Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou talks Carabao Cup Semi Final and January Transfers
05/02/2025
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
05/02/2025
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
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00:00Ange, if I could just start with the availability question, any of the names who a week ago were a week or so away, are any of them available for tomorrow night?
00:08And I think also for Spurs fans, the name they're stressing over is Mickie van de Ven.
00:12Yeah, I'll try and sort of summarise the whole thing.
00:15In terms of availability from last week, everyone's fine, everyone got through okay, so no issues there in terms of that squad.
00:26Obviously Kevin and Mattis are both available, they've trained and cleared the play, so they're all good.
00:35The rest of them, no one available for tomorrow.
00:38With Mickie and Romero to a certain extent, I kind of feel like we've just got to be a bit more conservative with them.
00:47Mickie got through the game alright, but I don't think he feels he's ready for that sort of step up to Premier League, the intensity of it.
00:55Same with Romero, and look, after losing, we know we've lost Radu now, which is really disappointing for him and for us for the rest of the season.
01:03I guess my view, and I've kind of made the decision, I'm not going to risk these guys, so we're going to keep them taken over at training
01:10and try and make sure they're absolutely ready without any more setbacks.
01:15And the other guys are inching closer as well, but similar sort of mindset with them.
01:21Given that Mickie won't be playing tomorrow night then, given the amount of minutes that Archie and Ben have played as well,
01:27will Kevin Dunst be thrown straight in tomorrow night? Is he ready?
01:30Look, he'll play. Whether he starts or not, we'll have a look because we've got another game three days later.
01:34That's been our existence for quite a while now.
01:38You're right, Benny and Archie and Pedro's played every minute of football we've had for the last three months,
01:47but the boys are handling it okay. The performances are still stacking up, so it's great to get Kevin in.
01:53He's ready to play, whether he starts or he'll come on, we'll make a decision.
01:58But it's obviously really important that he's part of it now because losing Radu was a massive blow for us, so having him available is good.
02:07First chance I've had to speak to you since Mathis Tell's signing.
02:11Initially, the suggestion was he didn't want to join Spurs, then it took a phone call from you to persuade him.
02:17So just talk to us about your powers of persuasion.
02:20Yeah, I think it's a simplistic way to look at it. I think people need to sort of understand,
02:26you're talking about a 19-year-old player who's got to make a major decision about his career,
02:32and it's not so much that he rejected us or rejected anyone else.
02:35I think, rightly so, he was getting as much information as possible, and I think more than anything,
02:41he just wanted to be comfortable with the decision.
02:43I think he didn't feel – the sense I get was he didn't want to be sort of pushed into a certain direction,
02:49and I think it's credit to him that he took his time, he wanted to talk to all the right people.
02:55I had a conversation with him, and I guess mine was purely around the football.
03:01I think you'll find a really great place for him here in terms of where he is in his career.
03:05He obviously wants to play. We've already shown that irrespective of age, you'll get an opportunity here.
03:12I think the way we play would suit him, and certainly with what we have in the next few months,
03:19and then more importantly, what we're building beyond, I thought he would be a perfect fit for his next step.
03:26At the same time, I think it's right that he took as long as he did, and he was totally comfortable with it.
03:31You have said in the past on a number of occasions you only want players here who really want to be at Tottenham Hotspur.
03:36So are you 100 per cent convinced that he is sold in this?
03:39Oh, 100 per cent, yes, more than 100 per cent.
03:41Like I said, because he took so much time and was so diligent about finding out everything,
03:46when he made the decision that it's us, and he obviously had options,
03:51that gave me even more confidence that we're getting the right kind of mentality, the right kind of play.
03:57He's very ambitious. He's got a great deal of self-belief and self-confidence.
04:04He feels like he can reach the very top of the game, and he's chosen us,
04:09which is, I think, a great vindication for what we're doing.
04:11Just one final one from me. You'll be fully aware, of course, of just how heavy it weighs on the shoulders of Spurs fans,
04:17how long the trophy drought has been, and those fans who go to Anfield tomorrow night,
04:22those fans who are at Anfield tomorrow night will be, understandably, on edge, nervous,
04:27and that can translate to the players.
04:29I suppose the question is, how do you get the players to play the game rather than the occasion tomorrow night?
04:34You've got to do both. It's a big occasion for everyone.
04:36It's a big occasion for the players, a big occasion for the club.
