Ange Postecoglou held his press conference on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Tottenham’s clash with Manchester City in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Spurs welcome Pep Guardiola’s side to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after back-to-back victories against Manchester United and Ipswich made it three wins in a row in the league. City have had a difficult week with defeats to Liverpool in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Postecoglou and his players will need to be wary of a City response but if they could win it would mean the north London outfit would have triumphed in all six games they have played against Manchester opposition his season. On Tuesday, the Australian delivered the latest updates on Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Timo Werner, Dominic Solanke, Richarlison and if any fresh injuries that came out of the 4-1 victory at Portman Road.
Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou ahead of the game. Here’s a full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
What’s the latest team news?
It will be the same as the weekend squad-wise. Everyone got through the weekend well, no issues from it. We could obviously protect a few guys — Pedro (Porro) and (James) Maddison, didn’t start. Everyone is good.
With the injured guys, nothing has really changed. They are still progressing and training on and off with us. Hopefully over the next 7-10 days reintroduction.
Can Archie Gray and Kevin Danso handle Erling Haaland?
It’s a great challenge for them. [Liam] Delap was a handful last week. Erling is the premier striker in world football when he is up and running. Great challenge but whether he plays or not it will still be a great test for all of our group.
Are you confident about beating Man City?
You are always looking forward to the challenge. Man City are an outstanding football club, great manager and they have still got great footballers. They are still playing really challenging football for any opponent but we have enjoyed our games against them whether that was this year or last year. You know you are going to get a good football game. They are going to try to win. They are going to play expansively and we are going to try to do the same. It’s going to be a good test for us.
There’s been talk of a Rodrigo Bentancur contract extension? How good has he been this season?
Rodri has been great. In terms of his contract situation that is handled by other people and obviously a lot of our strategizing is not just about the short term but the longer term. Rodri, this latter period, is getting back to the levels he wants to be. He was coming off a long term injury last year, came back looked really good and then got another injury. It’s really disruptive. Even this year he got off to a false start with his long suspension. You can see he just needs regular game time and he is getting up to speed. Really good guy around the group as well. He is experienced now. From our perspective, in this run-in he is going to be really important.
Has three wins in a row improved the mood?
Everybody is dismissing that we lost two cup games in there as well so it is not exactly three in a row. We understand there was a disappointment in there as well. I think the last couple of games in particular have certainly given us encouragement in terms of just being able to re-energise the group. Whether that is the guys who worked really hard through that period where we were really challenged or the guys coming back in. There is just a real good energy around it. The guys who missed out have been really keen to contribute and you have seen the enthusiasm that, Vicario, Brennan at the weekend, Maddison coming back in, Destiny, these guys have bought. It has helped the rest of the group. I think we have benefitted from that with the two weeks we have had of no midweek games. So all of those things and then you get two wins which makes people feel good and is something for us to build on.
With players returning and two wins, is there a sense of frustration of what could have been?
Yeah, potentially because I have always said, I still feel like we’re on the right path and yet every other indicator you look at when you look at a sporting club in terms of results, it doesn’t really show that, but I’ve always felt we’re building a really good group of players who have a lot of growth and could potentially really make an impact. We just haven’t been able to do that, but having said that, still plenty for us to play for this year and still an opportunity for us to make a real impact.
They say things come in threes, how much of an achievement would it be to beat Pep’s City three times in a season?
Some things come in 33 it has felt like! Yeah, look it is always a challenge when you play City and they challenge you in ways other clubs don’t in terms of their football. I know for them they are going through a rough trot, but their football is still a real challenge to play against but it’s a great challenge. It’s what you want and you want to measure yourself. They’ll come here and try play, be dominant on the ball and we want to be dominant, but you know against Man City you can’t be and it’s impossible to be dominant in all facets.
They will have times in the game where they take control and it’s how we deal with that and cope with that. We’ve done that not too bad in the games we’ve played against them and for us that will be the challenging bit. When we have our moments, we have to show quality. I know we beat them and the scoreline sounds convincing at their place, but it was the quality of our finishing that was the difference. We didn’t create a lot of chances, but the quality of our goals was high up and you have to against them. I love coming up against Pep’s teams and looking forward to it.
Since Guardiola has been in England, Tottenham have been a bogey team for Man City. Why do Tottenham thrive against Man City?
