Tottenham Hotspur are set to host West Ham in a London Derby tomorrow at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and head coach Ange Postecoglou took to the microphone in his first pre-match press conference in two weeks. Big Ange gave a positive update on his team’s injury status, reiterating that Lucas Bergvall’s injury was minor and he’s available for selection, Richarlison is back and looking fitter than ever, and Son Heung-Min has fully recovered and is in line to start against the Hammers in the early Saturday kickoff.
Some of the players had farther to travel during this international break than others — Cuti Romero only recently returned from South America after playing for Argentina on Wednesday, but while Postecoglou admitted that travel can be a drain, all of his internationals are ready to go tomorrow.
“[Romero’s] okay. We’ve got everyone back and the last one was Cristian, Pape and Biss. They are all good and reported well. We’ve got the early kick-off, so that’s a quick turnaround but we trained this morning and they were all fine. Lucas Bergvall picked up a small knock but he trained as well so he has no problem. In terms of the internationals, everyone is available.
“I think Cuti has been and again probably reflective of our season, he’s had some good moments for us and some disappointing moments for him, which I know he hasn’t been happy about himself, but it is tough. We’ve spoken about the schedules and it is funny how the guys who didn’t have international commitments, not that there were many of them, they look really refreshed and ready to go. Not just for us but in football in general.
“The amount of travel and amount of games, because he always play Cuti does, we have to bare that in mind and it’s something the players need to learn to cope with the best they can, but he’s still really important for us. He’s an outstanding defender, a great leader in our group and still contributing.
Postecoglou also gave an update on two of Spurs’ injured forwards — Son Heung-Min and Richarlison. Sonny had missed a couple of matches due to injury and did not report for international duty with South Korea, while Richarlison has been nursing a calf injury since the first week of the season. Big Ange noted that Richy’s been mostly recovered for a bit now and the international break was about getting him “lean” and match fit for tomorrow’s match.
“Sonny is good. He’s worked hard these two weeks. He was obviously very disappointed to miss playing for his national team, but I think it’s been good for him these two weeks. He’s worked really hard, had a good solid training week and yeah he can’t wait to get back out there. He’s good to go.
“We’ve taken our time with [Richarlison] but it hasn’t been just about him recuperating and recovering from the injury. We’ve tried to use it to build his fitness base up so when he comes back and to be fair to him, he’s worked awfully hard. He has trimmed down, he looks really lean now and has worked really hard.
“We’ve tried to use it almost as a pre-season for him on an individual basis to not just get him to recover from his injury because he probably recovered from his injury a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve used the last couple of weeks to get his fitness base up and him into good physical condition so we don’t have to keep going through this cycle of him coming back and breaking down.
“Like I said, to be fair to him he’s worked really hard and he’s looked really good. He’s had a good week of training and he has missed playing. He is a real infectious guy as well so good to have him back with the group.”
One of the bigger news stories over the international break was assistant coach Ryan Mason investigating, and ultimately mutually refusing, the head coaching position at Anderlecht in Belgium. Postecoglou reiterated his stance about how he loves developing young coaches and preparing them for head coaching roles, and assured those in attendance that Mason remains fully engaged and committed to Tottenham.
“It wasn’t too much in it. I have always worked on the premise that part of my role is also developing coaches and it is something I take great pride in. Ryan is obviously someone who sees himself as one day taking that opportunity.
“It is a really important decision for the guys. It’s not like we want them to leave and certainly with Ryan he is doing a great job for us here. At the same time, if it’s something they want to explore then I think it is important they do that because it confirms one thing or another for them in their head about where they are currently at. Whether it is the right job for them.
“To be fair to Ryan, he was pretty straightforward with it. I said to him I didn’t want it drawn out, taking any time and he didn’t. He is really happy where he is now and committed to us.”
Tottenham vs. West Ham is rarely straightforward — it’s a London derby, and despite any perceived gap in performance or ability, it’s very often an important one on the calendar with a positive end result rarely assured. Postecoglou acknowledged the difficulty of the fixture, noting that West Ham defeated Spurs in this same fixture last season.
“I was made very aware of [the importance of this rivalry] last year. I know what it means. An important game. Last year we played really well but didn’t win at home. Tale of that part of our season a little bit. Challenging game. They have some fantastic players in the team and a new manager. They are doing things a little bit differently.
“We saw last game what a threat they can be going forward. A good challenge for us. But the emphasis has to be on us reproducing the form we’ve shown in recent times and more importantly sticking to principles of our game.
“[Under Julen Lopetegui] it is a different approach but most of the personnel is still there from when you look at last year and the line ups they’ve had the last two or three weeks. That emphasis from last year. They are a big side, a physical side with real speed on the wings.
“There isn’t a style that suits us or doesn’t suit us. When we play well we can play well against most systems and styles as we’ve shown. And if we don’t stick to our principles we can struggle against anybody. More important for us is how we approach things.”
Tottenham vs. West Ham is in the early Saturday match slot, with kick-off at 7:30 a.m. ET and 12:30 p.m. BST. The match is televised on USA Network in the States and TNT Sports 1 in the UK.