Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou hope that Emery has a miserable birthday!
01/11/2024
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London UK
01/11/2024
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00What's the team news ahead of the weekend? I'm sure there's pops and brews after Wednesday.
00:06Yeah, you know, the boys worked hard the other night. I guess the main one out of that one is Mickie.
00:13He has sort of Australian hamstring. It's not too serious, but probably after the international break for him.
00:23The other ones that were a bit sore were Romero and Werner.
00:30But at the moment, still a chance for the weekend.
00:35And Sonny's sort of trained today, so if he gets through training tomorrow, he should be okay.
00:43He looked distraught when he came off Mickie, but given the severity of his last hamstring last season,
00:49is it good news in a way that it doesn't sound that serious?
00:54Yeah, I mean, he was disappointed, obviously, any time.
00:59And I think he was really looking forward to the game, so it was a bit emotional.
01:03But yeah, it's definitely not a bad one like last time, which kept him out for quite a while.
01:10He'll work hard, and like I said, good thing he's got the international break in there.
01:16So hopefully he doesn't miss too much football.
01:28Yeah, good draw in terms of it's a home game, which I think for all clubs is welcome.
01:35Because you know it's not going to be an easy game whoever you're playing, so having it at home is great for us.
01:39He said, you know, against a big club in United, so it'll be a really good fixture.
01:45But you expect that sort of quarter-final, semi-final stage of any competition.
01:49And yeah, I mean, I only just heard that Ruben's been appointed.
01:54So yeah, he'll have his feet firmly under the desk by then, and looking forward to meeting him.
02:00Great night Wednesday for the fans.
02:03It's been some real highs, and there's been some disappointing performances.
02:06Palace might be your most disappointed this season.
02:09But is that to be expected as this squad evolves over the last 15 months?
02:14Should fans expect the odd bad result, bad performance?
02:19Look, I don't think it's – I keep saying this is not – you know, fans are fans.
02:25You know, fans – there isn't a fan around the world that doesn't want their team to always be playing well.
02:32So, you know, what we have to do, as I said before the game and after the game,
02:37is just stay really focused on continuing to evolve into the team we want to be.
02:43And at the moment we, you know, in the league we've had some disappointing results.
02:52But really only one disappointing performance, and that was the Palace game.
02:56It wasn't a great performance, and we got what we deserved.
02:59But, you know, what we have to focus on is making sure that we continue to evolve and learn from that.
03:05You know, we have had sort of disappointments.
03:07We bounced back straight away, which I think is important.
03:10It's part of sort of the evolution of the team.
03:13But it's not going to be a smooth ride.
03:15Within that, we don't want to have too many times where, you know, we're not playing the kind of football we want to.
03:22I mean, that's always the benchmark for us.
03:24That's our measure, and Palace fell well short of that.
03:29Wednesday night was a lot better.
03:32Hi, and just following on from that, it is eight wins in your last ten games.
03:36It is easy to dwell on the defeats, but do you feel that maybe you deserve a little bit more credit?
03:42Alex, you get what you deserve.
03:44You know, so I probably deserve it, whatever we're getting.
03:47No, look, like I said, I think it's fair enough, depending on sort of your outlook.
03:54But whether it's deserved or not, you know, as I said, I think, you know, I try to make the point,
04:01criticism and scrutiny is healthy, because it allows you to reflect on your beliefs and your convictions.
04:08Because if you are going to flinch at the first time, people kind of are critical or kind of want you to change your path,
04:16then it probably means you're not really, you know, definite about what you're doing.
04:22So it doesn't, like I said, it's not something that I think, you know, we're copping too much criticism or unwanted criticism.
04:30In fact, if it is unwanted, even more that we shouldn't react to it.
04:33You know, it's up to us how we behave in that kind of environment, because I don't think that ever changes.
04:37I think even if we, you know, went on another fantastic run at the first sign of us maybe faltering,
04:44I think the same sort of questions we come, because it's kind of where we're at as a club at the moment.
04:49Until we have success, then I think that's always going to be the first thing that sort of people, you know, come at us about as a club.
04:58And I think you've got to accept that, you know, it's part of our journey and part of us becoming stronger.
05:05And like I say, having real conviction in what we do.
05:10I said to the players, you know, if you want to grow a beautiful garden, you've got to handle some fertiliser.
05:18So, you know, that's the only way it'll happen.
05:26Have you got a beautiful garden at home?
05:28I've got no idea about gardening. I read that somewhere.
05:31On Aston Villa then, they've gone from almost getting relegated to Champions League football in really such a short period of time.
05:38Just how good an appointment was Unai Emery?
05:41Yeah, great appointment. But, you know, it shouldn't surprise anyone.
05:48He was an outstanding manager before he got there, you know, he'd done an outstanding job.
