Every word Ange Postecoglou said on what he got wrong this week and why he was so angry

How's the squad?

The only one that’s a doubt is Gio [Lo Celso]. He got a bit of a knock when he came on and didn’t train today. But we train again tomorrow obviously.

Everyone else is still a little bit recovering from the game but nothing that will keep them out so a similar squad to the last game.

Have those inside issues you mentioned been addressed since Tuesday?

Nah, not in two days mate. No. I think as I said at the time we’ve got some work to do, that's clear and evident. That’s what we need to focus on.

Has this whole issue made you even more determined to turn this club into winners?

I’ve been determined since day one, that hasn’t changed. I haven’t been deterred if that’s what people were worried about. Certainly not. I think when you accept a role you accept the challenge of that role, and nothing that’s happened in the last few weeks has changed my view of how we go about that. I also believe that you have to know where you’re at. No point kidding yourselves that you’re somewhere you’re not because then you can’t improve.

How do you expect the club to look in 12 months time?

It’s hard to say because as I said the other night, we’ve made progress but obviously there’s still a long way to go to believing that that progress is entrenched into who we’re going to be next year. The flipside of that is, as I’ve said recently, is that a part of me thinks it’s pretty exciting because for a lot of these guys they’ve set a pretty decent level of performance in their first or second year with us and if there’s growth there then we’ll be a better football club next year. I certainly feel that we’ll be starting well ahead of where we were this year. Where that takes us this year will depend on how we deal with whatever challenges we have.

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What are your thoughts on Celtic winning the title?

Yeah, I love it. Brilliant. Great people. Great manager, great staff, great footballers, Unbelievable club and I watched the game, and I know because I’ve experienced it how they would have felt at the final whistle and going back to Celtic Park late at night. It’s a pretty special place and credit to them, it was a difficult year for sure for Brendan and the guys but when it mattered, when it counted, they stood up and couldn’t be happier for them.

Dejan Kulusevski has been encouraged by progress, is that nice to hear?

I guess it's important. The players are the most important component in all of this. Irrespective of my ideas and what I feel needs to improve, it does need buy-in by the players. We've had that for the most part. My assessment at this point is a lot of it I still don't feel is embedded in everything we do. Until we get to that point, it's very hard to think about how we get to the next level. I'm reticent to move on from where we are now in terms of what we're trying to build unless I feel that players, staff, everybody is really firmly on board with the way we want to play and train. It does need buy-in from the players. One thing I will say about the whole playing squad is it's not for the lack of effort or trying. They've given our all this year, we have tangible physical data which shows us that. There isn't a game where they haven't spent it all out there. It's just sometimes we haven't got a reward for it.

How will you reflect on the season?

You start that process towards the end of the season/ There's various meetings I'm having this week. We've still got a game to go, which is really important for us. I'll try to get as much information as I can before I start reflecting because to get a real accurate picture of where we're at, you've got to go right back to the start and some of that is a bit hazy. You've got to get all the right information, talk to the people who have been there since the beginning: coaches, staff, players and collate all that and when the season's done, take my time to go through it methodically and give myself an accurate picture of where we're at so when we come back from pre-season we're in a space where we can hit the ground running.

Have you seen the Rodrigo Bentancur rage incident yet and have you spoken to him about it?

Yeah I saw it, we had a chat about it. He was angry but I don't think that's the way you react. He understands that but it wasn't the biggest issue of the night for me, that's for sure.

What was he annoyed about?

Well, he just wants to win, he wanted to be out there helping the team to win. He felt he wanted to be out there fighting.

What have you made of the VAR vote, what would your position be?

Come on. Is this your first press conference Charlie? Look, I’ve consistently said I am not a fan of it. I don’t think they will revert, they’re too far down. I just don’t think it’s served the purpose that it should. They should bring it in when technology can match the expectations and I don’t think it does at the moment. When they brought in goalline technology, it was seamless, it helps the game, nothing changes.

