Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media on Wednesday afternoon in the Netherlands ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League round of 16 first leg tie at AZ Alkmaar and we've got a full transcript with everything he said.
Postecoglou will delivered an update on Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke, who are all back from injury and in training ahead of the game. The Australian also clarified what happened to Dejan Kulusevski, with the Swede having suffered a foot foot injury and wearing a protective boot in recent days.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those at the AFAS Stadion putting the questions to Postecoglou. Here's a full transcript with every word the Spurs head coach said at the press conference in the Netherlands.
What's the latest team news and who hasn't travelled?
So in terms of who hasn't travelled… Deki Kulusevski is the only one. He's got a knock on the foot, he's not really sure when to be honest but it's got a bit sore in the last couple of weeks but he's been able to train and play and just get through it OK. But it wasn’t getting better so we did some further investigations and no real clarity again but we're waiting on a couple of things to find out the extend of it but unlikely to be back before the international break. Nothing serious, nothing surgical or anything but he didn't travel. Ben Davies, he's close but is still doing some work back at the training ground. with Richy, and everyone here.
Can Romero, Van de Ven and Solanke start tomorrow?
We’ll see, we'll train today. Obviously they've all out for significant amount of time sop we'll see when we reintroduce them but they're all here and training today, so we'll make decisions after that.
What is your view on Argentina calling up Romero?
It’s interesting, I've been in game for 26 years, including as a national coach and one rule we know is don’t have any control over international football. Everyone knows that, I don't know why it becomes a question every time. Even if he's injured, they can call him up. So from our perspective, it's not of our concern. Our concern is to get him up and running and hopefully get him some game time. If he's fit should go and get more game time rather than not playing for two weeks. The international side of it, people have asked me a couple of times over the last couple of days and it's almost like they're not really sure. International football is pretty, clubs don't have any control on where they're players go.
You could have a view on whether he should play?
What's the point in that?
Because you want to protect him?
OK, but if I express that, it doesn’t change anything. And at the end of the day, if he’s fit, then him getting some games is good for us because he’s missed a lot of football. We can’t dictate to players whether they should go with their national teams or not. I never have and that’s been my view my whole career and I won’t stop now.
Is Van de Ven now fit fit?
Fit fit, I don’t know what that means, but he’s training. We’re mindful that the last time, whilst he came back and played half a game, we still felt and he still felt like he just didn’t feel right. So we’ve taken a different sort of road with him this time. He feels really good. He’s been training with us for a good week and a half and is in a good space. I guess it’s just about a timing thing now and how we reintroduce him.
We’ll probably be gauged by how he feels in terms of what he does actually getting out there and having a runabout, but in terms of training and how he looks at training and how he feels, he feels very, very confident that once he’s back in the team he’ll be all good.
Yves Bissouma was at a ski resort earlier this week, so you gave them days off?
Seriously, what sort of question is that? No I didn’t, we were training but he decided to go skiing… come on mate, you’re better than that!
What's your view on if he did go skiing?
I don’t worry about those things, mate. They’re adults, they’re human beings, they had a couple of days off, they can choose to use that time as wisely as they can to help them be ready for what’s in store for us. You kind of hope that they’re sensible about these things and go about whatever they do in a manner that befits the position they hold, but I have no concerns and he’s fine.
This competition feels good for Spurs and has been in the past, do you feel like it's there for you?
I'm not sure what there for me is, but it's a competition we obviously want to do well in. We've got ourselves in a good position, we're in the round of 16. We've got two tough games against AZ and that's the first thing to overcome. You're right, the club hasn't in recent years done well in this competition, but it's a major European competition, we're in the last 16 and for us there's an opportunity there and we'll see how far we can go in it.
Would you say you've got more belief in the squad now to go all the way in the competition than you had at the start of the season?
It’s hard to say, we obviously started the season feeling pretty good about where we were at, but obviously it hasn't transpired that way. You just don’t know. Certainly a combination of things, players, significant players coming back for us but also just having the opportunity to train with the whole group has been really valuable to us. I think the time off and players coming in, having time off and scheduling things better, means we're in a good place certainly to tackle things ahead, so certainly from that perspective.
Probably a month back we were really struggling, with no players and no recovery, so from our perspective the past few weeks have really been good for training, recovery and just the level of intensity we can put into preparing for games.
There's going to be a lot of focus on Micky and Cristian and when you put them back in, there's not a lower tempo game for you to put them back in for?
I never think about it that way. I don’t know what lower tempo game is, every game players know they have to come in and perform. It's more just making sure they're ready. For us, I've always felt our training is a real good preparation for the way we play, the best preparation for the way we play and the fact Romero, Dom and Micky have been able to train with us at the usual intensity we train at rather than what is had been is good indicator for me about whether they'll be able to cope.
Do you sense a real hunger in the squad not to prove people wrong but to finish the season well?
Yeah I think it is fair to say the boys really understand there is a great opportunity for us. I think they’ve appreciated the fact that the guys who have been playing through are now able to recover and train and prepare themselves better for games. That’s coincided with seeing their team-mates come back and certainly the guys that have been out injured, we’ve already seen with guys like Vic, Brennan, Madders to a lesser extent (due to time out) but Wilson, Destiny, they’ve come back with a real hunger and desire to help the team because I think they’ve all been frustrated to sit on the sidelines and see how difficult it has for the group of players who have been playing. They’ve just wanted to help and now they get that opportunity. Again, I think you sense that in the group that they appreciate they have some support and some help. There is a platform there for us to hopefully get back to playing our football and seeing how far we can progress.
It is important to silence the home crowd early tomorrow?
Yeah, it will be a tough challenge. They did really well (last time). We obviously played Galatasaray away and they’re a very good side, especially in European football, but the key for that tie was how they (AZ) played at home. They set it up and with us tomorrow night, we’ve got to make sure whatever happens at the end of the game we’ve still got an opportunity to go back to Tottenham and win the tie. We understand with the home support, I’ve been here with Celtic in a Europa game so I know the experience of it and they’re a good side, but we’ve got to make sure we play our football and dictate the tempo of the game to make sure we take a result back to Tottenham.
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