The former Tottenham Hotspur head coach has been speaking about his players and his World Cup-winning centre-back in particular
Ange Postecoglou believes Cristian Romero's angry outbursts at Tottenham come from what he sees happening with his international team-mates.
The Spurs captain, who is currently out suspended, has taken to social media on numerous occasions to air his feelings about the decisions made by the club and its hierarchy. Most recently he spoke out after the transfer window closed with Tottenham having failed to strengthen their squad by pointing to the lack of fit and available players by saying it was "unbelievable but true, and disgraceful".
In an interview with The Overlap podcast, Postecoglou spoke about the media glare around Romero and his discipline as well as those repeated outbursts about the club.
"I love him. I love him and he does play on the edge, but, mate, he'd scare people at training and I love the way he talks," he said. "I mean, would you rather have Roy [Keane] in your team or against you? I mean, we'd never have won that final without Romero.
"I mean, kick-off's about to happen and he's taking our team into Man Utd's half for the huddle because our supporters are down that end. He's not scared of anything, mate. He's a winner. I love winners.
"Now, does he cross the line? Yeah, he does. You know, he'd cross the line at training sometimes and the coaches would go, 'oh, you know', I'd go 'well, you go tell him, I'm not telling him'. But you need that mentality in a group. Now, how you control that, you need to harness that."
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On whether the players respect Romero, Postecoglou added: "Oh, they respect him, honestly. They fear him. You know, you don't want to get on his [bad side] because you've got to remember, his whole existence is not just Tottenham, he's also an Argentine. He's won a World Cup and he's mixing with players.
"And I think part of his frustration, his outburst about the club, is that he's mixing with a Fernandez or a Martinez and he's saying, well, how come they're signing players to win and we're not? Why? I want to win.
"We would never have won the Europa League without him and I think you need characters like that in your dressing room. You've got to control them although I don't think control is the right word. You try and steer them in a way where the good outweighs the bad. But you've also got to accept that there's going to be bad."
Postecoglou also spoke about Romero's centre-back partner Micky van de Ven, his strengths and what the Dutchman still needs to improve about his game.
"He's top. He can be as good as he wants to. You watch him at the World Cup, I reckon they'll play him left-back and he'll be unbelievable, mate. Once he gets going, technically he's good. His ability to cover ground, though, is just phenomenal," he said.
"A lot of teams like to go man for man now. You'd set him up against any striker in the world without any fear that he would get outmuscled. Definitely not outrun. And top mentality too, you know. I remember when we signed him, because I think Liverpool were in for him at the time as well and I met his dad.
"He was like Secret Service. I remember him saying to me 'listen, he's got options, but he's coming here to play. You'd better play him'. I was worried he'd send somebody round the house! So he's had a really good upbringing. He's not going to get carried away. Works hard in his game, and he's a winner.
"He's top, mate. He can be as good as anything in terms of the modern game and the physical characteristics, obviously important. He's improved his heading. I still think that's an area where he can get stronger, because he's a big lad, but sometimes his timing's not great. But the rest of his game, and because of the mentality, very coachable. Very coachable."