04:38It's a semi-final. I don't think Liverpool will be any less anxious than us about the fixture.
04:46When you're in a semi-final, particularly a second leg, and it's still very tight, it's a big game for both clubs.
04:52You recognise that, you embrace that, but ultimately, if you want to be successful,
04:57these are the games you want to be involved in, so there's no point having any trepidation about it,
05:04because the alternative is you'll be watching two other teams play on the TV,
05:07and you're sitting at home on the couch and wishing you were there.
05:10We're going to be there. We've got a chance, and we'll go for it.
05:14Hi, Andrew. I think you'd be very happy with the transfer win you just had,
05:18but last time I saw you, you sort of mentioned that maybe you would have liked to have another defender.
05:22Do you feel maybe a little bit short in that area, and that's probably maybe the one thing?
05:26Well, no, I don't think so.
05:29To a certain extent, I think, obviously, like I said, losing Rado was a massive blow,
05:34because he's been really good for us through a difficult time.
05:38He's played every game. He's still only 22 as a centre-back,
05:42and us getting Kevin in would have been a great solution for us,
05:46because with him and Rado and Ben, and with the other guys coming back,
05:53but obviously losing Rado puts you in a position, well, do we sign somebody else,
05:59knowing that we've still got some significant ins to come over the next few weeks,
06:05including Destiny, Romero, Mickie, all these guys.
06:09Again, it had to be the right fit, and I didn't think there was a right fit out there for us, to be honest.
06:13I think bringing in three players in January is probably the maximum you'd need to do,
06:22and I think if it wasn't for our injury situation, it might have been one less than that.
06:27But I think to do three, and I think all three I'm really happy with in terms of the kind of players they are,
06:34the kind of people they are, the fit they have with our football,
06:36I think it's been a positive window.
06:38And the last few weeks there's been a lot of talk about maybe you trying to bring everything together,
06:43bring the fans, the club, everyone together as a unifying force.
06:48Do you feel like this transfer window maybe shows that inside this building that everyone's unified,
06:53and they're behind you and giving you what you need really to get through this difficult period?
06:58No, I think I've said that before. I haven't felt that it hasn't been.
07:03Like I said, I feel all along that everyone within the football club is certainly very supportive of what we're doing
07:13and what we're trying to achieve and the direction we're on.
07:16So that hasn't changed.
07:18Look, it wasn't an easy window for us, but I don't think it was an easy window for anyone.
07:22I don't think any clubs, or maybe a couple, have come out thinking,
07:26OK, we've got everything we wanted done, but there'd be a lot of clubs who…
07:29Because it was tricky.
07:30I mentioned at the start of it, Europe's complicated it with the new European format.
07:34There's all sorts of challenges.
07:37A lot of us were looking for similar types of players in the market for attacking players or centre-backs.
07:45So it was a tricky market.
07:48Ideally, we would want to bring somebody in earlier, but we got what we needed to get done,
07:54and now that gives us a platform to push on.
07:57I know Tony was a long-term target, but can you reassure us that these sign-ins,
08:02the two that you brought in, are not just for now because you reacted,
08:05but they're actually players you'd want longer term and that can be…
08:09I don't think we'd be signing 21-year-olds and 19-year-olds reactively.
08:14Just by their nature, you'd suggest, well, if it was reactively, I'd be signing 35-year-olds.
08:19So I think the nature of the players we've signed shows that they're not just about now,
08:23they're about us continually to build.
08:27I certainly see Tony, Thais and Kevin as very much part of our short-term, medium and long-term strategy here.
08:38They're all really good fits for what we're doing.
08:43Hi, Ansh, how are you?
08:44I'm good, mate.
08:45You mentioned there about ID that you'd like to have brought the players in earlier.
08:49Is there a frustration with you that you went the whole month
08:52and struggled through the whole month needing players
08:55and you got them in right at the end when maybe these could have been done a little bit earlier like Kinski was?
09:01But they couldn't be, that's the thing.
09:03You can sit here and that wouldn't be me saying that, you know what,
09:08the club actually didn't really care about our situation
09:10and just sort of twiddled their thumbs until the 29th and then went for it.
09:13I mean, I know how hard people were working.
09:16I don't think people actively working against me to get what I want done.
09:20So, no, I wasn't frustrated.
09:21As I said, ideally we all wanted things to happen earlier.
