Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie injury and beating Man United
Ange Postecoglou has been speaking to the media following Tottenham's excellent 3-0 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Premier League on Sunday.
Spurs went ahead within three minutes when Micky van de Ven made a great interception in his own half before embarking on a long run up the pitch and he kept going until the byline where he pulled it across the six-yard box for Brennan Johnson to slam home his fourth goal in four games.
Tottenham pummelled the United goal and the home side's day got worse when captain Bruno Fernandes was sent off for a high lunge on James Maddison.
The visitors doubled their lead just two minutes into the second half. Dominic Solanke showed strength before heading on a ball for Johnson to race down the right flank. The Wales international's cross was deflected up and the unmarked Dejan Kulusevski touched it past Andre Onana.
Postecoglou made a triple change with 15 minutes to go and two of them made an instant impact with another set piece goal as Lucas Bergvall whipped in a great corner, Pape Matar Sarr flicked it on and Solanke slid home his third goal in as many games.
Here's every single word Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference to football.london and the assembled media.
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What did you make of the attitude of your players and their football from the very first minute today?
The lads were outstanding. I thought we showed real belief and conviction in our football today and were really aggressive in everything, aggressive without the ball, aggressive with the ball, really positive in our intent and a fantastic all-round performance.
Do you come away from that game and that performance wondering how you only scored three goals?
No, sometimes it's just the nature of football. We did have some fantastic chances that we probably should have put away, but the pleasing thing for me was that I just got a sense that the players weren't dwelling on it, they were just focused. 'Ok, let's go again and grab another one'.
And I think that's when it can become slightly frustrating if we're kind of dwelling on or second guessing ourselves. I think we had a little bit of that in the first two or three games of the season where we missed a lot of chances and it just felt like we were getting more and more desperate with every missed chance. Whereas, there was a real calmness about the lads today that, ok, we'll miss one but let's go again and create another one.
Did you feel like you've turned the corner there in terms of the improvement you've been waiting for in the final third?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it helps that obviously Dom's overcome his crisis of confidence for 180 minutes and now he's back to some sort of fitness and he's leading the line really well and Brennan. But just in general, I think the team, like I said, it just felt that as I kept saying, I thought we played really well, we played well at Newcastle, we played well against Arsenal, but we just missed chances and it felt like there was a desperation about us trying to get another one.
Whereas, you know, probably the last three games this week, we just had a real calmness about us and I think it's helped that we've got a focal point in Dom and he's just a real presence and he attracts attention. He kind of takes attention away from other players and it just works really well in our unit.
Since the first 10 games of last season, the away record hasn't been great and this is the first away win at one of the big six rivals, do you feel like that's a significant step forward?
No, not really. I know people are still not convinced, but like I said, I just keep relying on what I see and what I believe in, in terms of the kind of football you want to play and when we're not affected too much by disruption and injuries as we were last year, I still think home or away we're a good football team.
You say people are still not convinced but don't you think that's a statement win and the way you played with the scoreline at Old Trafford?
I've got no idea, mate. I'm befuddled by the whole process. I guess people don't see what I see, which is, it's fair enough. I mean, everyone's got their own sort of view of things, but like I said, I don't think there's been a game this year in the Premier League... I mean, if you really watched us and I suspect a lot of people don't watch, where we've been outplayed or we've looked all at sea. It's just that we haven't killed off games like we should have.
Now we've got Dom in the team now, he's finding some fitness and form and Brennan, but even guys like Madders now and Deki are really giving us some real edge in that front third. But for us, nothing changes. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing. There's still a lot of improvement to do in many areas, but the good thing about the group is they want to keep improving.
What's it like to have a defender like Micky van de Ven who can be mopping up at the back in one moment and then in the next be racing to the other end of the pitch and setting up a goal?
He's an outstanding player. Again I think we've brought some decent footballers to the club.
Why is the Maddison and Kulusevski connection just working so well?
Because I think they're both really good intelligent footballers. The way we play suits their characteristics because Madders does so much damage with the ball and Deki does so much damage with his running, that it's a good balance for us in that attacking third and they also had to show good discipline today.
Because we knew that the main threat Manchester United have is in the transition. You know, they're pretty lethal with the front guys they've got so we really wanted to make sure we locked them in today and that was the full-backs and for Madders and Deki to be really disciplined in their football. They're both going really well and working really hard and improving.
Son was out today, will he be fit for midweek or next weekend?
We'll see. Obviously it was a quick turnaround today, so we'll assess it when we go back and get back down to London. We'll see how he is.
Is Destiny Udogie ok?
Yeah, he was ok. I mean he felt something in his quad but he obviously finished the half, but we just thought at half-time no point, we've got to be careful about how much we push our players. Obviously, Destiny had to come on pretty early on Thursday night, which wasn't the plan and I would say Micky played probably more than we wanted him to.
So with those kind of things, we just got to be really careful, and Djed did really well when he came on so I thought it was just wise to take him off but we'll see how it goes.
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