Ange Postecoglou had plenty to say in his press conference on Friday afternoon ahead of Tottenham's trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Spurs' big win against AZ at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium fired them into the Europa League quarter-finals, where they will face Eintracht Frankfurt across two legs next month. Tottenham won 3-1 on Thursday night with youngsters Wilson Odobert and Lucas Bergvall impressing along with Postecoglou's senior players James Maddison, Son Heung-min and Dominic Solanke.
Another player who was heavily involved was Djed Spence and despite man of the match performances in the Premier League in the past month, the 24-year-old has not been handed a spot in Thomas Tuchel's first England squad. Postecoglou spoke about them all plus Djed Spence and Maddison missing out on an England call-up at his press conference, along with Cristian Romero's social media posts about the Argentina medical staff helping him back to fitness.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou. Here's a full transcript from the press conference at Hotspur Way.
How was the boys' school concert?
Yeah, Mum was there. She did the double shift. She watched the concert first and then rushed over to watch our game. She was happy last night. All her boys delivered. The lads were great. I got the videos of it and, yeah, nice.
How is the squad looking?
Yeah pretty good. Nothing from last night. Everyone got through it well, and no one is coming back in. Obviously, Reguilon and Werner are available. Rodrigo Bentancur is available. Yeah, from last night, nothing untoward.
Was last night the biggest result in your time here?
Look it depends on the context of things. I think it’s not insignificant. Reaching the last eight, even for a club like ours, hasn’t happened often in recent times. So that’s something of significance to this group of players. In what’s been a tough season for us, I think Europe has been something that we can lean on in terms of progress.
Great to get through last night. It wasn’t an easy fixture. Those European fixtures can be tricky. But for the most part, I thought we handled it well.
Is it now a mini season on its own now? Finish high in the Premier League and try and win Europa?
Yes, I think that’s been our mindset for the last month or so since we started slowly getting some players back. With us getting eliminated in the semi-final of the Carabao [Cup] and missing out in the FA Cup straight after, it gave it clarity about what was left for us. Like we said, it’s coincided with our fixtures easing up a little bit, and getting players back. From now on, we kind of know what our programme is going to be. With a healthier squad, it gives us a good foundation to tackle it.
No Maddison or Spence in the England squad, what are your thoughts?
I’m not across it. I’m pretty critical myself when people question my selections because every manager has all of the information they need. Madders, in a really challenging season for us, has grinded his way through and his quality has really come through in the last few weeks — especially when we have been able to give him a spell (rest) every now and then. Again, last night I thought he was a real catalyst for us in an attacking sense and also worked hard for the team.
Djed has been super this year .I always feel with these things, particularly with national team selection, it’s never a kind of thing where you just draw a line through it. I have no doubt if Djed keeps performing how he is and Madders keeps working hard I’m sure Thomas will be looking across the board at his squads over the next period and I’m sure both of them will be in the frame.
With Van de Ven’s minutes being managed last night, how much longer will you need to do that for?
It will depend on how he is tracking and how he feels and how we feel he is progressing. Last night was probably, the last time he played against Elfsborg was 45 (minutes), the first significant minutes he has had in God knows how many months. We have just got to be mindful of that. He felt good last night. We were always going to give him 60 and bring him off. He got through that. We have got a bit of a break now until our next game which gives us a chance to work with him again in training and build up his fitness and hopefully increase his match minutes as we move along.
The three goals last night were perfect examples of how you like to play. With players returning are you closer to where you would like the team to be?
Yeah I think so and again that has coincided with a couple of significant things and one is we are getting some significant players back and also, like I said, the ability to rotate the team and keep the team fresh. I thought we saw evidence of that last night because, like you said, our pressing was a lot better but that’s because guys like Sonny and Madders didn’t play 90 on the weekend. We got guys coming back into the team which helps us with those kinds of things. Dom is a massive part of our press because of the way he works in that No 9 position. We don’t have anybody else really like him. With the ball, like you said, we get our good ball players on the ball and we are looking sharp in the front third. Great to get Wilson back in there. I think those significant things means we can play the kind of football we want to play and hopefully we can do it more consistently now.
