Ange Postecoglou has been speaking to the media on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Tottenham's Europa League clash against Roma.
Spurs host the Italian side, now managed by Claudio Ranieri, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday night, knowing a win would put them in a strong position in the big Europa League table with four victories from their first five matches of the eight they will play at this stage.
Tottenham will go into the game without one of their own Italians after goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario fractured his ankle in the 4-0 win at Manchester City on Saturday.
Postecoglou was speaking about that injury plus plenty more in his press conference at Hotspur Way on Wednesday afternoon. Our Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to the Australian and you can scroll down for every single word the head coach said to him and the assembled media.
We have to start with Guglielmo Vicario’s injury and your thoughts?
I guess, a bit of a shock first of all. We saw he picked up an injury during the game. We saw at half-time but there was no doubt about him continuing. You kind of digest that. Post game he was sore but he played 60 minutes with a sore ankle. We will tape it up and go again.
But, and I guess externally now people realise, it is a testament to him as a person. He is as tough as nails, as tough as they come. The fact he played at that level for 60 minutes with a fractured ankle was quite outstanding.
When the shock off it wears off, you process he is going to be missing for a while. Knowing him, he will push the limits as to how long that is and you will get daily updates about that through his Instagram.
Big blow, but for him personally I guess because he was having an outstanding season for us and really growing as a leader within the group. But we have dealt with setbacks before and we will deal with this.
Vicario is probably a hero to Tottenham fans for playing through that injury?
Yeah I think so. Externally people probably now realise what we knew about him internally. It is the reason why I made him part of the leadership group this year because you just see the way he goes about his business on a daily basis. He has a really strong mentality. He wants to be better. I give the guys days off, I guarantee he will be in anyway doing something He is just that kind of person.
An unbelievable performance. Irrespective of the injury it was a really strong performance from him but taking that into context it is certainly one for the record books of this club in terms of outstanding performances.
What Tottenham will we see tomorrow? The form has been up and down?
You will see the same Spurs you see every game mate. It’s about going out there trying to play our football and try to be the best we can be. Sometimes that doesn’t work out and it hasn’t worked out for us in a couple of games this year. We know that and it’s something we need to improve.
At the same time, there has been more good than bad. If you are looking for likely outcomes, I would say good. We have had the flat spots that we are working through but I don’t discount the football we have played either. I think we have played some outstanding football. For me it is just about progress. I keep saying it, we are a better side than we were last year and we want to keep improving. If we keep improving then the areas where there are gaps we will slowly overcome.
Ranieri is still managing at 73, what do you make of that?
It’s unbelievable. It just goes to show the passion he has for the game. I’m sure there are more enjoyable ways to live his life now but he still has it in him. I’ve not come across him before but I’m looking forward to saying hello. It’s always nice to meet people who’ve made a massive impact on football, particularly managers. He’s always come across as a gentleman. I’m looking forward to meeting him. It just goes to show that bug you have as a manager, for being on the touchline, doesn’t leave you.
Can you give a Vicario recovery timeframe?
Not really. It’s not going to be weeks, it’ll be months. He’s had surgery and there’s certain timelines. Because it is Vic, and I don’t like giving timelines so early in a process like that because it puts undue pressure on the players and some expectations, but once we get past the rehab stage and he’s getting out there we’ll have a clearer idea.
You're confident that Fraser Forster can step up?
That’s why he’s here. He’s already played in the Carabao Cup and a couple of European games. That’s the reason we’ve played him and why he’s in the squad. He’s ready to go.
What's your perception of Italian football and have you ever been close to joining an Italian club?
I haven't been close. There's always been a connection. Again, coming from Australia, you'll know, especially Melbourne, there's a really strong Italian community. And very passionate about their football. There was always an interest in Italian football.
Like I said, it's gone through various stages. From the great AC Milan days and so forth, where some of the best foreigners in the world were playing in Italy and the some of the best Italian players were.
I never had a team in Italy but I always loved it. Obviously Sacchi is one of the geniuses of Italian football and I loved watching Sampdoria play when Luca was there. So I've always had an interest in it
It's always been at different levels. But you always know when you play Italian teams because they're so passionate about their football. But that's always shown in their teams. I've never been close to going there but I love the country, love the food.
There's talk about Tottenham preparing to take up the option on Ben Davies, do you feel he doesn't get the credit he deserves outside these walls for his reliability?
It's hard to say with perceptions because it depends what your barometer is. There's so many these days, where depending on what rabbit hole you go into, you can get any outcome you want. I doubt anyone who has any sort of real passion for this football club or real passion for football wouldn't say that he'd be very highly respected within or outside of this football club.
He's captain of his country. Testament to his ability is the fact that a number of coaches at this football have all trusted him at different times. Whether that's my opinion or Jose, Antonio or Mauricio or anyone else he's been managed by. It just goes to show that Ben's very well-respected within the game.
I don't think there's any doubt that Ben's well-respected within the game. And he's still performing at a very good level. He's captain of his nation. With us, he's really grown into that defensive role of playing centre-back. At the weekend, him and Radu were outstanding.
How are Destiny Udogie and Timo Werner because they looked like they picked up knocks?
They're both OK mate, no issues.
Will you look to sign a free agent goalkeeper?
