“I think with Scott, he's been at Everton for a long time, he knows exactly what the Club requires, he knows the DNA and the ethos of that club and he knows what an Everton team should look like, and the players will definitely know what an Everton team should look like. They're harder to beat, they're more compact, the distances are a lot closer defensively when they play and then with the ball, they've still got the fluency and bravery to go forward and be direct, they’re really exploit those spaces higher up quickly. They've taken big steps, I think. When you're not conceding many goals, in the first two games they won 1-0, they didn't concede, it's a sign of a team that's actually defending really well, and a team that actually on the other end of the pitch can go and convert. We know in both phases, with the ball we're going to have to be very, very good, to break them down and be patient with that but, off the ball, we're going to have to be even better because even their open play structure or their transitional play is very, very good.”
With the Asian Cup still in progress, both sides will be missing key players for the fixtures, so he was asked about how he plans to set-up…
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“You try to look at what players may play against you and what threats the individual players collectively pose, so we've looked at those situations, but what you never know is when so many players have come out of the team and the team that's going to play you is going to look different, you don't know who's going to play where. So, it's more trying to pick up what they do from a consistency perspective with their patterns and how they move and how they play, trying to defend those situations and then looking at the individual players when we get on that game day of what threats they pose.”
On targeting a strong end to the season in the WSL and Women’s FA Cup…
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“In these games now, we know we have between seven and nine games, if you progress through the FA Cup competition and go all the way, we know there's still a bundle of games that we need to be competitive in, we want to continue to build on what we're setting out this year to make sure there's very clear structures and foundations in place so when we move forward, we know what's expected from a bare minimum, and then we can build the layers on top of what will make us a different team and a more productive team. All of these games coming up, I think the refreshing thing for us, we're still pushing in the league to finish as high as we can, we're still pushing in the FA Cup to see how far we can go and that then brings a motivation, definitely an aura about the team to know that they can push for these competitions.”
On facing his former side Everton…
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“I have so much respect for that club as I've said before. They gave me opportunities to work there and be part of that club when I was younger, and I think I've got so much respect for them as a club. Any game I go into I'm working with Tottenham Hotspur, I want to win the game, I want to win for this team, for these players, for the staff, and it brings a really nice feeling for me because we played them earlier in the season at Goodison Park, which is one of the most historic stadiums and I enjoyed it. But, when we come here now and for the 90 minutes, I want to make sure that Spurs is the team that comes out on top but, as I always will, I have a place for Everton because they contributed to a lot of my development as a person, as a coach and so on.”