Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Son injury, Lucas Bergvall, Mikey Moore, Werner and Man Utd
Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media on Friday ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's trip to play Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Spurs boss will take his team to Old Trafford off the back of three wins in eight days after a last-gasp Carabao Cup victory at Coventry, a dominant display against Brentford in the Premier League and then overcoming Qarabag 3-0 in the Europa League despite losing Radu Dragusin to a seventh minute red card on Thursday evening.
Postecoglou held his press conference at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon ahead of the weekend's game against Erik ten Hag's men and here's every word he said as he looked ahead to the big match and delivered some injury updates, particularly on his captain Son Heung-min.
What's the latest team news?
I think obviously it is still early days from last night. Fair to say the boys are fairly tired, the ones who put in a shift. Apart from Sonny everybody is okay and Sonny I don’t think is too bad. He wants to train tomorrow and we will see how it goes and make a decision from there.
Is it about speaking to Son and seeing if he feels ready to go?
We have another day up our sleeve to give him every chance.
There's an option for an extra year on Son’s contract, you always have the final say so is that an easy decision?
I don’t always have the final say but certainly I like to think my input is significant on it. But yeah look I think it is part of a broader discussion around Sonny but the way he is performing and leading the club at the moment, I certainly want him to stick around for a while.
Vicario was made captain when Son came off and he's now part of the leadership group, are you proud of him as there's been criticism of him at times but he was great last night?
Yeah he was but he has been great since the day he arrived mate. Criticism is just part of the nature of football these days. We have had a few under the spotlight. I included him in the leadership (group) this year, I have just seen his growth. He is one of those guys who is really positive. He comes in everyday wanting to work, he comes in on his days off wanting to work. He is a great example for everyone and a great human being as well. I thought he could add something to our leadership group. It’s great for him to get the armband last night and I thought he rose to the occasion. He was big for us. He hasn’t had to make too many big saves in the first few games for us but we needed him for a couple last night and he was great.
What do you see as Archie Gray’s best position?
I see him in a Tottenham shirt and playing good football. I thought he was great last night. A different challenge for Archie, his first European game and having to play 10 men for the whole game. He had to do a couple of different roles. As I said from the outset, from the moment he has arrived he has looked like a real mature young man. He has a great focus on the career he wants to have ahead of him. He has had a couple of games at right-back for us, pre-season he played a few different positions. What I do know is he will be a significant contributor for us. He already has been and I was really proud of him last night the way he handled everything.
READ MORE: Further consequences of Radu Dragusin's red card for Son Heung-min, Postecoglou and Tottenham
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With Lucas Bergvall's quality on the ball, can we expect him to be a strong contributor this season?
Lucas is another one, I think I said before the game, we were really keen to expose him to European football last night. Unfortunately it ended prematurely for him and understandably he was disappointed. It doesn’t take away from the fact that is how much we trust him. We wanted him to start last night and he will get plenty of opportunities to play. He has come in as a 18yo and not really let his age affect the fact that he wants to make a contribution to the club straight away and I’m sure he will.
How is your morale when you can see your players playing with your ethos even with 10 men and the fans can see it as well?
Yeah my morale is normally pretty good. I'm pretty optimistic about whatever project I'm involved in. It was good last night, it was a different challenge for us obviously, not just going down to 10 men but going down to 10 men so early.
We had to play almost 90 minutes with 10 men and great to see the lads persevere and play our kind of football. At times we weren't able to because we were a man down but we did what was required and most important for us I think in European football your home ties are pretty crucial because every away game is tricky for one reason or another and you really want to get off to a good start so the fact that we got a win was important.
All eyes are now on Sunday and it feels like the opposing manager is under a bit of pressure, how do you work that into your game plan?
