bring him as he fits your style?
Yeah, I thought Kevin was really good. I thought Mathys was good considering we were throwing him in a difficult night. I'm sure they'll help us and I'm sure they'll feel better after last night getting that first game under their belt and moving on from there.
Do you feel like there's any extra pressure on Sunday's game because of the result last night?
I think it's the same pressure, it's a knockout games, so you know you've got to get a result to progress and had it gone any better last night, it wouldn't have made any difference to Sunday. It's still a game you have to win to progress, so the pressure's the same.
Given that Sunday's the last of a long run of Thursday, Sunday games every week, what does next week look like in terms of what's going to happen there?
We'll assess that after Sunday, but I we know we've got two clear weeks. There's a number of our players who are scheduled to come back during that time, so we'll use it wisely to rest the guys who need rest, and certainly there's a fair few of them that need some rest and also hopefully get some work into the guys who have been out for quite a while to be ready for the challenge ahead because I think these two weeks we've got now will be really valuable for the finish of our season.
I appreciate you will defend the players but last night didn’t feel like the first time some senior players made mistakes or did not step up. Are you not close to a point now with some of them where it is time to move them on or give others an opportunity?
I don’t know about opportunity to others because we’re giving an opportunity to everyone. I don’t think you can be too harsh on them. I don’t put any responsibility on the senior players last night. As a collective we just didn’t tackle the challenge we had last night in the manner we needed to. That’s not (on) the senior players. The senior players are carrying us through this in many respects because I don’t know how many players were playing their first game at Anfield last night.
So, all these kind of things you try to prepare the group for but it is fair to say we didn’t handle the situation well, but that’s not on the senior players. I have got no issue with the senior players and we don’t have many out there to be honest. Certainly they are trying as hard as they can and from my perspective, my role is to try to support and provide the guidance so we can make amends for a poor performance.
You've always been consistent in that you won’t ask for time and say it's a five-year project, but the squad feels quite a far away from Liverpool. How many transfer windows or months will it take to bridge that gap?
I know that this is all kind of reactive to last night and I get it. Everyone saw their was a big gap between us and Liverpool, but Vicario, Romero, Destiny, van de Ven, Solanke, Wilson Odobert, I could go on and on. We had 10 missing last night, senior players but you take seven or eight key players out of any team and you are playing the best team in the world who are at their best, I don’t think you make judgements in these moments. I get that it dulls the senses after a while when you say the same thing after week after week and it sounds like it is what it is, but that’s the reality of our situation. A lot of the players I mentioned and Maddison, I mean Brennan Johnson, I don’t make judgements on last night apart from the fact we didn’t perform in the manner we wanted to. Even if we did, we may not have won anyway but the disappointing thing is we just didn’t play the way we wanted to, so we need to address that.
How important is it to get back to showing more of the football you have played by and large, even with the injuries?
Yeah, look that is probably our main object now to play a little bit more like ourselves. It won’t be easy because Villa are a good side and playing at home. Again, it will be a challenge with literally the same group of players backing up, but there is an opportunity for us there and we want to make sure we tackle that opportunity in the right way.
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