Ange Postecoglou was back out in front of the media less than 24 hours after his previous press conference as he looked ahead on Friday morning to Tottenham's Premier League game against Fulham.
Spurs conceded a late Mats Hummels goal on Thursday night to draw their Europa League game against Roma 2-2 after goals from Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and they are back at their home ground at Sunday lunchtime to welcome Marco Silva's side for a London derby which will test the energy of their injury-ravaged squad.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou on Friday morning. We've got every single word the Spurs boss said in his press conference at Hotspur Way in a full transcript below.
Any more injury concerns or players returning ahead of this game?
So last night, at this stage a clean bill of health. Mind you I thought that last week and we had a guy who needed surgery an hour later. I think everything is alright from last night. Obviously we'll see when the boys come in. Returns...unlikely. Romero is closer, he's probably the closest but again probably unlikely, but I'm not ruling him out. He's got to get through a few things today and then we've got a session tomorrow.
How is Dominic Solanke, it looked like he hurt his groin?
Yeah, he's fine. He's a bit sore but we're obviously really thin squad-wise, especially in that front third, so he's working hard for us. At this stage nothing that's too significant.
Are the wins against Manchester City and other sides this season justifying what you say about wanting entertainment?
I'm not just trying to justify anything, it's just the kind of team we want to be. I said that last night. We set out, and certainly I set out, to make the team that is always looking to be on the front foot, looking to score goals and be exciting to watch. At times that means maybe not being as controlled as other sides. That's ok. That's part of our identity. That's the road we started on and we want to stick to it. From our perspective that's the team we want to be.
I was going to test my lip reading skills, you seemed to be shouting instructions at Brennan Johnson, saying 'forward' it seemed, is it the case that in some cases your football is still a work in progress?
Yeah, it's always a work in progress. That's my role to just keep driving the guys. There can be a tendency at times to want to go back from full throttle and ease and I just felt at that point we were on top of them and Brennan was looking dangerous every time we went forward and we were looking good.
I just thought, and it's human nature, we were winning 2-1 at the time and to just keep the ball but that's not who we want to be. In those moments it's more about me trying to empower and embolden the players not to fear playing that way. So yeah I think your lip reading was pretty good mate.
One Fulham player said Spurs win games and lose them so you're not unbeatable, what do you make of that?
We’re not unbeatable. I’ve got news for you, no team is. Fulham aren’t either. That’s the beauty of our sport. Even Liverpool have lost this year, God forbid. What other teams think isn’t really relevant to us. He’s right about one point, on our day we can beat anyone. We want to continue to be that, the best we can be. When we are that we’re a compelling side and growing into the team we want to be. Sunday is no different to any other game for us. It’s about continuing to grow, continue to develop. When we kind of put all our elements together we’re a very very good football side. We’ve struggled in a few games this year for sure. But that’s part of our growth to make sure our levels don’t drop to the levels in the games when we haven’t really played to our identity. That’s OK, it’s why we’re here. We want to continue to push on.
What are you expecting from Fulham?
They’re not unbeatable. I’ve got a lot of time for Marco, I think he’s an outstanding manager. He’s got the team really playing in a manner where they’re always looking to be a threat to oppositions. He’s stabilised them. Their level of performance is good now on a weekly basis. We had a couple of tough battles with them last year. Because they play as well it should be a good game.
With Dejan Kulusevski, his stamina is no fluke is it?
It’s not a fluke. It’s a lot of hard work. There’s some science there, some genetics or DNA. He just has a real capacity to be able to run at a certain level consistently. His recovery rates are really elite in that he can go and rest quickly and go again. But there’s also that mental strength to do it. A lot of players have the capacity but maybe reach the limit where they naturally get tired and don’t go again until they need to. But Deki will keep going and going. It’s a big part of his football, it’s a big strength of his. Again I’m not a biomechanist but his running efficiency is really good. He doesn’t seem to use too much energy. Or that’s how it looks to me. That could be a load of crap, I don’t know. But he does. If you think about it. If you’re trying to stop him and in he’s in your vicinity, you think he’ll go once, twice, or three or four times and that can wear oppositions down. He has the quality as well. We have to be mindful of not overburdening him because he’s played a lot. And with the squad we’ve got he’s played in the middle and on the wing. We don’t want to diminish that but at the moment he still feels really good. And it’s a big part of his game.
Does Kulusevski have the Ronaldo and Kane-like focus on self-improvement?
Yeah absolutely, spot on. He's very ambitious about how good he can be and that's a great thing. 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.
Is there any circumstance where you will be pragmatic?
Look, I don't know how many ways I can say this. I understand it. Look, there's plenty of room for pragmatism in walks of life and in football as well. But I'm just not interested in it. I don't know why I need to change my approach to be like everyone else wants me to be. I'll continue to push this team to be a bit different, to play football in a different way and maybe when I'm long gone you'll all pine for my entertainment, and you'll have had your fill of pragmatism. But look, if we were pragmatic I'd say at 2-0 up at City away, we'd have probably settled and we wouldn't have got the victory we did and made it a special moment for our club. I always think of the possibilities of what could be if we continue down this road, rather than holding on to what we have. Because at the moment what do we have? We don't have a hell of a lot. We haven't achieved anything yet, we haven't had success, we haven't done all the things we want to do. So if I start being pragmatic now, maybe we'll never get there. Last night we weren't at our highest level but, jeez, I thought for 20 minutes we were as exciting as we've been since I've been here. I loved our last 20 minutes of the first half. We should have got a third goal to kill the game off but we were exciting to watch. And that's what I want.
