Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou previews tomorrows Europa match against Qarabağ FK
25/09/2024
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
25/09/2024
Tottenham Hotspurs Training Ground, London, UK
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00:00You alright, Ant? I'm good, bud.
00:02How are we looking, team news?
00:04We're looking...
00:06Not me, not me.
00:08No, we're looking good.
00:10OK, so
00:12nothing sort of from the weekend
00:14in terms of injuries. Everyone
00:16sort of pulled up really well and
00:18no issues there and
00:20obviously, apart from the injuries, the obvious
00:22absence is Romero
00:24and Spence and
00:26Reguillon who were training today, but obviously
00:28for different reasons are eligible.
00:30It was rare for Spurs last season.
00:32You obviously joined the club with them, not in Europe.
00:34How much are you looking forward to? Spurs are a
00:36real big relationship with European football.
00:38You've won this competition twice.
00:40Yeah, I'm really sort of
00:42pleased to be back there, excited
00:44about being back in it.
00:46I spoke about it last year that
00:48it was a real gap in our sort of
00:50calendar and I think didn't help
00:52us at certain times of the year, not having that sort
00:54of regular football and that challenge
00:56of playing against
00:58different types of opposition and
01:00sort of exposing our whole
01:02squad to some real
01:04meaningful game time. So for a number of reasons
01:06and the worst
01:08thing was sitting around watching other teams play
01:10and that didn't
01:12sit well with me either. So being back in
01:14European competition is important. I know you
01:16have touched on it, but Son was really passionate then.
01:18I know you mentioned it in the fans forum, but it is an
01:20expanded competition. Son
01:22particularly mentioned about the player welfare and
01:24the dip in quality. Do you echo
01:26what Son and other players, Rodri
01:28Allison, have been saying about this extended
01:30format of these competitions?
01:32Well, not specifically to this competition,
01:34but I've spoken already about
01:36the fact that I think we're getting to a real
01:38sort of dangerous level of what
01:40our expectations are around players.
01:42Instead of sort of
01:44focusing on one or two tournaments,
01:46it's about the calendar. That's more of an issue.
01:48Players don't get a break between seasons
01:50anymore than they used to.
01:52There's more tournaments both at international
01:54and at club level, at
01:56continental level.
01:58Like I said, it's going to get
02:00to a point where we're not going to
02:02have the best players out there playing.
02:04Probably even worse is
02:06them breaking down for various reasons.
02:08It's definitely something that needs
02:10to be addressed.
02:12On that end, you said last night that players
02:14will take matters into their own hands if
02:16things don't change. What does that look like?
02:18Is that a strike?
02:20I said players may
02:22take. I didn't say they will. I said they may
02:24take matters into their own hands.
02:26It's
02:28about
02:32they're the ones most affected, to be honest.
02:34You'd understand
02:36if they start
02:38as a collective thinking about
02:40how much of this are we going
02:42to continually
02:44not have a say in.
02:46It's like anything else in life,
02:48if you're affected.
02:50It is the players that are affected.
02:52We have a responsibility
02:54as clubs, as managers as well, to
02:56make sure that we protect
02:58our players from that as well. It's the reason
03:00we have squads.
03:02We've got to be mindful of if we can't on the one hand
03:04sort of remain the fact that
03:06we have so many
03:08games but we want to be in all competitions
03:10and at the same time we don't use our squads.
03:12I think we end up being
03:14complicit in that.
03:16Can I ask you a tactical question?
03:18We saw Arsenal come here and
03:20win without the ball, 36%
03:22possession I think it was, and then
03:24do a kind of extreme version of that in the second
03:26half against Man City, albeit with 10 men.
03:28I guess
03:3010, 15 years ago there used to be more managers
03:32who were kind of winning big things
03:34without having the ball.
03:36That's changed. It now feels
03:38like you have to have possession to win.
03:40Do you think we could go back
03:42to a time where football
03:44was in a cycle towards
03:46an approach where you don't need to have the ball
03:48to be competing at the very highest level?
03:50I think football
03:52has always gone in those cycles.
03:54I think there's always been
03:56dominant teams
03:58who are more
04:02possession heavy
04:04and other times where
04:06it's been teams
04:08that, as you said,
04:10require less of the ball.
04:12In football there's always that
04:14counterbalance of
04:18what can be
04:20successful at any given time. A lot of that
04:22comes down to
04:24the strength of teams that
04:26execute that.
