Ange Postecoglou had plenty to say in his press conference after Tottenham Hotspur won 4-1 at Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon and we’ve got a full transcript with everything the Australian said.
Spurs took the lead before the 20-minute mark when Archie Gray put Son Heung-min away down the left and his low cross was stabbed home by Brennan Johnson. It wasn’t long before Johnson netted his 14th goal of the season when Rodrigo Bentancur sent Son away again down the left and the captain cut inside and found the unmarked Wales international to strike a low shot past the keeper.
Ipswich hit one back before the break when former Tottenham winger Jack Clarke picked out Omari Hutchinson to curl a shot inside the right-hand post.
The home side pushed for an equaliser in the second half but it was Tottenham who scored next with a bit of fast feet from substitute James Maddison before he got the ball to Djed Spence who hit a deflected effort past Alex Palmer to make it 3-1.
A fourth goal came soon after with a brave header on from Dane Scarlett into the path of Dejan Kulusevski who ran on, cut inside and curled an effort in off the left-hand post.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou after the match and here is a full transcript with every single word the Spurs boss said.
What did you make of the performance today?
I thought….three flights of stairs mate, I’m out of condition. Sorry it’s embarrassing but anyway. We had to work hard today, we knew we’d have to work hard. Ipswich are one of the hardest working teams in the league. At home, they’re fighting for every point. I thought they started really well in the opening 10-15 minutes with the energy in the stadium, but I thought we did the hard things really well.
A couple of times in the first half we lost a bit of concentration, in terms of the second ball and duels. Disappointing goal we conceded but aside from that I thought we handled that side of the game really well, which we had to.
But I always felt we were a threat when we had the ball. Sonny was unplayable in the first half. So good to get Brennan back in those areas where he’s always a threat. All four of our goals were quality goals. We had to do the hard things but the fruits of that labour was that our front third play was super, exciting and clinical.
Do you feel you’ve come through this difficult phase of injuries now?
Look, we’ve certainly benefited from having a couple of midweeks off for sure. That’s coincided with getting a few players back. You saw today we were able to rest a couple of players in Pedro and Madders. I can make substitutions and the players coming on can make a difference.
We’re certainly in a good space of using these two weeks as well as we could to reenergise the team and I think it is. We’ve still got some significant players out. We’ve got Solanke, Richarlison, Romero, Van de Ven, Ben Davies, he’s out today. They’re all still to come back. I just feel like we’ve got a really good opportunity in these next 10 days to be well equipped for what’s ahead. What’s ahead is obviously Europe but also an opportunity to address our league position which is obviously not good enough.
Those two Brennan Johnson goals felt like real training ground goals?
Yeah, Brennan’s really good for us. We don’t really have another front third player like him. He just knows when to arrive at the right time. He’s really clinical. It’s just great to get him back and get him 60 minutes of football. He’s missed a lot of football. I’m sure he’ll feel good after today.
What’s up with Ben Davies?
Just managing his minutes as well. We’ve got to try to navigate these next 10-days to two weeks until the international break to make sure we’ve got as many players available as possible squad-wise for what’s ahead. That’s why I left Pedro and Madders out today. I was able to give them a bit of a rest. We didn’t want Brennan and Destiny to play more than 60 minutes. All of these kind of decisions at the moment are about trying to get us into a position where we have as many players healthy as possible.
Another battling performance from Kevin Danso, he seems to take the whacks and keep on soldiering on?
I think he enjoys the whacks. He’s been great for us since he came in. He’s really taken to the club, taken to the group of players, taken on the challenge. It’s not easy when you’re coming into a new club, and we’re asking him to come in and almost be a senior member. We still had three teenagers out there starting today, and a fourth coming on. It’s still a really young team. I think Kevin’s been a super addition for us.
Archie Gray had a tough start up against Liam Delap but was then impressive as he seemed to grow?
Yeah, that’s the beauty of Arch. Like I said during the week, we know he’s playing out of position, we know we’re throwing him challenges. Delap’s a handful for anybody in this league. First few minutes, he caused him some problems. But I love that Arch takes on that challenge. He doesn’t shy away from it, he doesn’t hide. He just keeps going. As I said, we’ll get enormous growth out of him during this period. But right now he’s contributing to us, he’s helping us. I thought we had to do some defensive work today, not a lot, but the defensive work we had to do was important. Against, like I said, a real top striker. I thought he handled it well.”
A bit tongue in cheek, but is that Spurs now safe from relegation worries?
It goes to show you how ridiculous a notion it was to start with. People saying we’re safe with 12 games to go, and people are actually talking about it. That’s the hysteria. And that’s all framed around putting pressure on me and the club. I get that, when you’re in that position you’ve got to accept that. For me, it was always about trying… we always had the Villa FA Cup game as a marker for us. We’ve got to get to that space as best we could. We obviously didn’t get the outcomes we wanted during that time. But not through a lack of will or effort from the players. That was always my primary concern, to protect them and support them. Because they gave everything during that period. Now they’ve got some help, they’ve got some rest. Like I said, we’re not happy where we are in the league, obviously, it’s unacceptable. But we’ve got an opportunity to address that.
Has the mood changed now with the wins and returning players?
It was never the mood. It’s a different feeling because the lads have got energy. They’re recovering from games, they’ve got an opportunity to train. They see they’ve got support and help in terms of other players. Training’s been really good the last two weeks. First training sessions we’ve had for two and a half months, really. You saw Kulusevski today, people forget he was unbelievable at the start of the year. The poor guy’s just been grinding it for two and a half months. Without any excuse, without any complaints. He’s just been going and going. You saw today he’s got energy, he can run at people, scored a brilliant goal. For all players, I think it’s not so much about the mood, it’s about the mental state of having an opportunity now to be able to perform at the levels we want to perform. Without the challenges we’ve had to face over the last two and a half months.
Danso and Gray swapped sides today?
We just felt Archie is more comfortable on the right. We just felt he could do better on the right, and give Kev a go on the left-hand side, we wanted to see how he goes left-hand side. Because he may have to play on that side for us during this period.
Was that justified by Gray’s ball for the first goal?
If you say so mate I’ll take it. Any decision I make that you think is a positive. Look, I thought Archie… he’s handled everything thrown at him really well. Like I said, I just felt today, we kind of knew, Delap’s a handful, I just felt putting Archie in, he’s a right-sided player, putting him on the right side. Kevin’s a bit more experienced. I wanted to see how Kevin handled the left-hand side. Because that’s an area where we may need him during this run-in. And I thought both of them handled it well.
Discussing the future of Tottenham’s bright young stars & what changes Ange Postecoglou should make for Ipswich. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham
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