I don't mate. There’s always some manager under pressure. I think it’s must be one of those spinning boards with all our faces on it and whatever it lands on he cops it for a week or two. I think Erik in a real tough job has done really well. He keeps mentioning he's won two trophies and he has mate. I don't think that's insignificant. People keep telling me that’s what I have to do, but it's obviously not all you have to do, because even when you do that, there's more.
There's always more and I think he's done a great job in a difficult job. At Old Trafford, it's tough there. You look at their record and irrespective of the managers, it's still a fairly compelling record and they’ve got some real quality players. We had a really good game there last year. It was 2-2 and a cracking game. One we’re going to be ready for.
READ MORE: Every word Ange Postecoglou said on whether he spoke to Dragusin and Bergvall and why Son came off
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FC Twente got a draw on Wednesday and some United legends say Old Trafford is not as scary as it used to be, is it?
I have never been scared by a venue so I am not really sure... I think what makes venues unique is the atmosphere and last year when we played there I thought the atmosphere was brilliant. The supporters got behind their club, but I am not there all the time so I can't tell if that has changed. My experience there last year is it's still a great atmosphere at Old Trafford, it's a great stadium in terms of the history and tradition behind it. It's one of those games I think players, managers and everyone involved gets excited about and we certainly will be as well.
Brennan Johnson, since he deleted his social media account hasn't stopped scoring, firstly should all footballers delete them and has it impacted him?
Look, I don't know if it has made Brennan happier or more comfortable. I think when you switch something off it is probably because it makes you uncomfortable rather than unhappy and that's great for him, but that's not the reason (for his goals). The reason is as I said a couple of weeks ago, he works awfully hard at his game and if you work awfully hard at something and you are passionate about it, eventually you get the rewards. The thing is to not let it affect your work ethic and your focus and it hasn't. Brennan is in every day wanting to be better. He asks for feedback, he is continually working on his game and really cares about the club, cares about his team-mate and wants to be the best he can be. When you have that attitude, eventually the rewards come and at the moment he is getting the rewards, but I still think there is more to come. I think there is a lot more to come. I say that because I know even now he is looking to improve, looking to get better and that is what you want to see in young players.
READ MORE: Further consequences of Radu Dragusin's red card for Son Heung-min, Postecoglou and Tottenham
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings vs Qarabag - Dragusin daft, Johnson and Solanke score, Van de Ven vital
If Sonny is out, who are the options on the left and is it fair to assume Mikey Moore is not ready to start in the Premier League yet?
No, I wouldn't say that (Moore is not ready). Yeah, we'll see with Sonny. Obviously with Wilson out, we're kind of limited and with Richy out because Richy can play there as well. We are kind of limited but Timo and Mikey can certainly come into the frame. We have Deki Kulusevski who can play wide as well so we've got some options there, but firstly we'll see how Sonny is.
How is Timo Werner? He had a difficult night against Coventry but is he experienced enough to get through this and become a key player again?
Yeah look again. We've mentioned so far Vic apparently was getting criticism, Brennan and now it is Timo's turn. It is part of being a professional footballer. You are always going to get criticism, you are always going to get scrutiny and it's how you react to it. For me what I want is to see them coming in every day and working hard at their game. If they are getting criticism and not performing and I see their attitude is not great, that is when I intervene because there is only one way to change that, but Timo's a professional. He comes in every day working hard and I have no doubt he can make an impact for us. The best way to do that is to focus on his football and keep doing the right things.
Plenty of managers in your position would talk about Manchester United having 24 hours extra to prepare, from your point of view has that got to be blocked out?
It's just what we've got to deal with. Obviously it's not ideal that we had a late finish last night, that we had to play with 10-men for a long time, in an ideal world then you would have things a lot differently, but ideal worlds don't exist. Everyone has challenges and our challenge is we will have to recover really well. We have some fresh guys as well. Pedro (Porro), (Cristian) Romero, (Rodrigo) Bentancur, (James) Maddison didn't even play last night. Deki half a game, Brennan half a game so we still have some freshness there that can help us.
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