Ange Postecoglou held his press conference on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Tottenham's trip to Arsenal in the Premier League.
The latest north London derby comes at a time with both teams battling with injuries and having gone to extra-time in their FA Cup ties on Sunday. Spurs needed extra-time to beat non-league Tamworth 3-0 on their artificial 3G pitch while Arsenal could not find a way past 10-man Manchester United in normal or extra-time and ended up exiting the competition following a penalty shoot-out with Ruben Amorim's men.
Postecoglou provided an update on Richarlison's fitness, a new injury in the camp, spoke about the latest transfer news in and out of the club as well as some abuse he received at Tamworth and the head coach covered plenty of other topics around the team and the game.
Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou. We've got a full transcript with every single word the Australian said in his press conference at Hotspur Way ahead of the big derby.
What's the latest team news and how did the artificial pitch affect the players afterwards?
Not too bad. It takes a fair bit out of the players so we have done some extra recovery and we won’t train until this afternoon to give the boys a chance to recover because the pitch takes a bit out of you. The only one who picked up an injury is Timo. He picked up a hamstring injury and we are waiting on the results of that scan. Everyone else, apart from being sore, pulled through okay. In terms of incoming, Richarlison is available.
Both teams have injuries, is there no good or bad time to play this game?
Well you have got no choice, that's the fixture. You’ve got to accept it. We have been in this situation for quite a while now and obviously hopefully there will be some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of players coming back and like I said Richy. It was good for Mikey to get an hour on the weekend or whenever it was. I have lost track of days.
The situation is what it is but a big game tomorrow night. Big game for the club, big game for our season, big game for our supporters so I’m looking forward to it.
Are you further down the line with any new signings?
It’s hard to say. Like most other clubs, January is a difficult one to really have any certainty about anything. There are a lot of things which need to come together. I think I said last week the club is working really hard in that area and if there are any developments we will let everyone know.
Because of the bad injury situation will no players be leaving as Napoli are reportedly interested in Werner?
Yeah, we can’t afford to let anyone go at the moment. Some of the young players, Alfie Dorrington went out on loan and we will probably do similar for young Will (Lankshear) because he hasn’t really played a lot. Aside from that, we are looking at incomings if anything happens.
I saw you got a late Christmas present from Tamworth?
They got me a nice coffee mug with my face and Andy’s face on it. A couple of handsome blokes. I can look at that and remember that game fondly. Thank you. Good people.
Has the north London derby intensified since you've been here?
I felt it was intense from the moment I arrived but at the same time I've never tried to be disingenuous about this stuff and say 'this means the world to me' when I've literally just arrived. But you get the context of the game and what it means to the club and supporters and what it means for our season. From that perspective, right from the first time we played them, I was well aware. It's like being up in Glasgow, you're well aware of know what it means and the ramifications of both the positive and negative. I've been on it for the first game. This year is as big as they ever come, especially for us and our season. We have to start winning games in the League and no better place to start.
Could a win be a turning point tomorrow?
I don't like framing games in terms of turning points because then you've got to go up to Everton and face David [Moyes] at the weekend. So there's no easy games. But in the position we're in in the league, irrespective of turning points we need to start winning games and moving up the table. While this is a massive challenge tomorrow night, it's an opportunity for us to do that.
Antonin Kinsky is the first Tottenham goalkeeper in 100 years to keep two clean sheets in his first first games. How involved are you with him?
I'm involved as everyone else. They've all been big games for him for different reasons. Obviously the Liverpool game goes without saying but it was a hell of a challenge for him up at Tamworth, too, especially with the way they play and their ability to put pressure on goalkeepers. I thought he handled it so well and helped us nullify a big threat from them. He's handled everything really well. I haven't spent any extra time with him. Birchy [Rob Burch, GK coach] obviously has and part of the process -- because it has been a bit of a whirlwind -- is making sure he's settled, especially off the field. He's moving to a different country so to manage everything around him is equally important. So far he's been really good at embracing the challenge we've thrown at him and I'm sure he's looking forward to tomorrow as well.
Lucas Bergvall's former coaches in Sweden said he would take six months to adapt to the Premier League, is he there now and in a position where he can start in every game?
Yeah, look, he's definitely growing, which is not unusual. He's 18, coming from a different country and league. It was always going to take him time to adapt, just to training more than anything else. But we've seen in recent weeks he's really making an impact now and I think he feels more comfortable and confident in himself. There's so much more to come from him with his age and where he is experience-wise. It's been a big year for him, moving to a new country and a big league and a big club. Even playing for the senior national team with Sweden as an 18-year-old. All these things are pretty significant moments and you look at how young people handle them and he's handled it all really, really well. He's kept his head down, kept working, waited for his opportunity and he's doing well.
With him and Archie Gray, what is it about them as 18-year-olds that helps them handle the big stage?
Well, it is just upbringing and the kind of people they are. It’s a bit of DNA, nurturing, environment and everything. That’s what we’ve tried to do with the players we’ve brought in. Those two and Mikey is only 17 and guys like Kinsky, Destiny, Pape and Micky van de Ven, who we’ve come across as young players, whatever challenge we’ve thrown at them respective of where they are right now – they’ve handled it well for being a young person in significant moments.
As a player who likes fiery games, how important is it to have Richarlison back for north London derby?
