Here's what he had to say...
On feelings after the midweek penalty shootout defeat…
“I've said this before, when you get to a penalty shootout, you have the lottery and that little bit of luck with that. But yeah, not too low, not too high, just balanced, is probably the best word [I would use]. We made numerous changes to the team [against West Ham United], which upset a little bit of rhythm, connection and so on. Now we go back into the league campaign against Aston Villa with the same confidence as we had going into this one.”
On Aston Villa’s start to the season…
“They've definitely changed the way they play and maybe the influence of Bryan Sorensen has probably impacted that too in terms of their playing style. So, definitely more offensive, more fluid with and without the ball, very good defensively, in the mid-to-high phases and very good pressure. So, it’s going to be a difficult game against them and they've had some difficult games to start - Chelsea, Man City and Brighton. So, we've played against West Ham twice now, it's been difficult, and both games have been challenging. We know we're going to have to be right at it come the weekend.”
On the impact Olivia Holdt made last weekend…
“From, how we wanted the setup in the game, the spaces we thought Palace would give us, Olivia was more suited to coming off that left side and giving us more control in the middle of the pitch. I thought she did well in that, in terms of the goals. Then where she can go, her ceiling depends on her commitment, attitude, behaviour, development, qualities and all those things for every single player. She has the quality, first and foremost, but it's really hard, as you said, to put a ceiling on what she does, because it's all down to the player individually. She did well in the game, contributed to the team performance, and that's all you can ask when a player is given an opportunity, you want them to show you that.”
On the progress made from previous campaigns…
“We're further than where we were previously. You're better than you were every year. I will never comment on what another coach has done because I have enough respect for them, for anyone that stands in a dugout and does the job we do. But we can't compare where we were one, two, three years ago compared to where we are now. We're in a different space in all areas of the game - on and off the pitch. So, the only thing we can do, is let the actions speak louder than the words and make sure that we put in performances that warrant us to gain respect from the opposition. We'll go into all these games, whether it's London City, Arsenal, Chelsea or to anyone else, with full confidence.”
Score Prediction | Spurs vs Aston Villa
On how the new signings have settled in…
"Yes, I'd say a lot of the players understand the expectation of what it means to play for this Club, first and foremost. They understand the expectations of what I have as a coach and what I expect as a bare minimum. Now, we have the quality, the strength and depth to be able to maybe change and interchange players, whether that's league or cup, then we will do it. But I think it's definitely added an element of competition and edge to us as a group."
On how much he learned about his squad after nine changes at the weekend…
“I learnt a lot, and you always do when you give players an opportunity to start a game and not always come in. You see a different kind of profile, different behaviour, different mentality, but you also get so much information from that game, whether it's the start or they finish it. There were some very good individual performances throughout the game. It was really good to see Alice [Sombath] on the pitch for 90 minutes, which we've not seen. Matilda [Nilden] made her first start, Selma [Panengstuen] made her first start, so those players getting the opportunity to start their first games was important alongside Shakira [Martinez] too. So, it was good to see players either coming into games or starting games because then you know the impact they can have on the game.”
On Villa’s overall performances despite not picking up a win yet…
“If you look at their games and those three games, they've had Chelsea, Man City and Brighton, their performances have been very good and probably in some of them, they've wanted more from the games, if I'm honest. Maybe they just haven't had that little bit of luck or fortune in certain moments, but they're a very good side. They have very good players and they've recruited extremely well. As I said, they're more aggressive and more organized off the ball, and I have no doubt Natalia [Arroyo] and their staff will see this as a game that they want to go to push and win. They're definitely better than what the table shows and their performances definitely show that.”
On whether this season is more about competing than building compared to last season…
“Last year was trying to build a foundation and now we have to consolidate what we do, and that will never go. A competing phase should always be there, in anything we do, and we'll always will be competitive, but you need to consolidate the work and the recruitment you've done, and make sure that you can build on top of that, which we are doing. I think, now, we're in a phase where we want to make sure that we need to be progressive with performance, on and off the pitch at the same time. So, we've got to be progressive with that. We won't get carried away and I definitely won't get carried away. There's a lot of work to do that we've maybe not done previously that we're going to have to do now, but we're definitely moving in the right direction. We're definitely progressing. We're definitely more of a team spoken about in the way you want to be spoken about. We're now putting the right things in place to enable long-term and more sustained success now, and in the future, so we won't get carried away but I think there's still a long journey for us to go.”
Who makes your starting XI? | Spurs vs Aston Villa