They’re talking about semi-automatic offsides so if that is accurate and that’s quick then by all means, use it because it doesn’t slow down the game. Because you get this ridiculous wait for an hour to look at blurry images and some lines. I think it’s almost prehistoric that we go down that route and we accept it. And the rest of the game let the referee referee and if the technology gets to a level where we can introduce and it doesn’t affect our game then by all means, introduce it but I think there was this clamour to bring it in at the time because everyone kept saying “you’ll never get the Maradona handball” and “you’ll never get whatever other decisions”.

But they were picking up other decisions that there’s a reason they stand out because they didn’t’ happen every week. Now every decision is being scrutinised. We don’t celebrate goals anymore or we celebrate them three times or wait to see where someone’s offside, and the linesmen haven’t put up their flags. It’s changed the game so I would scrap it, not because I am against implementing it. Get the technology right, prove it works and run with it from there.

Have you spoken to those at the club who will vote about your views?

I guess, unlike you, they are pretty clear on my views. I’ll try to be fairly explicit. I don’t think they’ll be coming to me to ask.

You're normally so aligned with the fans but there was a divergence on Tuesday....

I’d like to think I didn’t change my stance. I was asked after the game about the atmosphere and I said I think it was normal and I also didn’t say I expected fans to behave differently. I still stand by that, and I also stand by my right to have a different opinion. I don’t think that’s right. It’s just the way I feel. You support your team to win all the time but that’s my view. I guess I got it wrong. Plainly, I’m in the minority when it comes to that so that’s a lesson. I don’t think I expressed any real disappointment in terms of asking or pleading for them to do something against their will so I accept that. We’ve gotta hope we’re never in that situation again but if we are then we would approach it differently. Because I didn’t take it seriously, I really genuinely believed that when we got to the stadium it would just be a normal game. And it wasn’t and people feel really strongly and I have just got to accept it.

You're normally very much in control on the touchline, what happened with the fan behind the dugout that caused you to react the way you did?

Two separate issues. I think if you’re going to sit behind the bench, especially in a home game, you got to be respectful when you’re in earshot of the most important people. He wasn’t happy we just conceded a goal, so I turned around to find out what his problem was and he used language that he shouldn’t and he was abusive and if I hear that I don’t care who it is I will deal with it.

But he is more than welcome to come back next time and take his seat up and express his opinions. If he swears, if he is abusive, he will cop the same treatment from me again. But at the same time you also feel ‘well mate I cop it at opposition grounds every week give me a break at my home ground.’

I will try to explain it this way, that is probably the worst experience I’ve had as a football manager in a game because once I realised that I got it wrong in terms of what the atmosphere was going to be like and what people felt, I got a real anxiety within me of what happens if Man City, who are the best team in the world and who were disposing teams quite easily in the lead up, four at Brighton, wherever they played they scored 15/16 goals in the last four games, what if we play as well as they can but they beat us 5-0.

I got in cold sweats thinking about people questioning my integrity and the people I work with. Even watching the game back, there was a comment somebody mentioned to me in commentary saying ‘Tottenham are having a real go here.’ You are laughing about it, but that is 26 years of my life. If nothing else people should know about me, I love this game. I’m very principled. I would hate to think, as Manchester City could have done to us, we are on the end of a heavy defeat and people would be questioning whether I prepared the team. And before people say that’s not going to happen, we know on social media that would have happened. 100 per cent. And I would be up here trying to defend myself.

Once you started defending yourself you know happens, you're defending something. That's why I was animated on the night. I didn't enjoy the night because I needed the boys to...and credit to them aside from anything else our football was outstanding on the night. That was important, not just to me and the players but for our football because again it would have cast aspersions on us as a football club when people are measuring us saying, well I don't think anyone will say that we didn't make Man City earn that win the other night. And it could have gone a very different way without anything changing from us, just by Man City being Man City.

With Rodrigo Bentancur, aside from the dugout moment, was that the version of him, before the yellow card, that we're likely to see next season?

Yeah. I thought the whole team was outstanding and he was, and I think he felt that and that's why he got frustrated. Part of the issue for us this year has been what I spoke about after the game, in more specific terms we've had a real lack of discipline around our football. Earlier in the year it was mainly red cards and yellow cards that cost us really badly, towards the end of the year it's been a real lack of discipline in sticking to our football principles. There's been too many times when we've let ourselves down in that and we've paid a price.

