Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou on ignoring outside opinions and sticking to principles ahead of West Ham
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00:00 [INAUDIBLE]
00:10 Yeah.
00:11 [INAUDIBLE]
00:21 That's great.
00:22 That's brilliant, mate.
00:23 That's all right.
00:25 That's what we love about the game, mate.
00:27 You know, like, I love it when you see two blokes arguing about football.
00:34 You think they're going to kill each other, and then you go the next day
00:37 and they're sitting at the same table arguing again.
00:39 So that's what we love about the game.
00:41 It's a difference of opinion.
00:42 It's a difference.
00:44 I love that part of it.
00:45 Like I said, before the city game, it would be pretty boring,
00:48 and I wouldn't be anywhere near as interested if everyone just had the same
00:52 opinion about something.
00:53 So, you know, from my perspective, it's the fact that football does sort of
01:02 give so many voices the opportunity to have an opinion about it.
01:06 That doesn't mean I have to listen to all of it or believe everything about it.
01:10 It's not sort of what I tap into, but, you know, I love the fact that,
01:16 you know, football does bring discussion and debate to the table.
01:22 So I've got no issue with it.
01:24 And, you know, I treat it in equal measure.
01:27 Even the so-called plot it's after, it doesn't really affect me,
01:31 but I love the fact that some people get excited by it and others think,
01:34 "No, it's a load of crap."
01:37 On opinions, the West Ham coach, Phil Greenby, seems to have quite high
01:43 opinion, and I don't know if you're aware.
01:45 I've seen that you wrote a column, a post-column in the Sunday paper,
01:49 and it was just like when you put it up, you were saying you had an
01:55 electionist in the room that you'd not.
01:57 Were you aware of that at the time?
01:59 Were you not reading that?
02:03 No, but –
02:06 Do you know Karen?
02:07 No, I don't.
02:09 I've never met Karen, and I don't think I've ever come across her.
02:13 In many respects, wouldn't that make her fairly ahead of the game?
02:19 No.
02:20 No?
02:21 So I reckon she's a pretty smart operator.
02:25 But, yeah, I'm not sure about the love letter stuff.
02:29 I don't really know.
02:30 But, no, look, I guess, you know, me kind of moving to Celtic kind of
02:39 brought me closer to this part of the world.
02:41 I was aware that particularly, say, Celtic Rangers, everyone down here
02:44 watches and so it kind of gets into people's consciousness.
02:47 But, you know, I guess if Karen noticed, then like I said, all credit to her.
02:56 Just to come to a bit of a faster discussion about the discussion
03:01 before this as being the kind of elements of Ireland and Britain,
03:07 what did you hear brought up there?
03:10 Did you get an answer or not?
03:12 No.
03:13 I mean, I wasn't immersed in it.
03:15 It was just – I mean, even the questioning I was getting here,
03:17 and it wasn't anything unusual to me.
03:19 It's about, you know, will you change your approach
03:20 and will that approach work?
03:22 And I think there was a valid sort of backdrop to that that told them
03:27 we've had a fair bit of success playing a totally different way against it.
03:30 And I thought that was great because, as I said, those kind of things
03:33 are the things that challenge my beliefs because, you know,
03:36 when you kind of say, well, no, I understand that works,
03:39 but I want to do it this way because ultimately if I waver in that moment,
03:44 then it makes me start thinking, okay, maybe I have to look at this
03:46 a little bit differently, you know, going to Man City
03:48 and trying to play like we want to play.
03:50 Maybe it's not a good idea because this has worked in the past with Tottenham.
03:55 So, and like I said, that's a valid discussion to have, you know,
03:59 for many people.
04:00 But I guess my point to that was, well, that's not me, though,
04:03 and that's why I'm sitting here because, you know, the end game was never -
04:08 well, I don't think it's about just beating Manchester City
04:10 because if that was the end game, then there wouldn't be the change
04:13 that has happened here.
04:14 So that's a bit of a vindication?
04:17 No, no, because vindication would mean that I'm trying to prove something.
04:21 I'm not. I'm trying to win.
04:23 That's what I'm trying to do, you know, and I don't waver on that
04:27 because I want to prove a point.
04:29 I just think this is the way forward because this is what has worked for me
04:32 my whole career.
04:33 So this is a methodology I have, a belief I have,
04:36 that's got me to where I am today and I believe will get Tottenham
04:39 to where it needs to be.
04:41 So along the way, if things work, I don't see that as a vindication.
04:46 That's just me keeping doing it.