That's not going to happen. That's why we've got a squad of players here. I don't think us signing a free agent now is going to help us. If I hadn't named Fraser in the Europa squad, then jeez that would've been a radical decision, and you're left with two, again they wouldn't be able to play in Europe, then you kind of look at it. Unless something else happened, that's why we've got four goalkeepers. There's young Luca but to be fair he's been injured so he's not really ready. Fraser I've known for a long time and he's such a strong character within the group and ready to play. Brandon's improving all the time and Alfie's been at the club for a while. Whenever they've been asked, in terms of the training capacity they bring, we're happy with what we've got.
Were you inspired by Leicester's fairytale under Ranieri?
I don't know if it's inspired but certainly it's what I love about football. There aren't many sports where that can happen, such an unlikely story of a club and a manager, who had already had a really strong reputation, it comes together like that in the biggest league in the world. It's a hell of a story. It's one of those where if you saw it in a move, you'd think great movie but ahhh it's never going to happen. And it did. Everyone who lived that experience within Leicester football club and everyone associated with the people in there and for Claudio and his family... That's all we crave, just to leave some sort of imprint and footprint in our careers that lasts beyond our ability to do what we do, he's certainly left an enormous footprint with that season at Leicester.
Does the goalkeeper situation change anything in the January transfer window?
Not again. Not from what's happened now. We've got an injury, and I think any club that gets a significant injury in their goalkeeper kind of assesses where they're at. It's not just another injury, but at the same time, like I said, it is just one injury. We've been dealing with setbacks for a while. There's a lot of work.
We talk about depleted squads. We had two school boys on the bench at the weekend. We've been very shallow for quite a while but because I don't come up here and highlight it every week, it doesn't dismiss the fact that we've kind of learned to deal with these things, and this is another challenge for us.
January, we're always working towards the next window of what the best scenario is for us, and a lot of that will depend on where we're at from the squad perspective and the game's perspective. Just this injury doesn't change any plans for January.
The great big Europa League table is starting to take shape, how big would it be for you to take hold of a place in the top eight and skip that extra round?
Yeah, I think that certainly needs to be the aim. My goal is to stay on that first page because I just can't scroll down below that, so it makes it easier for me at my age and my eyesight to look at it. So, any win that keeps us on that first page is good. Look, our European form, obviously the Galatasaray game was a disappointing one for us, but in general it's been really good.
And again, not in easy circumstances. We had a red card after five minutes of the first game. We played a lot of young players through it, and we've given a lot of players game time, which has been really good because I think the benefit of Europe for us, apart from we're in a good position, is that guys like Radu and Ben can come in at the weekend and do a good job because they've played significant games.
We didn't have that last year with our European football, Guys like Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, all these guys are getting game time. Obviously, Mikey, before he picked up the illness. So, through us still making some significant changes, we've maintained some decent form and we want to continue that. I think the quicker you can guarantee that top eight spot, that leaves you that little bit of latitude, obviously, for two less games in the second half of the year, I think that certainly has to be our aim.
Joe Hart has been speaking about you recently, can you do the same now with Fraser Forster, teaching older goalkeepers to play with their feet?
Here we go with the ages again mate, he's a big guy Fraser. I think there is a misconception around that. I do want to play out from the back but don't need my goalkeepers to be Maldini or Platini. In fact, the simpler they can keep it the better for me. I keep saying to the players, don't pass it to the goalkeepers, they've got the gloves on, they're the goalkeepers and you're the player.
The thing is setting it up so we give really simple solutions to our goalkeepers. It's not about their technical ability because i you look at the way we play out from the back, and Joe's a great example of that when he came to Celtic, it's about them executing really simple passes that they do every day. They're actually quite good at it, goalkeepers. All goalkeepers. It's more about mindset.
It's more about them not thinking that what they're doing is risky, because that's what it comes down. It's not a skill. I'm not asking them to pin 50 yarders. In fact, it's harder when goalkeepers go long. It's actually a harder skill for them to do. So I'm asking them to do short passes that they're capable of.
It's more, like I said, the mindset of it. Just showing them that there's no risk here. Don't worry about the risk. The setup is there for you to execute. And I found that with Joe and other keepers I've had in the past where it was, 'oh, he can't play out from the back', and of course he can. He's a goalkeeper, he can pass the ball, that's what they do. It's just about having a structure which allows them to do it in the cleanest possible process. And changing their mindset.
The only barrier to that is if the goalkeeper doesn't feel comfortable doing it. Not because they can't. Joe was brilliant at Celtic, he embraced it all in, and Fraser's the same.
It's not like Burchy is going to start working with him this week. He's been doing it for 18 months. That's all we do at training. They get included in some of our passing drills, some of our possession drills. They're in there, so they're doing it. So that's where I sit with that.
Pep Guardiola didn't believe Joe could play with his feet how he wanted yet he did it under you?
It depends on what you mean by that. Every coach has a different version of that. I'm just talking about me, and the way we play. I don't want my goalkeeper to think that he's got to hit defence-splitting passes.
That's not what it's about. It's about, I want control of the game so when it's a stoppage or a goal kick, we have control of the ball at that time. I don't want to put that in dispute by just going along. So we want to play out. But playing out is just one bit. It's what's ahead of that to make it as simple a process as possible.