09:24But like a lot of clubs, it was a tricky window, it was a difficult window.
09:27January is generally, but this one even more so.
09:30All you can ask of people, whether they're players, staff or people I work alongside or with,
09:36is that they're doing everything in their power to achieve an outcome.
09:40And if they're doing that, well, there's no point getting frustrated.
09:43You've just got to have faith and trust that we'll get the thing done.
09:48Last season, when you went out of the League Cup early to Fulham
09:51and then the FA Cup early as well, you were, I'm not going to say bemoaning,
09:56but you wished you had more fixtures.
09:58Now you've played in every single game you could possibly have played in this season,
10:01by the qualifying round coming up in the Europa League.
10:04Are you playing too many fixtures?
10:06I wasn't, it's amazing.
10:11I sit here and I talk and I sometimes wonder whether my words,
10:15when they leave my mouth and hit somebody else's ears,
10:17whether actually there's a correlation there.
10:20Because obviously I didn't bemoan anything.
10:23We wanted more games last year because we weren't in Europe.
10:27There's a big piece missing in your question there.
10:30It wasn't just the Cups.
10:32We've had already eight European games that we didn't have last year.
10:38By its nature, of course, we've done well in the Cups,
10:40which is great and fantastic for us, but it has added to our fixture schedule.
10:44And like other clubs in our situation, which there aren't many,
10:46there's only a couple, if you've got injuries, that hampers you.
10:50So I didn't bemoan last year and I'm not saying too much this year.
10:54It's our situation, obviously, with our injury situation.
10:57It's made it a hell of a lot more challenging, but it is what it is.
11:01What it does mean is that we're still in four competitions at the moment
11:06and I can only see that as a positive for us.
11:09I'm fine. I do try and listen as carefully as I can.
11:13So with a slight fear of trepidation with this question,
11:16going to Anfield with a one-goal lead in the semi-final,
11:19but it's halfway through, with a massive prize at the end of it, of a final,
11:24do you slightly tweak your philosophy and maybe be a little bit more cautious?
11:29I know before you've told me you don't believe...
11:31Well, it depends. Again, it's whether you want to pay attention.
11:36It depends what you think my philosophy is.
11:39My philosophy is to try and win games of football.
11:42So we're going to go try and win a game of football tomorrow night,
11:45which will get us to a final of a cup, which will be a great opportunity for us.
11:52But if people haven't understood my philosophy after 26 years of management,
12:02then I don't think anything I say now is going to change any of that.
12:07Hi, Andrew. I just want to check on Mickey.
12:10Is it a fitness thing at this point or is there any discomfort there still?
12:13It's a bit of everything. He doesn't feel...
12:16He got through the game, no problem,
12:18but we had a look at the figures towards the physical.
12:24He does a lot more training and he got through it okay.
12:29Premier League's a whole different beast.
12:34After losing Radu, I sat down and thought about what we've got ahead of us still.
12:40Don't get me wrong, we've got a couple of massive games this week, for sure.
12:44But we've also afforded ourselves a couple of weeks, hopefully, without midweek fixtures.
12:50Beyond that, Europe kicks in, which is massive for us.
12:56Hopefully we're in a final of the Carabao Cup.
12:59Hopefully we're still in the FA Cup.
13:01I just don't see the sense right now in risking that.
13:06Having Kevin in is a massive bonus for us.
13:11He hasn't re-injured the injury or anything like that.
13:15I just feel we need to get more into him.
13:18I think he feels he needs to get more into him.
13:20Same with Romero.
13:22It'll just be a wait-and-see approach.
13:25There's some talk back in Germany that maybe he wants to be more of a central striker going forward.
13:31Where do you envisage playing in the most in your system?
13:35Archie wanted to be a central midfielder.
13:38Who knows where Matthias will end up.
13:41He's got the attributes to play as a nine, for sure.
13:45But he's played wide really successfully as well.
13:47That's the beauty of him coming into us.
13:49At the moment, we're going to need him probably in all those areas.
13:52It's fair to say, as much as we've got issues at the back,
13:56we've probably got bigger issues in the front third at the moment.
13:59We're missing three wingers at our striker.
14:02I get people still dismissing the fact that tomorrow night we're still going to have
14:06nine, maybe ten first-team players out of our starting line-up.
14:10So, having Matthias who can play both wide and central,
14:15Richie's doing great for us at the moment.