04:48 If it's not working, then I just need to keep doing it,
04:50 not trying to prove people wrong, if you know what I mean.
04:53 Tom?
04:54 [inaudible]
05:11 It's about 20 minutes of extra game time every week, isn't it?
05:16 Well, it's an interesting one.
05:18 If we did a goals per minute, would that work out?
05:20 There's a stats freak out there who will bring it out for me.
05:23 I don't know, but I do enjoy it.
05:25 I think we still are well short in that area.
05:29 It's still the area that I think we've got so much more upside in our front
05:33 third to score more goals.
05:35 I really feel like apart from – I said there's some areas we need to keep
05:41 working on, but our front third stuff, I still think we've got so much more
05:45 improvement to get to as a team.
05:49 We're seeing some of it at the moment.
05:51 I think Brandon and Deki Kulosevski are starting to get a bit more familiar
05:56 with their roles, and I think Geo getting a couple of goals for midfield.
06:00 But I just think it's an area we can certainly improve.
06:03 I think it's great.
06:05 I think ultimately it's what people love about our game, that release of when a
06:12 team scores and the more goals you have, I think the more exciting games get.
06:17 You mentioned earlier that West Ham wasn't the first game.
06:21 It was a lifetime goal.
06:24 Geo, this was actually a scoring goal, the first step in his reintegration.
06:31 You had a few players in the summer who left the team, Tom Keane, Mark Coulter,
06:37 Simon Hanna.
06:39 You kept old Geo and now he's written himself to be a quite a key player.
06:43 You passed your own back to that in the summer.
06:46 What did you say to him?
06:48 Did you say, "This is the slate to wipe the game?"
06:52 I didn't have that specific talk to him or anyone else.
06:56 I think the players understand that.
06:58 I think most players understand that.
07:00 Some of it feel like what they've done in the past is enough, which that's fair
07:07 enough as well.
07:08 Or if they've come off a tough time, they see it as an opportunity for some
07:12 sort of redemption.
07:14 The only thing with Geo, I just wanted to make sure, not just him but all those
07:19 guys who, particularly, maybe were on the periphery and uncertain about their
07:23 future, was that I wasn't going to make any decision until they got a real good
07:28 opportunity to show me what they could do and be part of it.
07:32 I sensed with him that that's all he wanted.
07:35 He was prepared to take whatever fallout there was from that, but he wanted a
07:39 decent shot at it.
07:41 He was good through pre-season.
07:44 Obviously, I think the full-on game was the second game of the year where he
07:47 picked up the injury.
07:48 That set him back.
07:49 But he's been good the last, not just the last two games, but the last month for
07:54 us in terms of training and what he's been delivering.
07:57 Hopefully, that gives him the confidence because he's definitely a talented player.
08:02 You see how important he is to the Argentina national team.
08:05 [inaudible]
08:21 I suspect – I know they're very close.
08:24 Like I said, I think our dressing room right now is a pretty united, albeit
08:32 eclectic one where there are some differences in culture and music choice
08:39 and all these other things.
08:41 But they're a pretty united group and they can't integrate with one another
08:45 really well.
08:46 But there's no doubt Romero is a big influence over some of the guys that
08:51 are closest to him.
08:53 And Gio is certainly one of them.
08:55 But Gio is his own man.
08:56 He's an experienced player.
08:58 He knows what he wants out of his career.
09:00 He senses there's an opportunity now for him here and he wants to make the
09:03 most of it.
09:04 And that's great for us because with Matas out, he's going to be difficult to
09:10 replace in terms of – and I don't think Gio is like for like.
09:14 But Matas was providing goals and assists and you kind of go, "Well, we need
09:18 that whoever comes in."
09:20 And the fact that he's scored a couple of goals and he's been involved in a
09:22 couple of goals has been great for us.
09:25 And then John, please.
09:27 Can you share some preferred players in that sense as well?
09:32 I don't give them surveys, mate, and ask them.
09:36 I think he has played there earlier in his career.
09:40 But I always think that if there is players who can sort of do that, it's
09:46 great for them to just experience that for a little bit.
09:49 It gives them a different perspective again.
09:51 And then when they go back out wide or they're – I don't know if it's his
09:54 preferred position, I'm not sure which his preferred position is.
09:56 It kind of frees them up a little bit.
09:58 They see the game a little bit differently.
09:59 It's a bit like sort of Sonny going to the central role.
10:01 I reckon if I put him back out the left wing, he'd have a different, again,
10:04 perspective.