04:28You get
04:30the best teams who have a period
04:32of domination playing a certain way
04:34invariably means
04:36that others try and follow that method
04:38and if it's the flip side then it goes the
04:40other way. I've always felt
04:42there's always been
04:44a cycle that football
04:46goes through
04:48where
04:50a certain kind of
04:52tactical
04:54play
04:56ends up dominating
04:58for a period of time until
05:00somebody comes along and comes up with something different
05:02and then changes things.
05:04People seem to be
05:06congratulating Arsenal on not having
05:08a soft underbelly and
05:10developing their way of playing
05:12with the dark arts. I was at
05:14Mikel Arteta's press conference yesterday.
05:16Your team play good entertaining football.
05:18That's how you're going to win
05:20a trophy, be it this season or
05:22whenever. How come you don't have
05:24to use the dark arts in inverted
05:26commas? You're making
05:28it sound as if it's good versus evil
05:30like Batman
05:32versus whoever, I don't know.
05:34I don't know my superheroes that well.
05:36Look, I think it's all
05:38part of the game and it's always existed.
05:42Look, I've said before
05:44I don't believe
05:46in the dark arts. I don't know how to do it, it's just not
05:48in my makeup but I've seen it be very
05:50effective
05:52and a very effective tool.
05:54My kind of thing has always been
05:56well, if teams are going to go down that way we've got to be
05:58even more disciplined
06:00to make sure we don't get distracted
06:02by that
06:04because ultimately
06:06I guess the role of every manager, every team
06:08is to try and
06:10unsettle an opposition one way or another
06:12and some do it
06:14by
06:16trying to
06:18disrupt and
06:20curtail any
06:22momentum from the opposition. Others
06:24want the momentum, they want to have the dominance
06:26so it just depends which side of the coin you
06:28fall down but
06:30the reason I do what I do
06:32is because that's the space
06:34I'm comfortable in, I know how to do that.
06:36For me
06:38to change my approach
06:40would mean me delving
06:42into an area that I don't really
06:44have
06:46a lot of
06:48emphasis in the way I coach or the way
06:50I talk.
06:52And finally on this competition, it's changed since
06:54you were last in it because it's not home and away anymore
06:56teams don't drop down from the Champions League anymore
06:58and Spurs
07:00are one of the favourites to win it. How do you see that
07:02and how do you see the new competition?
07:04I think it's interesting obviously
07:06early stages
07:08it'll be
07:10interesting to see how it develops
07:12I think I said before
07:14just a gut feeling that there's
07:16probably going to be more in games
07:18usually in the group stage after about the
07:20second, probably the third game, you kind of knew
07:22it was going through so there may be some dead rubbers
07:24in there but I think all games
07:26will be meaningful because all teams will have
07:28something to play for
07:30and it's not that sort of standard home and away
07:32so you're going to play eight different
07:34teams, eight different styles of football
07:36so it's an interesting challenge
07:40I guess at the end of it we'll see
07:42whether it's kind of had the effect that
07:44everyone wants it to have
07:46by being a little bit more
07:48exciting and all the way
07:50through rather than sort of just a knockout phase
07:52but most importantly for us
07:54is we're in it
07:56we've got a chance
07:58Azerbaijani news agency
08:00you've probably watched Garabagh's
08:02recent games, which player in
08:04Azerbaijani champions squad are you more concerned
08:06about?
08:08We've had a very good look at
08:10Luma had somebody fly out
08:12there on the weekend and watch them play
08:16they're a very good team, they dominate the local
08:18competition but
08:20just as importantly in Europe
08:22have always made an impact
08:24we had a good look at their two games against Leverkusen
08:26last year, they did very well, they pushed Leverkusen
08:28all the way and we know how dominant Leverkusen were
08:30last year
08:32so it's not so much
08:34about the individual threats, it's about understanding
08:36that
08:38we've got to make sure
08:40we reach the level of performance we do tomorrow night
08:42against a very good experienced
08:44European opponent
08:46experience in Europe counts
08:48and Garabagh have been there
08:50consistently, whether it's Champions League
08:52or Europa League
08:54they've always made an impact so we've got to be ready for that
08:56tomorrow. English press
08:58reports that Tottenham will play attacking football
09:00towards Garabagh, is that true
09:02or will you be opting for a more cautious approach?
09:04No, well the English never believe the English
09:06press
09:08don't make that mistake
09:10we'll just
09:12play our football, we like
09:14to play a certain way
09:16I think Europe gives us another
09:18challenge because as I said
09:20with European football
09:22you're meeting teams that probably play a little bit
09:24differently and sometimes
09:26obviously tomorrow's at home but sometimes in conditions
09:28that you don't usually face up to
09:30and I think it'll help us
09:32develop as a team by facing some
09:34different types of opposition
09:36but ultimately it's about playing
09:38our football, being as aggressive as we can
09:40with everything we do and
09:42hopefully overcoming the challenge that
09:44Garabagh will have tomorrow.