14:18But, again, he's coming off not playing for a while
14:21and we've got to be really careful with him.
14:23Sonny's playing all the time.
14:25We've got Mikey as a 17-year-old.
14:26We've got Deke who can play in there.
14:27So, having him who can play either side,
14:29I reckon in the short term, until we get some numbers back,
14:33I think he'll fill all three roles.
14:35I just want to ask you quickly about Europa League squad.
14:37Your decision's coming up for that.
14:39Obviously, too many players to fit in.
14:41You can make three changes.
14:42Have you decided yet?
14:44I'm waiting for your article first, mate.
14:47Once you've analysed it and assessed it,
14:49then I'll have a deep dive and try and come out with an outcome
14:55that satisfies everyone.
14:58What we do know is we can make three changes.
15:01Obviously, Radu's going to be a logical one there.
15:03And then the rest, I think we've got a bit of time
15:05and a lot of it will depend between now and then
15:08on who we can get back and hopefully keep everyone healthy
15:12and then we'll make our decisions.
15:19Hi, Ant.
15:20I appreciate this is probably more a question for Johan
15:23or maybe Daniel, but in terms of Kevin Danso,
15:27he obviously wasn't involved in the European competition.
15:29It feels like if you could have brought him in earlier,
15:31it would have made a difference, maybe against Everton or Leicester.
15:34Was there a reason why he couldn't come in until a few days before?
15:38It's a process you need to go through.
15:42There are certain other things at play for us and for Kevin,
15:46to be honest.
15:48And as much as you try and understand the pressing need,
15:55with all these things, there has to be agreement on three parties.
15:58We're not just the only ones involved.
16:01For those three to get aligned and to happen really quickly,
16:04it's rare.
16:06I think we got lucky with Tony because it was their off-season
16:10and we could work really quickly there.
16:14But most of the other deals got done in the last week.
16:19It would have been great to get in Kevin earlier,
16:21but I'm really pleased to get him in.
16:24He's a great guy already.
16:26He's kind of endeared himself to the group in terms of the kind of person he is.
16:31We still managed to get a couple of key results in the last couple of games,
16:39which really helps our season.
16:42Now with him in there, that gives us a boost.
16:45It's obviously a big match, probably your biggest match as far as managing.
16:49You've had plenty of big matches over your career.
16:51Do you change anything when it comes to a game of this magnitude,
16:54or is everything kept the same and as normal as possible?
16:57No, like I said before, I think you need to embrace the challenge in front of you.
17:04It's very easy to say it's just going to be another game, but it's not,
17:07because everyone knows the consequences of it, both us and the opposition.
17:12You're playing away from home and you know that certainly their crowd
17:16will give them a great deal of energy, which we have to deal with.
17:21It's a cup game, so there's a possibility of extra time,
17:27there's a possibility of penalties.
17:28All those things are factored into it,
17:30so your preparations and your information is a little bit different.
17:34You want to make it into a big game because ultimately you need to be able
17:38to understand behaviour in big games and what it means
17:43and how you can overcome the challenges of it.
17:46It changes a little bit.
17:48The fundamentals of how we play won't change,
17:50but I think in terms of how we go about it, it will be a bit different.
17:54The Man City away game is a little bit of a blueprint
17:59because Man City started like a train.
18:01You had to survive that period, then you got the goal
18:04and you could really build into the game.
18:06In an ideal world, obviously that would happen tomorrow, 4-0 win.
18:10Yeah, I think the first game we played against Liverpool here
18:15was because it was a tight game.
18:18I think if you can always limit the ability of Liverpool
18:23to create a lot of chances, and we did on the night,
18:25and we probably created the better chances.
18:27Maybe it's slightly different away from home,
18:33but I felt that night we really controlled in our football,
18:36we pressed really well.
18:37I said we really denied them any clear-cut opportunities,
18:40which is really difficult against them.
18:42We were always a threat the other way.
18:44We obviously scored, but we had one with millimetres offside with Dom
18:49and we missed a big chance with Pedro.
18:51I think that's more the blueprint we want to take into it
18:55because Liverpool are obviously a different team to Man City.
18:58They're different to probably most other teams,
19:00particularly in the way they attack.
19:04We're going to have to be on our game in certain aspects,
19:08but also understand that we have the capabilities ahead of them as well.