The goal they scored was a little snapshot of that with Rodrigo giving the ball away and then because of that he wanted to make amends but he's already on a yellow card so can't bring the guy down. So we're paying for two bits of ill discipline against a team that's very disciplined and then they just go and do what they do. They have their moment and they score their goal.

I thought as painful as it was, it was a good moment for us to really crystallise after the game. Again, I was obviously not very happy after the game because we'd lost again but when you asked me about foundations, I couldn't sit there and be disingenuous and say that our foundations were strong when we'd lost five out of six games, big games.

That's the reality so part of that has just been the discipline and going back to the question about that being embedded, we've still got a long way to go.

You mentioned earlier that it's not just the players who haven't bought into everything entirely, but also staff, could there be changes to your staff for next season?

It's funny because I said changes a few weeks back and people just assumed that mean leaving. Changes just means the way we work, bringing more people in, different people. I've got a much better picture of the environment now and what we need. The club has been really supportive to say 'whatever you need, extra resources, different kinds of people to bring in', it doesn't necessarily mean people will leave. The club has been really supportive about that. The whole buy-in thing is not because people don't want to, it just takes time because this is a major shift from what it was, not necessarily for the better because time will prove that. Nobody can say we don't play different or train differently, or we haven't brought in different kinds of players from what has been fairly consistent over the last few years. When you have that change it naturally takes time for people to buy into things.

So could you have a bigger coaching staff next season?

It's not just about the coaching staff. There are so many components. There's the coaches, the sports science, the medical, there's analysis, there's scouting, there's so many aspects to it. When you get to the position where you think you've got a chance of having success, that whole area has to be.... It's not just coaching, it's well beyond that.

How do you make this group killers in big moments?

It's not killers. It's just discipline of believing in something and sticking to that task relentlessly. That is what City do and to be fair we made them really uncomfortable. A lot of the stuff they usually do, they couldn't do, but we couldn't stick at it. We had a lapse and when you have a lapse against the very best, they'll punish and that's what happened to us. Like I said, when I look at these five losses, they've all had those elements of us playing some unbelievable football, but some enormous lapses in concentration and discipline. So, that tells me that going back to my original point, the foundations aren't really strong yet and that's what I've got to concentrate on. Before we start moving on beyond that, I've got to get that embedded into the group and us as a club. So, yes that's the challenge.

You made a real tactical tweak against City, had you thought about it for a while or was it reactionary due to City?

No, I have always said in my career that necessity is the mother of invention. It is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about me that I have just one plan. I have used every system in the world in my career, often during games, often during seasons. I have played just about every formation you can. I just thought we were obviously a bit short up front and with the way City set up and the way we wanted to play on the night, particularly Pape because he has got so much energy and running capacity, but he's also a quality footballer. The idea was to make them uncomfortable on the night and give them something that they weren't expecting. It is a lot easier than people think to tweak those things. You don't have to work as long as your principles stay the same and that is where I am. The principles about having the ball, about pressing. Those kind of things don't change, it is just the way we do it in terms of positioning.

The Spurs fanbase has been attacked in recent days, it's been suggested the trophy drought caused the mindset of fans on Tuesday night, is that fair?

I don't know what that means. Supporters are there to sort of back their club and they do their bit. They have certainly done their bit for us this year. I mean the amount of games we've won late at the stadium this year has been extraordinary. That's the crowd and anyone that's been in the team, the supporters have played a bit part of that. Now like I said, the last game I don't understand and I hold my hands up I got it wrong. I sat here the day before and I mocked the whole thing because I really didn't believe that was the case. But if that's how people feel and again I can't because I am not a Spurs supporter. They are and this is their football club. They are the custodians, not me.

All I can say is offer my opinion of what you need to be successful and for me you can't be successful if your motivations change depending on the contest. You have got to win all the team. If you are playing your brother, you have got to fight to the death. He's still your brother, but you've got to fight to the death to win. That's just been me my whole career. It wasn't just a Spurs supporter thing. Everyone I heard was saying the same thing and that they understand how they feel. The same way they understand how they feel, well I don't understand because I am totally different. I just can't think of anything worse than not going all in on victory every time we're out there, but that's me.

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