10:06 So I'm not really sure.
10:09 Tell me about the deal with Dakiu, which is what made him.
10:12 Yeah, I don't know.
10:14 But I mean, I like him out wide.
10:16 I think what he delivers out wide and there's still areas we're really
10:20 pushing him.
10:21 I think he can be a much bigger goal threat than we're pushing him really
10:24 hard in those areas.
10:26 But, you know, just his general sort of energy and work rate and his ability
10:30 to break lines with his running is I think is probably I think more suited in
10:35 my system to playing out wide.
10:37 But watching him playing, you know, centrally the last couple of games, he's
10:41 very, very effective in there and certainly an option for us.
10:45 John?
10:47 [Inaudible]
11:02 Again, it's not something I kind of discuss with Hugo, but he's part of the
11:07 first team he's been.
11:08 He trains hard every day.
11:09 He's a big, you know, I think the goalkeeping sort of unit, fraternity,
11:15 whatever you want to call them, it's really a good environment.
11:20 And whilst Hugo obviously hasn't been playing, hasn't been part of the first
11:23 team, it hasn't sort of changed his demeanor or the way he comes in every
11:27 day.
11:28 He's very professional.
11:29 It's great for the other keepers to sort of have him there as somebody with
11:33 great experience.
11:34 But, you know, as I say, he's in the last year of his contract, well it's in
11:37 the last six months now, and I'm sure he'll be thinking about his future and
11:42 what he does sort of next step.
11:44 But it's not something I'm sort of too focused on.
11:47 I'm delighted we've signed Fraser on for another year.
11:50 I think I've said numerous occasions in public that his training is just elite
11:55 level, you know.
11:56 So, you know, I still think he's a Premier League standard goalkeeper,
12:00 absolutely.
12:01 But as often in most cases, you know, in squads, it's the guys who maybe aren't
12:07 playing regularly that can sometimes, you know, affect the mood of the whole
12:13 group.
12:14 And if you've got a guy like him who's not playing regularly that's training
12:18 the house down every day, it's a hell of an example to everyone else.
12:21 And, yeah, delighted to sort of have him on board for at least another year,
12:27 hopefully longer beyond that.
12:29 [INAUDIBLE]
12:40 Well, it's not my decision.
12:42 That's a decision for Hugo, the club.
12:44 It's not – I don't have that power.
12:48 I never want that power.
12:49 My role is to – you know, Hugo is a member of this squad, and, you know,
12:55 how he trains every day is important to me.
12:58 How he presents himself.
12:59 Because if he wasn't, then I'd be dealing with it.
13:01 But I haven't had to because he's been absolutely first class in everything
13:05 he's done.
13:06 So – and, again, as a manager, I don't take that for granted because that
13:10 could be a problem for me.
13:12 You know, like most managers, it's the ones who aren't playing sometimes that
13:15 give you the biggest headaches.
13:16 And he hasn't given me any cause of concern with his approach, his
13:20 application, or anything like that.
13:22 But, you know, it's his career.
13:24 It's his sort of decision to make beyond that.
13:27 It's not something that I would get involved with.
13:29 [Inaudible]
13:34 I don't know, mate.
13:35 I've lost five defenders and I could lose seven goalkeepers.
13:39 I don't know, mate.
13:40 You know, it's not – it's why I do treat everyone the same because you
13:44 don't know.
13:45 You know, he's a member of this team.
13:47 He's a member of the squad.
13:48 And, you know, you don't know what's down around the corner.
13:51 And it's the way you treat people when they're not involved that will come
13:54 back to bite you if you need them one day.
13:57 Okay, last couple.
13:58 Darren and then finish your down, please.
14:00 [Inaudible]
14:08 Yeah, well, I mean, I've been fortunate.
14:11 I've worked with some good ones.
14:12 But he's – look, irrespective of me, take me out of the equation.
14:15 I think he's elite in every sort of aspect of, you know, attacking players
14:23 who've played in the Premier League.
14:24 I'd be very surprised if by the time he's finished, which is well down the
14:28 track, if he's not up there as one of the outstanding strikers.
14:32 Because don't forget, a lot of his career's played out wide.
14:34 But he's been a goal threat the whole time.
14:37 Now I'm putting him inside and he's got nine goals already for the year.
14:41 I think he's leading goal scorer for offside goals as well.
14:45 So he's been outstanding.
14:51 And I knew that before I got here.
14:53 But just working with him every day and the example he sets as a person,
14:58 as much as a footballer, he's just outstanding.
