Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou previews the Carabao Cup Semi-Final against Liverpool and discusses Son contract extension and new signings
07/01/2025
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
07/01/2025
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
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00:00Hi, any good news on the injury and illness front?
00:11It depends, I think net-wise we're still down, we'll get Benton called back but we'll lose
00:17Madison and Pape Sarr by suspension, so a couple of numbers down there and then in terms
00:24of injuries, no one back, Mikey potentially could be available to be on the bench, everyone
00:33else from the weekend certainly feel better, Radu's kind of recovered, Archie's better,
00:41though the kind of main ones, Deckie was a little bit under the weather but he's good,
00:47so yeah, so pretty much as was on the weekend plus Benton called minus the other two.
00:53And is Richarlison back in training?
00:55Yeah, he's training.
00:56How close is he?
00:57Yeah, we're hoping, well the whole plan with him was to get, obviously with what's happened
01:01to him this year, to get two solid full weeks of training, so that's, his second week will
01:05be next week and if he gets through that he'll be fine.
01:07Son has extended his stay for an extra season, how pleased are you with that and what's he
01:12bring to you and this club?
01:14Yeah, brilliant, he's already had an outstanding career at this football club, he's been a
01:23big role in sort of the last 10 years, made an impact at the club, made an impact in the
01:30Premier League, great to extend his stay and the kind of aim and the ambition is to make
01:39sure he finishes his tournament career with some silverware.
01:43And you've brought a player in, in this transfer window already, Nkinski, is he likely to feature
01:49tomorrow or too soon?
01:50We'll see, we'll see, he's obviously arrived, lost track of days, but Sunday I think he's
01:57had a couple of days of training and he's registered and eligible to play, still got
02:05to do a couple of final things with him and then we'll see.
02:07Some tough decisions in terms of your goalkeeper going forward now?
02:10Oh, just, it's good to, look I mean he's one that we had earmarked for end of season, in
02:18the summer to bring in, we've tracked him all season, he's definitely someone we're
02:22really excited about, but obviously with our current goalkeeping situation, we explored
02:26the possibility of bringing him in in January, it wasn't easy because he's doing very well
02:31for his club, his club's doing very well, they're in Europe, they're on top of the league,
02:34but the fact that the club worked really hard, Johan, and the club to get the deal done today,
02:40sorry in this window, it's a huge benefit to us and adds some real quality to our goalkeeping.
02:45You've been linked with Randall, Coley, Moane at PSG,
02:48but Richarlison you say is close, do you still want to bring enough forward in this window?
02:53Well we're still I think trying to help the squad and help the players, obviously like I said we're
02:57still down significant numbers, again we'll have roughly 10 first team players missing tomorrow,
03:05that isn't easing at the moment, they're still, like I said we're getting one back,
03:09we lose a couple so we still need to look to try and see if we can help the playing group
03:16and the club's working hard with that with a number of areas.
03:25The league form hasn't been spectacular I think it's fair to say of late,
03:29so the fact you've got a couple of cup games coming up, is that a good
03:32kind of respite from what's been going on in the Premier League?
03:36No, looking at our league, results have been poor, so there's no hiding from that,
03:41like I said this is a separate competition tomorrow night, we've done well to get to the
03:46semi-final stage, we've beaten some pretty, both matched the clubs to do that, hasn't been an easy
03:51road to get to the semi-finals, we've got obviously an opponent who's been the standout
04:00team so far this year in all competitions, so great test for us, but it's a semi-final,
04:04first leg of a semi-final of a cup and it should be exciting, looking forward to it.
04:09You put six past you last time I met you, a couple of weeks ago at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,
04:15and without wishing to go down the how are you going to play route, this is a two-legged
04:20semi-final whereby I'm guessing, however you play tomorrow, you still want to be in the tie
04:25going to Anfield? Well I think that's the case, irrespective of how you play, you realise
04:31there is a second leg to be played, but that doesn't change our approach for tomorrow,
04:38we're at home and when it's a two-legged affair, if you can get some kind of advantage in your
04:44home game that sets you up pretty well, so that's what we'll try and do. I know at the weekend there
04:48were some refereeing decisions that bemused everybody, not only in your game but maybe in
04:53other games too, and the only people that would have seen what VAR was actually discussing were
04:58the people involved with the VAR decision. Tomorrow night though we're going to see with
05:03VAR, everyone in the stadium will be told by the referee why the decision has been made and
05:08for what reason. Do you welcome that? Do you welcome the fact that now the spectators,
05:13even if it is only for this competition and a one-off, will actually be a part of the VAR decision?
05:19Do I welcome it? No. Do you think it's fair that they should be able to listen?
05:23No. Do you think if they had shown the handball on the weekend that our supporters would have
05:28been happy? Would they have come away and said, oh that's great, they explained it?
