Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media at the Aspmyra Stadion on Wednesday evening, ahead of our UEFA Europa League semi-final, second leg against Bodo/Glimt on Thursday night (8pm UK).
Here's what he had to say...
Ange on the players who haven't travelled out to Norway...
"Madders from the first leg, obviously tweaked his knee in the first leg. So, he's out. He'll miss the rest of this season. Disappointing for him. I'm disappointed for him more than anything else because he's been a big catalyst for us. He'll miss out but that's been a constant of our season, dealing with these things, so we'll overcome that. Everyone else from the first leg has travelled and they're ready to go."
Ange on Dejan Kulusevski's importance with Madders and Lucas Bergvall now out...
"Certainly, it's good to have Deki available because with Lucas and Madders, different players obviously, but very creative, going down in the same week, it's great that Deki's back. He obviously missed a lot of football and it always takes a while to get his rhythm. I feel like he's been getting stronger with every game, and against West Ham you could see he was starting to get his rhythm again. Irrespective of where he's at, he's going to work his socks off for the team. He's got an unbelievable engine, he doesn't stop running and he'll be important for us."
Ange on the mindset going into the second leg with a two-goal lead from the first leg...
"I think it's just approaching it in the same way we have in the rest of our campaign really. You've got to be really disciplined and organised whenever you're playing away in Europe and irrespective of the scoreline, I think all the lads have done well and right through the campaign, particularly through the knockout stages in the second legs, whatever we've needed to do, they've done it, within the confines of our game plan and being organised, whether that was when we had to beat AZ at home and it could have got nervy and the boys handed that really well. We had to go to Frankfurt and win and tough venue and imposing atmosphere and I again I think the lads handled it really well, so it'll be a similar sort of mindset tomorrow."
Ange on Sonny and Solanke's fitness...
"Dom's good, he's been able to train fully for the past couple of days, so he's no problem. Disappointing for Sonny. He was pushing hard. He has progressed, there's the possibility of him getting some game time on the weekend for us, but he hasn't trained with the team yet, but he is progressing, so we'll just wait and see how he goes."
Ange on comments that the winners of this UEL shouldn't get a place in the UCL...
"Well, I mean that's a debate that's been raging for years, like at least the last eight days. I've never heard that before, so.., I've said it before, Spurs does crazy things to people. It does. You put that club into any sentence or any issue, and invariably they all come out and try and diminish as much as they can. Why wasn't there an issue before and it's an issue now? What's the difference? I don't understand what the difference is. Last year, fifth didn't get you into the Champions League, this year it does. What does that mean? There are competition rules and the rules say that the winner goes into the Champions League and it's not the first year, and there isn't an asterisk against it that you have to do something else as well. But it's Spurs, they love it. They love it."
Ange on being two games away from 'changing the narrative'...
"I don't know if it will change it, but certainly some of it becomes redundant, for sure, because a big part and a lot of the narrative around the club is we haven't won for a very long time, so that is part of it. Some of it will still exist beyond that, but as I said, from my perspective, how do you create a winning culture? It all starts with winning. I think the more experiences you have of winning, if you can land a trophy along the way, it certainly gives belief within the whole club that it is capable and possible of doing. We've still got a big game tomorrow to even get through to get to a final before we can start talking about that."
Ange on the biggest challenge facing Bodo/Glimt away...
"I think whenever you play away from home in Europe, it is always challenging. It is always tough because obviously the opposition have the normality of the conditions and the stadium and the crowd behind them. All those kind of things make it difficult. It is no different here. I think the fact it is a semi-final and such a big game irrespective it is always going to be a bit tight and tense throughout the whole game. I think it is just the nature of the competition you're in and being in a semi-final, whether it was at our place first or at our place second, it would have been the same kind of scenario of two teams who know there is a big prize at the end of getting to a final."
Ange on Bodo/Glimt's artificial playing surface...
"It’s obviously different, but we’ll train on it today. Like I said, whether it’s the pitch, whether it’s the atmosphere, whether it’s the conditions, there’s always something that you need to overcome, at the end of the day. You’re playing in a major competition, away, there’s always challenges there. Whatever that challenge is, you need to overcome it, and we’ll do that tomorrow."
Ange on the importance of determination and grit in the team...
Hugely. Just the nature of the competition, knock-out competitions demand different things from you as a team. Particularly in knock-out scenarios, just in my experience. It naturally means that you have to be a little bit more focused, because every moment is important, every aspect of the game is important. So yes, it does mean that certain things, you have to be really clear-headed on, in terms of our approach. The boys have handled it really well so far in the knock-out stages, particularly in the second legs of every game, of understanding what needs to be done. Within the context of still wanting to play our football, still wanting to be aggressive, knowing what parameters we can play towards to get through.
Ange on maybe telling younger players to be more safety-first...
"I think that happens naturally anyway. Players are - I keep saying - they’re human beings. They understand as well. I think, if anything, that if I put it on them even more, they become even more conservative, and you don’t want that. I just think the nature of the contest means that happens anyway. I guess that reigns in a lot of things on a natural basis, I don’t think it’s something I need to expressly say to the players. Again, my role within that is to still show that there’s aspects of our game that are going to be really important tomorrow, that are consistent in our game, that we’re going to have to execute as well."
Ange on if we'll need leaders to step up, with Madders and Sonny out...
"It’s fair to say we’ve had good practice at it mate. We’ve had a fair few leaders missing all the time. That has been a constant in our season. I don’t know how many captains we’ve had this year. That’s been a challenge but it’s also allowed growth for some guys - Pedro, Bentancur, Biss, Dom Solanke. Apart from Vic and Romero, they’ve all had to step up at this time this year. At times all four of our leaders have been missing. It would have been more of an issue to discuss with the players if we hadn’t had to deal with it before. It’s something we’ve been dealing with all year."
Ange on the importance of resilience this season...
"Resilience is a very important commodity. Anyone who has success, in whatever field it is, has had to show resilience at some point. This notion that success is linear and it comes really easy, anyone who has had success in whatever field will know at some point they’ve had to deal with a lot of adversity. We’ve had to deal with a lot of adversity this year. Through that adversity they’ve never splintered or wavered belief in what we’re trying to do. We wouldn’t be sitting in this position if that wasn’t the case. It’s a testament to them. It helps in games like tomorrow because you’re going to have to deal with another challenge. If they can tap into the way they’ve dealt with every sort of stumble we’ve had this year, then they’ll find the strength they need to get the job done."