Yeah, I don’t know how much you can read into that kind of stuff because over the course of that time I guess he’s faced different types of Tottenham teams and difference managers. Sometimes it’s just circumstance. I know from our perspective and for the most part against the teams that are challenging, we’ve done well in the two years I’ve been here. There has been a couple of games where we’ve been blown away but for the most part our struggles have been against teams that aren’t doing as well in the league rather than the teams that are doing well. Part of that is because we’re playing against teams that are trying to dominant the game and that allows us to play our football, but at the same time you can’t be dismissive of the quality they have. It looks like they’re going through a rough trot at the moment but that’s because of the unbelievable standards they have set since Pep has been there. Not just results but in terms of the football they play.
What have you made of Manchester City’s season?
I think it’s just a way of elite sport, you know, and it just sheds light on how extraordinary they have been. The fact that they did win four in a row and, and the consistency of that four in a row of just the sheer numbers they accumulated in terms of points, in terms of goals, in terms of wins, it’s just competing on all [fronts], it’s just an unbelievable and probably unprecedented standard that they set, and it’s only natural that that’s never gonna continue forever, I mean that’s just not sustainable.
But you know what, if they bounce back next year and win it, which I don’t think anyone in this room could discount that’s possible, and you say they’ve won five out of six, you’d be going ‘they’re still pretty good’, so more than pretty good.
Sometimes these things happen, you know, I think injuries, key injuries and some things that are going against them, sometimes just brings you back to the field and. that’s elite sport, it’s just fine margins.
Djed Spence, he’s taken advantage of other players’ injuries, taken his opportunity and I just wondered what you’ve made of him really this season?
Yeah, as I said last week, he’s been outstanding, he continues to be outstanding. The challenge for Djed is to keep going, you know, not to be satisfied with what he’s got now and with the same hunger and attitude that he’s taken his opportunity. As you said, that’s all you can sort of provide is an opportunity, he needs now to make sure that he doesn’t look back from that and and keeps pushing on because he’s got so still so much I think growth in him and potential.
He hasn’t really been settled in his career apart over the years, at Forest where he kind of really had some great form, but since then it’s been stop-start for him or he’s just got to ensure now that now that he’s up and running, he keeps going.
I just wanted to ask you about Timo Werner, has he been available but just not getting into what’s a stronger matchday squad now or is he not quite there yet?
No, he was only really available for the weekend, but because of the matchday squad and the kind of makeup of the squad, I left him out obviously we’ve Ben going out we put Reguilon on as an extra defender on the bench, but it was only Sunday’s game he was actually available, but he’s trained and he’s available for tomorrow.
With Ben Davies, at the weekend you said it was kind of managing his minutes, has something else happened since?
No, no, it’s still the same, he’s been carrying a little bit of a knock for a little while and to be fair to him, he’s played through it. But I’ve said before that I think this is a real key period for us. I want as many players in the best possible condition for what’s coming up and, you know, after this game again, we’ve got a good seven day break, leading into then Europe, league, Europe, league, and those four games are going to be massive for us and I don’t see the need to push people at this stage when we’ve got others that probably need the game time like Destiny and Brennan, Wilson, these guys who are coming back, so he hasn’t re-injured or anything, but it’s just like I said, he’s been carrying something that I just don’t want to sort of push at the moment.
Dane Scarlett, it looked like that assist at the weekend meant a lot to him, obviously at a ground where he had a tough loan, and in his past three games, he’s got a goal and two assists, what have you seen in his development since he’s come back?
Yeah, look, he’s working hard, Dane, like you said, he’s had a couple of difficult loans and that’s part of the process as well for him. We were just talking about Djed, who had three difficult loans, so some of it is just perseverance and keep working hard and waiting for your opportunity. He has done well for us. I said when he came back, he wasn’t in the greatest physical condition and he’s working hard on that and hopefully he gets more opportunities.
As an aside I’ve got to say the assist is the most useless statistic in world football. Seriously, it could come off your backside, fall to somebody on the halfway line he scores, and it’s an assist. So it doesn’t impress me, but Dane’s assist at the weekend was a good one.
Discussing what changes Ange Postecoglou should make for Man City plus that performance at Ipswich. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham.
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