05:32But at the same time, I have to accept that it's coming in, I have to accept that this is the way
05:38forward, I have to accept that I have to be a part of that, but it shouldn't surprise anyone if I'm
05:46not a cheerleader for those kind of things. Anton Kinski comes in, he feels a little bit like
05:58Archie Gray and Lucas Bergwijn. He comes from a footballing family, he seems to have that level
06:02headed nature about him. How important is that when you're signing a player to have that calm
06:06nature about him? Yeah, I think it's a big part. We've kind of put big stock in that in the kind
06:10of players we've brought in. We're trying to build a team of people who are very ambitious,
06:20have a clear goal in their heads about how they want their career to go. We've seen that already
06:29with Lucas and Archie, as much about their performance but also the way they've embraced
06:36the whole challenge, certainly not like your normal 18-year-olds. They're showing a real
06:41maturity but also a real ambition to make an impact. Talking to Tony and looking into his
06:49background, he's very much of a similar mould. What have you made of him in training so far?
06:52It seems to have, only from the clips I've seen, great ability with his feet as well as his hands.
06:56We've tried to identify goalkeepers or players who are going to fit into our system, that's a big
07:03part of how we play. It's certainly something that he does very comfortably. It's his all-round
07:09goalkeeping ability. Like I said, we've done a lot of background work on Johan. They've been
07:17following him all year. The intent was to bring him in in the summer but obviously that changed.
07:24We thought, why not, with the way we are in terms of goalkeepers, try and bring him in earlier.
07:29I wasn't confident that was going to happen but the club worked really hard to make it happen.
07:33I think it's great for him, it's great for us. It gives him an opportunity to come in a bit earlier,
07:37get bedded in to the way we do things. Like I said, it adds real quality to our goalkeeping.
07:42I just want to ask you about left-back as well. Obviously, Destiny out for a while now,
07:45Jed filling in on the left. You've got Sergio Regalon who's coming to the end of his contract.
07:49Is that a position that you're going to maybe try and ride it through or would you like to
07:52bring another body in that area of the sport? It depends. We're in a tricky situation where
08:00we've got, because obviously Ben Davies can play left-back as well. We're in this tricky
08:06situation where potentially we could have three very, very good defenders coming back into the
08:11fold very, very quickly. Obviously, Destiny's going to be a bit longer. It's a bit of a balancing
08:16act of how much we can get through. I just don't want to get it, the beauty of bringing in somebody
08:21like Tony was that he was part of our plans anyway. I'm really reluctant just to bring in another body
08:25just for the sake of it. It's going to be somebody who either fits into what we're doing or he's
08:29going to help us straight away. They're the kind of criteria we're looking at.
08:35It's safe to say you've probably had this busy period and a lot of injuries and you've had to
08:39get through it. I think that's what you're saying in the last few weeks. Do you think
08:43there's been a bit more of a reset now and giving you a bit of a chance to look at maybe those kind
08:47of signings, who's coming back, when they're coming back and maybe have a bit of a picture
08:51about what the rest of the season will look like? I kind of knew it would be a tough couple of
08:59months for us, but part of you is always optimistic that we won't have to deal with what
09:07we had to deal with for as long as we've had to deal with it. So again, optimistically, I think
09:13we'll get through this and I think we'll get through it hopefully pretty quickly. We're getting
09:16to the tail end, which just gives you a chance to say, okay, what's the second half of the season
09:19going to look like for us? But at the same time, I can't lose sight of the fact that what's important
09:26for us right now is that we deal with what's in front of us. We've got a big game tomorrow night.
09:30Obviously, our league form's nowhere near good enough. We've got to address that. So we can't
09:35just wait for it to all happen. So the planning is going on in the background for sure, but my
09:40immediate task is to make sure we kind of make an impact in what we can right now. And what did
09:46you make of the game at the weekend, the Manchester United-Liverpool game? Liverpool have obviously
09:50been the standard setters this season, but maybe they looked a bit vulnerable. Do you think it's
09:53a nice time to play them? I don't know if it's a nice time to play them. I thought it was a good
10:00game and I thought Manchester United really sort of lifted their intensity levels and causing
10:09problems. But at the same time, Liverpool still have, you can still see the quality they possess.
10:13They still created opportunities. They're always a threat. Like I said, they're a top side.
10:18They're really settled. I think they've just got about everyone fit and healthy. They can rotate
10:24players. So they're in a good moment and it's going to be a great challenge for us. Just the last one,
10:29you've got a goalkeeping decision to make maybe now after bringing one in. How are you going to
10:33sort of look at that decision coming into tomorrow, keeping Austin or bringing in Tony?
10:38Yeah, I'll just assess on sort of how Tony settled in. Like I said, Brandon did really well for us,
10:45which is great. And then I'll just make a decision. We've still got a couple of European
10:52games again where Tony's not going to be involved. So it's not like we understand that Brandon and
10:58Fraser's back training today, that they're still very important to what we're doing.
11:02Okay, we'll end the broadcast section there and move on to the embargo section for 10.