Just got to get him back, he has had obviously an unfortunate season for us. Last season he played, even this season when he played for us and did his hamstring (while providing an assist), it’s not just his fighting and scrapping, he has quality as well. Just having an extra attacking player – with him and Mikey available now – makes such a difference in what we can do during games, between games, in terms of the way we play. We have taken our time with him this time for sure. He has kind of been harassing me for the last 10 days to be involved but we have been disciplined with that and he has looked really good in training. He looks ready to go so really happy to get him back involved.
Arsenal have injuries, do you sympathy for Arteta?
I don’t know how much sympathy they’ve all had for me – I am not sure… Certainly I have empathy which is probably a better word. I understand how challenging it is for any team, irrespective of the size or quality. With all these things, it is where the injuries hit, the areas they hit and the significance of the injuries all make it challenging but I am sure Mikel is not going to let that get in the way of him putting out a team tomorrow night that can beat us.
Arsenal have been having injuries in attack and yours have mainly been in defence, and they've had criticism for not scoring goals, can you look at that with some shared experience and why do you think teams are losing players in these positions?
I always put context around how you analyse and critique performances, others choose not to and they purely go on outputs. If you look at a team and they lose and don’t score goals, it’s poor play or poor players or poor coaching or whatever. I think in the context of cohesion and fluidity, if you’ve got injuries and disruptions, that does affect what you do.
We’ve obviously been hit really hard, but they're starting to accumulate for most clubs. I'll be very surprised if any club goes through unscathed the way the season is going so far. You know, Bournemouth have had a couple now, Brighton, there's a few clubs who are now starting to rack up a few, a few of those. Obviously us with our fixture schedule, we've probably been hit harder than most, but I'd be surprised if any club comes through unscathed this season.
Was there a cynical side of you that was maybe a bit happy that Arsenal played 120 minutes against Man United ahead of this game because you also had to do the same?
I'm not a cynical kind of person, mate. I just enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the theatre, I thought it was a cracking game, cracking cup game, and two sides going at it, and yeah, I enjoyed it.
The rivalry with Arsenal became quite a big theme when you played Manchester City in May. some of the Spurs fans wanted their team to lose or were content for their team to lose, what did you learn about the North London rivalry from that experience?
Nothing I didn't already know. I said at the time, I totally understand it, I don't agree with it, I would never go into a game wanting to lose, that was the basic principle. It didn't mean I don't understand the rivalry between the teams. Trust me, when I was up at Celtic, there was only one other result they looked at, and if their weekend was going to be perfect, then it meant an 'L' for the other team and a 'W' for us. That was a perfect weekend, not just a 'W' for us, so I understand that, but it still doesn't mean I'll go in any game wanting to lose. I don't care what the fallout is from it.
You said after that game that you felt the foundations here were really fragile, the 48 hours that experience had taught you that, could you just elaborate on what you meant by that?
Mate, you're going back a bit seriously, and you're plucking out a probably a quote out of context, but there's been a hell of a lot that's happened since then and right now we're in a different place. We're kind of dealing with different things. I still believe that there's been growth in the team, but that hasn't been matched by results and consistency of results in the league.
So we need to rectify that, that's got to be our main priority right now and, notwithstanding that, I think we've seen some growth and hopefully with some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of players coming back, hopefully that means we can look at this back half of the season as something where we can make an impact.
I presume you feel the foundations are firmer now?
Look, again mate you are asking me to comment on a quote that I can’t remember the context, but if you want to frame it in that way, then yeah (foundations are firmer).
Mikey Moore’s illness came at an unfortunate time as he would have got minutes over last two months, how ready is he to make an impact despite being 17?
Yeah, look he has worked hard at training and you could see at the weekend he needed some game-time. He started off pretty slowly but by the second half I thought he grew into the game. We used him significantly in the first half of the year and he made a real impact, particularly in Europe I thought he did really well and we expect him to (again). That’s why we kept him with us and why he is part of the first-team set-up. It’s good to get him back because he is a player we know can make an impact in games.
You took some stick at Tamworth and took it in very good spirit. You'd imagine more pelters coming your way tomorrow night or will that not compare to Tamworth?
As I said after the game, credit to Andy (Peaks) and his players and the people of Tamworth at the football club. I thought they did themselves proud on the day with the way they presented everything. 90 per cent of the crowd were very good and enjoyed the banter. There was 10 per cent who were pretty unacceptable. The stuff I heard was pretty vile and detestable, and getting things thrown at me, not a great experience, mate but we’re kind of expected to be the bigger person. I would have loved to have turned around and not be the bigger person in that moment, but you deal with it and go on.
At start of this season there was talk about lack of win away to top-six club, but you've done that at the Manchester clubs and beat City, United and Liverpool in the cup, how much would you love for a win at Arsenal to be the next thing this group of players can tick off?
Yeah, look all of these things are challenges we need to overcome. Everything to one side, you know it’s a derby and a big game so irrespective of what’s gone on beforehand and even if we were flying in top position, it wouldn’t change the significance of this game. You understand it is a standalone fixture in that it means a hell of a lot to our supporters and to our club. So, that’s the focus and that is what we’ve got to hone in on in terms of us wanting to really bring our best performance of the day so we can make our supporters happy and also in the context of our season, it’s just really important we start winning games in the league.
That is where the emphasis lies. I don’t think things like turning points or significant moments, I don’t see in that prism of where we’re at, we’ve had some pretty significant wins and yet we haven’t kicked on from them this year. If we do get the job done tomorrow night, we’ve still got to make sure our focus then is on another challenging game at the weekend.
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