In a more open Premier League are Spurs going under the radar?
I don't know but I think in the context of where we're at in the season so far, we're in an OK position in the league. Safe to say we could be in a stronger position but we're still there or thereabouts. We're still in the Carabao Cup, we were out of the Carabao Cup this time last year. In Europe, we're still in a good position to get to the next round and we've had to deal with adversity. So, so far our season has been solid. We've obviously had some extremes which always taints peoples' picture of where we're at but I try to step back and have a broader view. Again, we had four schoolboys on the bench last night - two were actually at school this morning. We're working hard with some pretty limiting factors and still maintaining competitiveness in the competitions we're in. We're in an OK space.
Are you thinking about January transfers?
We're always planning, planning for every scenario. A lot of it will depend on where we are as a squad at that time. Between now and then, it is only really Romero and Van de Ven who will be back in that time frame, but Richy will hopefully be back in the New Year and we will just assess where we are squad wise but certainly, with Johan [Lange] I've already had a number of meetings for a strategy in January. I think last year we did a little bit of business which ended up helping us, but nothing concrete now because January is always tricky and it depends on where we are squad-wise.
Do teams need bigger squads now rather than the streamlined ones some managers prefer?
I think so and it is not just the fixtures, it is the attrition rate, we've got a lot of injuries but a lot of clubs have. I think we've been talking about it for a while but at some point, it is going to come home to roost for all the powers that be because players are getting overloaded, there is no doubt about that, there is too much evidence. You're either going to get a diminished product with the best players not out there or clubs will have to carry bigger squads to cater for the demands of it.
It's easy to forget Archie Gray is only 18 because of his maturity, how does he compare to other young players you worked with?
There's a real maturity at only 18. We asked him to play left-back, he has never played that position in his life but does it with a real efficiency and calmness. I am so excited by Archie and that's another positive for us that we have another 18-year-old who just plays and no one mentions that he is 18, they just measure his performance and, like I said, I am asking him to do different jobs. It would probably be more comfortable for him if he was settled in one position but he is playing football at a really high level in Europe and the Premier League. That's going to set us up really well for the player that he is going to become. I thought Lucas [Bergvall] was really good when he came on last night, he made an impact. With everything else we're building, there is some real excitement around the young players as well.
He had a couple of chances last night but should the team be creating more opportunities for Solanke?
No, we're creating enough chances. I mean last night we were sort of really unlucky with some of them, especially the header and he is still really important to our football. Look, we should have scored a number of goals, we just lacked the... as good as we were at City, I thought we didn't create as many chances but were calm in front of goal. Last night we just lacked that little bit of composure where we could have scored four or five and Dom was part of that.
Were you happy when you inherited Kulusevski and could you see his potential?
I was extremely excited. I had seen, as you said, his trajectory as a player. He had made an impact already. I think the club had only signed him on loan with an option to buy when I got here and I was pretty keen to make sure that happened.
You don’t really know until you work with a player and understand him better. As Dan was just saying, he has this real laser focus about how good he can be and, for any manager, that’s what you want to see in players. Somebody who is not going to settle for whatever level he is at.
Kulusevski does not get distracted away from the pitch and told us he doesn't look at his phone anymore. Is that the perfect mentality for a player?
It depends. I hate to think, if somebody enjoys something that they have to curtail it for any reason. That’s the world we live in. A big part of that is making sure the energy you have you put to the right areas and whether that is mental or physical energy.
I guarantee you I have the quietest phone in the world. I have about three people in it. It never rings, it never messages. I have a pretty blissful life. Maybe a little bit of a lack of awareness about what people think of me but that’s not a bad thing either. I just think everyone likes me and I get on with it.
Brennan Johnson is scoring more goals than last season, why do you think that is?
I think some of it is you get confidence and self-belief. The biggest thing is a real discipline about the positions he takes up. He is always in the right areas. The way we play, if you get yourself into the right areas then you get the benefit or the rewards of it. I think because he has got the reward he is really making sure he is really disciplined about always being there.
It is easy to say because of the way we play but sometimes it takes great concentration and focus in those moments. Whether it is on the weekend against Man City he sort of knew it was likely Timo would be hitting that far post and even last night that Kulusevski would hit a certain area and he is always there. He is a good finisher.
I still think there is more though. I wasn’t as happy with some parts of his game last night, particularly around just being a bit more positive and even the pressing was not great from our front three. It hasn’t been as good. But that comes back to the player himself wanting to improve and not settle for just scoring some goals. I think he can be better and I want him to be better.
Seven of Johnson's 10 goals in the Premier League have come in the six-yard box, do you always work with him on that movement?
Go watch Celtic play, go watch Yokohama Marinos plays, go watch Brisbane Roar play, go watch the Socceroos play mate. You will see that I would love to be a right winger in my team mate, I would score bags of goals.