05:52And probably another sort of cautionary tale about writing people off, because when he was at Arsenal, you know,
05:58people were quick to be dismissive of him, whilst other people's memories faded.
06:03I think when you're a manager and you see other managers going through what he did, it's firmly imprinted in your mind.
06:08And just goes to show you, like I said, he was an outstanding manager before he got to Villa.
06:13I think they identified somebody who could come in and, you know, really bring their football club to the levels they want to.
06:22And he's done that, you know, since he's been there.
06:25And, you know, they continue to get stronger and challenging will be a good test for us.
06:32I mean, our games against them have been really good last year.
06:35You know, we obviously won at their place and played really well.
06:38But, you know, I thought we played well at our place too, but, you know, they got on top of us.
06:43They obviously got ahead of us for the Champions League spot last year.
06:46So it's a great, great competition for us.
06:50How hopeful are you that you can stop him celebrating with a win?
06:52Miserable day for him, I hope.
06:54Yeah, I guess I'm the oldest in the comp, mate, so I'm not going to mention birthdays.
07:02I'll let him go.
07:04Good luck.
07:07Hi, Inge, how are you?
07:08I'm good.
07:09Going back to the garden and the fertiliser analogy.
07:14Fertiliser used to be called being spursy.
07:17But I thought the other night, actually, you weren't spursy.
07:202-0 up and then conceded a goal.
07:22But whereas previous spurs sides might have actually lost that.
07:26Yours didn't.
07:27So what have you instilled into the players this season to maybe make that word something we don't use so often?
07:34Yeah, I don't know about that.
07:36You know, I still think that's something that, I mean, that's what I was talking about before.
07:39I think people will always kind of, you know, every time we have a stumble, they're going to throw at us.
07:45Like I said, you have to accept that, whether you believe you're not that anymore.
07:49You have to accept that until you can prove otherwise.
07:52I thought the other night was a really strong performance against, you know, a pretty formidable side.
07:59Where, as I said, I think we had to show every aspect of our game.
08:02We had to defend well, which I thought we really did.
08:04Because they didn't really create too many clear-cut opportunities against us.
08:08Which, against City, you know, that's kind of your best possible case of keeping them out.
08:15Because it's usually the volume of chances that kind of erodes your ability to keep them out.
08:20And I still thought we had quality the other way, where we created the best chances of the game.
08:24So, you know, had a little bit of everything.
08:27And it was an unbelievable physical effort from the lads.
08:30I mean, even the physical numbers we did after.
08:32I mean, the amount of running that the boys just had to do.
08:35But that's, I think, what you have to do against a team like City if you want to be successful.
08:39So, there's a lot of positives for us.
08:41But, again, you know, I said that after the game.
08:45We're still the same team that performed poorly against Crystal Palace.
08:48Nothing changed in that three days apart from us addressing some aspects of our football to stay true to that.
08:55And if we don't veer from that, then we'll get to where we want to.
09:00So, how do you address, then, going forward, the rest of this season, Spurs inconsistency?
09:05By just, like I said, being strong in the way we want to play our football.
09:11And we have been, apart from that Palace game.
09:13Where, like I said, I felt we didn't really address the challenge in front of us in the way we should.
09:22Every other game I think we've done that.
09:24Yes, we lost at Newcastle.
09:26But I thought we played well that day.
09:29We lost to Brighton and, you know, pretty evident that a poor second half cost us there.
09:35But the Palace game was one where we needed to do things close to what we do.
09:41So, that's all we can do.
09:42Just keep focusing on what's important to us.
09:44And you and Villa are both on the same kind of trajectory.
09:47Last season Villa finished fourth, which as perceived by most of this country is a trophy.
09:52I know, not by you, but in terms of some people see that as being a trophy.
09:56But there isn't a trophy, though, is there?
09:58There isn't a trophy, no, you're absolutely right.
09:59But I'll ask for Vengas to blame for that, not me.
10:03But in terms of, you're three rounds away now from winning the League Cup and winning your trophy.
10:08Is that what you would prefer this year?
10:10A silverware to fourth place?
10:13No, no.
10:14I want it all.
10:15I want it all, mate.
10:16I want everything.
10:18And it sets me up for people to maybe ridicule me at the end of the year
10:26because I've said I want it all and I fall short of that.
10:29But I'll take the biggest bite I can, mate, and see what comes out of it.
10:34So, we'll see.
10:35We'll go for everything.
10:36Hi, Ange.
10:37Just wanted to check in on Wilson Odebert.
10:39Earlier in the week you said it seemed like he'd had a serious setback.
10:42Is there any more information and a potential time?
10:44No, no real time.
10:45But it's significant.
10:46So, he'll be out for, you know, again, because it's a reoccurrence,
10:50we're going to have to be a bit conservative.