Could we see Archie Gray in midfield more?
Yeah potentially, Archie has been unbelievable for us, he's filled in a number of roles and done different jobs. He started off a centre-back last night and ended in midfield, we'll assess things as they go on but the beauty of Archie is he can fill in and we'll need him too.
With us still being in Europe and when the international break is over it'll go back to midweek to weekend games and we want that to last until the semi-final stage and beyond so we need people like Archie to do the job for us. If there's an opportunity to put him in midfield then we'll certainly give him that.
Will you have to make changes for Fulham?
Yeah I think so, I think we need to. We saw how hard it is backing up --- Sunday Thursday isn't too hard but Thursday Sunday is a massive task. It helps that we are at home and with us having a more healthy squad it's good for us to make some changes.
Do you have a timeframe for Dejan Kulusevski's injury?
No, like I said before, post the international break we expect him to sort of start to move back towards the team.
And Kevin Danso?
The same, after the international break, we're at the point in the season where everyone wants to push, both those guys are keen to get back into the fold and I think after the international break we don't play until the following midweek so that's a good two and a half weeks for guys like him and Richy to work hard and speed up their rehab."
How important was it to have Van de Ven and Romero starting together for the first time in so long?
The evidence were there, for the first 60 minutes it was as solid as we've been all year, they had one shot off a set-piece in that whole time and they didn't really threaten us at all. I think central defensive partnerships are important, the understanding is important and both those guys understand the strengths which align and both with and without the ball they gave us good options.
With the ball Micky is a great outlet for us because he can run with it, having a left-footed defender helps and Cuti's passing range is ridiculous. With and without the ball it was great to have them back, we haven't had them much this year so hopefully we can build from that.
James Maddison said last night that he misinterpreted Lucas Bergvall as he thought he was more a between the lines technical player when he's also actually 'a bit of lump', is that physicality something he came with or the coaches have worked with him on?
I think everyone has worked with him, the coaches have worked with him, he's worked on it. I don't think he's left Deki's side since he's been here and Deki is in the gym all the time. He's a great role model for him and I think if nothing else, Deki has forced him to get in there and work hard on his game.
He's also an outstanding technical player. I think his technical proficiency is still his greatest asset. He's growing, you've got to remember he's only just turned 19. He's still a very young man and if he keeps building up physically as well, to the standard the Premier League, particularly in that midfield position, you need, if you have that physical ability and that technical proficiency then you've got a decent player on your hands.
He also seems very disciplined for someone so young in the number six role, is that something he had to learn or is he just good at taking on instructions?
I think he's had to work on that. Fair to say when he first got here the coaches spent a lot of time with him, working on his tactical awareness and being disciplined and again a big thing you look for in players is their coachability and their ability to take in information and then the ability to take that information to help them improve. He's certainly taken that on board.
At the start it took him a little bit of time. He tended to run too much. I remember a couple of early games in Europe when he just ran out of steam because he was running too much. He was maybe overplaying the ball at times. He's simplified his game and the coaches have given him feedback and he's taken that on board.
Just to check he came off with cramp didn't he?
Yeah, yeah, he's fine.
Cristian Romero is back and getting sharper now after two starts. He thanked the Argentina medical staff for getting him back on the pitch, is that a common thing with players and long term injuries going to medical staff they've trusted from over the years?
It depends. Those kind of things are individual, they're designed around the players. For us, what's important, what's always important is that you treat the individual and each person needs something different. What we want to do is get the best outcome. With Cuti, he's obviously very important to the Argentinean national set-up as well so they're always offering their assistance. I think it's been a combination of both, them and us co-ordinated. He spent a bit of time away from here, working with them and for us the key thing is that he's back now and he's still building up. He's missed a lot of football this year, he's hardly played, but I think the two games he's played you can see that he's growing into it and hopefully with the international break, he'll get an opportunity to build that up further.
Wilson Odobert's starring role and how is Djed Spence not in the England squad? - Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham
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