Ange Postecoglou spoke passionately about his Tottenham players following the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday evening and we've got a full transcript with every word he said.

Villa took the lead within just 57 seconds as Jacob Ramsey ran into the left-hand side of the box and Antonin Kinsky made a complete mess of his save and the ball ricocheted behind him and into the net. Tottenham increased their efforts in the second but conceded again when Pedro Porro failed to properly clear Donyell Malen's low ball and it fell for Morgan Rogers to smash into the roof of the net.

Mathys Tel did net on his full debut in added time, getting a foot to Dejan Kulusevski's curling cross to divert it past Emiliano Martinez but it was not enough to keep Spurs in the competition.

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After the match, Postecoglou answered from reporters and here is a full transcript with everything he said in his press conference at Villa Park.

How disappointing was that today?

It’s a disappointing result, cup competition. We wanted to progress, we didn’t do that tonight – that’s disappointing. We didn’t get off to a great start. It doesn’t help when you are playing away from home, especially a place like Villa, to concede so early, it gives them momentum and confidence, gets the crowd going. We were struggling to stay in the game. Having said that we had a big chance to equalise which could have settled things down for us.

Second-half was more even, we got better control of the game. We had to open up which allowed some transition moments. I felt like we were controlling the game a lot better and the second goal makes it even more difficult. We kept fighting, got the goal we needed. It just wasn’t enough in the end.

How damaging have the two cup exits this week been for you?

It’s not damaging for me, it’s obviously disappointing for us in terms of our objectives. But for two-and-a-half months, this small group of players have given everything in multiple competitions. I think they’ve been outstanding. We had 11 first-team players missing today. We started with four teenagers, a 21 year old goalkeeper coming to one of the best teams in the country, away from home. After playing the best team in the country on Thursday night. After playing a Premier League game last Sunday, playing a Europa game [before that]. The same group of players. No rotation. And they’ve been doing this since the middle of November. I think they’ve given everything they can and I’ve got so much respect and admiration for the players and how they’ve gone about that. We get a couple of midweeks off now, great for them to recover. We’ll get some players back which is also great for this group that they’ll get some help. And we move on.

Do you still believe there is something to be hopeful about for the season?

Yes. Definitely. We’re in a great position in Europe and we get an opportunity to improve our league form. We’ll get some players back over the next couple of weeks. Plenty to look forward to.

Does it feel like there is a reset point coming this week and how frustrating is it that these knockout games have come before that?

Yeah, that’s the timing of things. Just unfortunate for us that we couldn’t get a couple back, we were hoping to get a couple back for this last week and it didn’t happen. We could have risked a couple but with what’s ahead we went conservative on that. It is a bit of a re-set. We'll get three, maybe four, players back this week, with the possibility of one or two others in the week or two after that. More importantly, this group that has been going gets a rest. They can go a whole week now without having to get up for another game. We got back from Liverpool at 2am on Friday, the early hours of the morning. So they can get some rest they desperately need physically and mentally.

Do the players deserve to be judged when you've got a fully squad?

I don't know whether they do or not. I was saying in there, take a back four of Vicario, Dragusin, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Odobert, Werner...take them out of any team... How did Liverpool go today? And they just did that for one game. Do that for two-and-a-half months. Any team. Do that for two-and-a-half months in multiple competitions. I don't care about me. People will judge me. But you can't judge this group of players on what's happened. They've given everything, the performance.

Like I said, two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 21-year-old goalkeeper starting against one of the best teams in the country at home. They've had a week off, they didn't play Thursday night against Liverpool. We did. Same group of players. Not a change. You can't measure this group of players on that and their performance where they're at. It's too easy for people to be critical of them. I just have huge admiration and respect for them. We kind of knew this game was going to be the finishing line because we knew what was coming ahead in terms of midweeks off and getting some players back. But they tried their hardest and that's all you can ask.

Do you hope to still get the time to work with the players coming back?

I'm not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I've done a bad job, I'm not up to it or whatever. That's fine. What I'm saying is you can't be critical of players or players' performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they've got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have, and have to play every week. And not for one game. I'm not just saying we had to do this today. We've been doing this since the middle of November and you can't judge performances of these players and critique them on what they've done.

All they've done is given all they can and that's all you can ask for. Me, that's not of interest to me. My responsibility at this football club is this group of players and this team, to get them to play in the manner I want them to and bring us success. Whether people think I can do that or not, that's for others to judge. But there's got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months. It can't be that people think that's an excuse. That's just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That's just agenda driven stuff. If it's to get rid of me that's fine. Good on ya. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they've given over the past two and half months has been outstanding, it's a credit to them, I can't speak highly enough of them.

What are you going to do with your free midweek and what are the players going to do?

I'm just going to keep on working like I have. The ones who have been playing we've got to give them some time off. We've got the early part of the week and we'll give them some time off. The boys who are coming back, we'll get the opportunity to give them a whole week of training which is great. So come Tuesday we should have three or four who have been missing, we can give them a full week of training instead of a couple of sessions and then throwing them in.

By the time we get to the back end of the week we should have something resembling a squad of players to prepare for a big game. That then folds into the following week when again we've got seven days and no midweek game to prepare for the next game. So that gives us a real good opportunity to get some work into the guys who have been out for quite a while and give some rest to the guys who have been going at it. So by the time we get back to being in Europe and having midweek games we'll be in a much better shape.

Even with the injuries, is it a worry for you that the team doesn't look like a Postecoglou team right now?

(Puts his hands to his face) I don't know how else to explain it. I don't know how else to explain it if you can't see that this team is just trying to play its hardest in the most extreme of circumstances. Two and a half months of asking 18-year-olds and 17-year-olds and senior players, with no rest, to play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday. I'll keep going for two-and-a-half months and if you think that is not at all a factor of how this team is performing then there's nothing else I can say. There's nothing else I can explain.

Should the style still not be the same though?

No, because they're tired mate. Do you think they can press like [we would]. If we hadn't played Thursday night and I hadn't rotated that team do you think we wouldn't have been pressing aggressively today? Fair chance, unless you don't think they're human beings. Unless you're super human and you think no, after playing Liverpool on Thursday night they should be flying tonight. It doesn't happen. They're human beings. Why do you think Liverpool and others rotate 11 players? Why? There's a reason and I wish I could do the same. So you can bring a freshness to the team.

Of course they're not playing anywhere near the levels that we want or expect, but that's not because they're not trying. It's because they can't. I think this group of players once we get the rest of the group in, will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that. Whether other people can't see that, that's of no interest to me. If you want to measure anything on what they're doing at the moment, other than the extreme situation they're dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed and it's not objective. That's my opinion.

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