10:52So, I'd say a sort of similar timeframe to his last one, maybe a bit longer.
10:58But it's one of those where you don't want to put a timeframe on it
11:02because it'll really depend on how quickly he kind of heals from it.
11:06Just wanted to ask you about Dragerson as well.
11:08He's been at the club for nearly a year.
11:10What have you been impressed by
11:12and maybe some of the areas that he needs to improve in?
11:15Yeah, look, Ryan has been with us, yeah, what, ten months now?
11:20And I think he's been great.
11:22You know, we kind of signed him because we saw some really strong attributes in him
11:27in terms of, you know, his defending capabilities, his mindset.
11:33Again, really sort of, you know, unique journey in that, you know,
11:39he had to fight hard to get to where he wanted to.
11:41So he had all those kind of things I look for.
11:43He's still young.
11:45And, you know, he's working hard every day on his game, on all aspects of his game.
11:49You know, as defenders, you know, defenders tend to get better with age,
11:54with experience, the good ones.
11:56And, you know, obviously with him and guys like Mickey and Destiny, you know,
12:04the reason we signed them at the age they did is that we really believe that
12:07in years to come they'll get stronger.
12:09And he's doing that every time, you know, he's out there.
12:11I think I can see improvement in him.
12:14He's really embracing the way we play.
12:16It's very different from kind of where he came from, you know,
12:20playing so aggressively with our line and defending one-on-one.
12:23But he's embracing that.
12:24He's enjoying that.
12:25And I thought he was great the other night, I thought, not just in his football
12:28but in terms of his presence and his demeanour.
12:32And, you know, he took some leadership there.
12:35Obviously, you know, we lost two of our back four during the game, you know,
12:38with Mickey going down and then Kuti out.
12:41So, you know, him and sort of – and he had Archie next to him who was 18,
12:44and I thought he really stood up in that time just to make sure that
12:47with those disruptions we kind of maintained our organisation.
12:52And, yeah, I thought he was really good the other night.
12:55Finish your session with George, please.
12:56Hi, Ang.
12:57This match last season, the home game with Villa,
12:59I think it was the first time we saw Kulosevsky as kind of the number 10
13:03in that sort of number eight role as well.
13:05Was that a good reference point for this season
13:08when you were thinking about pushing him into that?
13:10Because he was really good, wasn't he, I think, in that Aston Villa game last season.
13:14Yeah, some of it.
13:15I mean, it was a bit, you know, a little bit of just discovery, you know,
13:21just trying things.
13:22And, yeah, he always looked like he had the attributes that he could play inside,
13:27but unless you do that, you're not really sure.
13:29And, as I said, I think as much as I wanted to play him out on the wing,
13:37the way we played just, I don't think it suited his personality more than anything else
13:41because I kept saying, I think Deke loves to be involved in the game.
13:45You know, he loves to, like his running capacity is ridiculous
13:49and he wants to be involved all the time.
13:51And when you play wing in our sort of set up,
13:54there's a lot of times where the discipline of it is not being involved, you know.
13:58And I think he struggled with that as much as he was trying to.
14:03So, like I said, you know, it's through discovery that, you know,
14:09he's ended up in the area probably where he's most suited in our football.
14:14And he's just growing enormously in that, you know, he's improving all the time.
14:19Like I said, I think he was disappointed with, you know, his performance at Palace as well.
14:24And, again, but that's part of that journey of him kind of understanding
14:27why things didn't click at Palace and he was back to his best on Wednesday night.
14:32Just, you know, when you have that sort of running capacity
14:35and you add the quality that he has, it's a hell of a weapon.
14:40And, you know, it's one we can certainly benefit from.
14:44Just funny for me, it was a really special atmosphere on Wednesday
14:47and it feels like the sort of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is turning into a fortress
14:52and obviously your teams have always been associated with home wins,
14:55you come in with that record.
14:56How sort of pleased are you with a home win?
14:58Yeah, look, it's been strong, it has to be.
15:03And, you know, the supporters play a big part in that.
15:05You know, I thought they were brilliant on Wednesday night.
15:07And, you know, that's part of it because if they can generate that energy in the stadium,
15:11the players certainly feed off it.
15:13And, you know, I think it makes oppositions uncomfortable,
15:17particularly with the way we play because, you know,
15:19we want to be at the opposition all the time.
15:21And if the crowd's up as well, it gives, you know, the opposition that sense
15:26that they can never sort of, you know, get composed or recover.
15:31So it's a big part of it.
15:33And, yeah, hopefully we continue to grow.
15:35Of course, we've got to give our supporters a reason to make that atmosphere.
15:40But I think, you know, when it goes hand in hand like it did on Wednesday night,
15:44it's a great place to be.
15:50And it certainly can help us in terms of, you know, again,
15:55becoming the football team we want to.