Ange Postecoglou was in good form at his press conference in Bodo on Wednesday evening ahead of Tottenham's Europa League semi-final second leg in Norway.
Spurs will take a 3-1 lead ahead of Thursday's match against a Bodo side who have been dominant at home at the Aspmyra Stadion this season in European competition. Postecoglou will be without James Maddison and Lucas Bergvall after their knee and ankle injuries respectively, and gave an update in Norway on captain Son Heung-min and striker Dominic Solanke.
The Tottenham boss also gave his views on former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's thoughts that Spurs and Manchester United do not deserve to be in the Champions League next season if either were to win the Europa League.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou. Here's the full transcript from his press conference at the Aspmyra Stadion.
Who hasn't travelled?
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.
You didn't train on plastic pitch with Celtic, have you learned from the past?
No, it was different circumstances and a different scenario with Celtic. Tonight was more about we've done this, we did it at Frankfurt, we've done it consistently in Europe and I just feel it works better for us and the players are used to training the night before at the venue. So it made sense to do that this year.
Do you need Dejan Kulusevski to step up with no Madders or Lucas Bergvall?
Certainly it's good to have Deki available because with Lucas and Madders, [who are] 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 and I feel like he's been getting stronger with every game. 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.
I am just wondering what your mindset is going into this match, obviously with the two goal lead, what's been your message to the players is to sort of go and win the game again or or to kind of consolidate?
No, I think it's just approaching it in the same way we have in the rest of our campaign really. I think away from home we've been 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.
I assume Son's not travelled, how much of a blow is that and also how is Dominic Solanke after missing Sunday?
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.
Can I ask you about the comments by Arsene Wenger, it sort of comes up that this idea that winning this competition shouldn't give a place in the Champions League, what are your thoughts?
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, mate, Spurs does crazy things to people. It does, 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, mate, they love it. They love it. Oh, they love it, you love it, don't you?
Even former Arsenal managers love it?
Well, you know, I don't want to go down that road because I've got a great respect for Arsene. He's one of the legends of the game, but it does crazy things to people, mate, I love it. I love it, bring it on. it's going to upset people, so that makes me happy.
Do you feel you guys are 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. Anything. I think it is 15 (18) years for a trophy, 21 (41) for a European trophy, 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.
A Bodo/Glimt player, Frederik Sjovold, said your pressing was very bad, any response?
That's okay. There is a game tomorrow. All those things will be answered.
You said Tottenham does crazy things to you?
Not to me. No, no, no. No, I said to people. I am fine.
Are you sure?
Yeah, I am great, I am definitely good.
OK, I was intrigued, how crazy has Spurs made you?
It hasn't made me crazy at all. I was talking about other people, I wasn't talking about me. I was asked the question about apparently there is a massive raging debate about the legitimacy of us or Man United potentially being in the Champions League next year. They need to change the rules because Spurs are involved.
You got your match with Villa moved, does that mean you think you have one foot in the final?
Oh my God. Really? Next question, please. No idea. You realise I am the manager yeah? I don't make the rules, I don't change fixtures, I am the manager.
What is the biggest challenge of facing Bodo here?
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. Yeah, we'll have to perform tomorrow.
The Bodo manager said the plastic pitch provides a different game, what has been your assessment and preparation?
Yeah it does. It’s obviously different. But you know, again, 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.
There’s talk about your approach, but the Frankfurt away game was based on qualities that aren’t talked about as much, organisation, grit etc, how important are they to your side?
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.
You’ve always said you’re happy for young players to make mistakes, are you prepared to tell them 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.