15:02 And even that, that's inspiring for me when you see a person who, for all
15:09 intents and purposes, has climbed the mountain many times in terms of his own
15:13 football pedigree that every day he loves what he does and every day he feels
15:19 it's a blessing and every day that rubs off on other people.
15:22 And then he plays the game like that.
15:24 He runs around like he's a kid, literally, just chasing balls down.
15:29 Like I said, to me, that still inspires me and I feel very grateful to be
15:37 working with him.
15:38 [inaudible]
15:45 Yeah, well, that is the sort of definition of leadership is what do you do
15:50 when the chips are down, when things aren't going well?
15:53 Because everyone invariably looks there.
15:56 They look at your leaders.
15:58 What are your leaders doing?
15:59 And I think he just got this thing in his head that whatever they say about me,
16:05 good, bad or otherwise, I'm not going to stop running through this period.
16:08 And that has an effect on people.
16:11 It does.
16:12 A lot of that running is without reward.
16:15 He doesn't get a reward for just chasing the ball down.
16:18 But if you're a leader and your best player is doing that, then me as a
16:24 teammate, I cannot do it.
16:27 I just cannot.
16:28 I have to follow that lead.
16:31 Through this period, we've had to sort of dig deep.
16:34 And we're still not out of it.
16:36 We're still going through it.
16:37 But he's been a force in showing us the way forward.
16:41 [Inaudible]
16:57 Yeah, he will be a very important part of what we're building.
17:01 But that doesn't mean we wouldn't sign another striker because I think even
17:05 Sonny would demand it of me.
17:07 If you're going to build a team that's going to win things, I've always found
17:10 your best players want more good players in the building.
17:14 They don't want to be comfortable.
17:16 They don't want to just be sitting there saying, "Well, I'm the man."
17:19 They want to know that they're going to be surrounded by other players who are
17:22 just as motivated for success.
17:25 But there's no doubt that Sonny will be a big part of that.
17:28 [Inaudible]
17:36 Outstanding, yeah.
17:38 [Inaudible]
17:52 Yeah, it is.
17:54 Again, that's not the only way – the only road to success.
18:00 I've seen other people who it's just about the winning.
18:02 And you admire it so much because I would find that so unrelenting,
18:07 that pursuit of just the result.
18:10 Because you know a lot of times, particularly in football,
18:13 the result is sometimes out of your hands.
18:16 You can do everything right and still lose the game.
18:18 And I would find that really hard to deal with.
18:20 Whereas my pursuit is about trying to play a certain way that will get us
18:23 the result.
18:25 And I find that, okay, if we play well and we haven't got the result,
18:29 I get some sort of small comfort from that.
18:32 So it's just a different approach.
18:34 But it doesn't mean there's a right or wrong way.
18:38 It's just the road to success.
18:40 But again, you know –
18:42 [Inaudible]
18:49 Yeah, to be honest, I thought the second goal was more.
18:52 Because part of what we want to do was press the best footballer
18:58 in the world aggressively.
19:00 And when Gio scored his second goal, we were on the halfway line pressing
19:03 them, trying to win the ball.
19:04 That meant Ben's man-on-man with Harland and our full-backs are man-on-man
19:09 with their wingers.
19:12 That's part of it as well.
19:13 It's not just what we do with football, it's what we do without the ball.
19:15 Taking that approach.
19:20 When you go into a game like that and that's kind of what you want to do,
19:24 if you come out of it, what you want is to give the players something,
19:29 show them something to say, "Look, you did it."
19:31 This is not just words.
19:32 This is not just an idea.
19:33 You did it.
19:34 And it may have only been for small parts of the game.
19:37 But if you can do it for small parts, that challenges that.
19:39 Can we extend that to bigger areas?
19:42 Whereas if you never even try it, you never know.
19:44 You don't know if you can do it or not.
19:46 So if we change my approach for the Man City game,
19:49 that's where I would have lost.
19:50 I wouldn't have got any opportunity to give that feedback to the players.
19:53 So from that perspective, we got a lot of good sort of information
20:00 out of that game, good and bad.
20:02 Areas we really struggled.
20:06 I explained it to the other coaches.
20:11 When you're paying for gold, there's a lot of dirt there,
20:13 but you're just looking for that little speck.
20:15 And we got quite a few specks of gold that I could show the players
20:19 after the game and say, "You know what?
20:21 If we keep digging here, we'll get some nuggets eventually."
20:25 Dan, do you want to finish?