09:46Can I just ask
09:48about Maddison, it seems he's playing in a
09:50slightly different role this season
09:52a bit deeper on Saturday, a bit more out on the left
09:54can you just talk a little bit about
09:56what you're seeing from him
09:58that you wanted to get more out of from him and how that
10:00fits into the team?
10:02I wouldn't say he's changed his role, he's doing exactly
10:04the same as last year, I think if you look back
10:06early last year, very similar
10:08and I've said all along that the key
10:10to Maddison is
10:12if he's physically good and now he's
10:14getting to that level of
10:16where he's able
10:18to cover ground
10:20to receive the ball wherever we need him
10:22to receive, whether that's deep, wide but
10:24then the ability to really
10:26beat players on the dribble
10:28and then contribute to
10:30attacking play, not just sort of
10:32one phase of play
10:34he's getting involved in two, three
10:36phases of play and to do that
10:38physically it's really important for Maddison
10:40I said if you look back early last
10:42year he was doing very
10:44similar things for us that he did on the
10:46weekend, it was only when he came back
10:48from injury he kind of struggled because I don't think
10:50physically he was where he needed to be
10:52he's had a good strong pre-season
10:54and I can just sense every game
10:56he's just feeling better
10:58and better about how he's feeling and when he
11:00does that I think he's able then to play
11:02in the role we need him to
11:04Last season obviously you had that really
11:06awful period of injuries
11:08and I remember you saying you kind of wanted to
11:10look into that at the end of the season and maybe
11:12adjust the training a bit or whatever, I just wonder if you
11:14have done anything differently this season with this
11:16big period now coming up
11:18We're constantly
11:20reviewing, we've made changes obviously
11:22both in sports science
11:24and the medical department and
11:26I think
11:28again we've kind of
11:30evolved the squad to get players we believe
11:32are going to be robust enough to
11:34play our kind of football
11:36and
11:38part of that process as I said is
11:40the ability to then rotate
11:42and not overburden too many players
11:44within
11:46the squad, I mean you've already seen
11:48the significant injuries to
11:50other teams already, I think it's
11:52we've spoken about
11:54the calendar the players are having to bear
11:56and part of our process is to
11:58hopefully have a robust
12:00enough squad to cope
12:02with everything but also utilise that squad
12:04in the right way so that we
12:06minimise the injuries
12:08that hopefully we can control
12:10some injuries you can't control but
12:12in terms of our approach
12:14we're still training as hard as we did last
12:16year, we're trying to
12:18play the same football, our physical numbers are
12:20as good
12:22if not stronger than they were last year
12:24in games, which is our
12:26barometer, it's just that like I said
12:28we've hopefully got a more robust squad
12:30and our
12:32processes to recovery and the way
12:34we have to play is a little bit different
12:38Many teams in the past have
12:40used this competition to rotate
12:42players, to give a chance to players who maybe
12:44hadn't played that much in the Premier League
12:46in this case
12:48I'm not asking you if you're going to rotate too much
12:50tomorrow but do you think
12:52with the change the competition has made this will
12:54still be possible?
12:56Yeah I think so, I think as I said
12:58we've got a squad
13:00we've got a squad of players that
13:02we've gone into the season
13:04thinking that we're going to potentially
13:06hopefully
13:08play 50 plus games
13:10in a year and you're not going to expect
13:12hardly any
13:14players to play all those 50 games
13:16and if you can get sort of 30, 35
13:18games out of everybody
13:20your European games, your Cup games
13:22are an opportunity for us
13:24to develop players and get
13:26them ready
13:28what you don't want to do is make
13:30too many changes every game, we did that
13:32obviously against Coventry because
13:34we needed to but that tends to
13:36disrupt but this early
13:38part of the season I think it is important that we give
13:40some game time to guys so that
13:42when we need to make changes and we will need to
13:44it's not
13:46bringing in players who haven't played for 6 or 8
13:48weeks, they played 2 weeks ago
13:50so if we make changes tomorrow night
13:52the guys coming in playing against Coventry
13:54a week ago, it's not like they haven't played
13:56for 4 or 5 weeks so I still think that
13:58you have that opportunity
14:00in the Europa.
14:02This is a chance for you to win a trophy
14:04do you have a preference like the
14:06Premier League is our main competition, Europa League is
14:08second?
14:10No
14:12we want to win everything mate so
14:14no preference.
14:22Can you
14:24expand a little bit please on
14:26what it means to be in Europe
14:28why it matters both for the club
14:30is it about prestige, is it about money
14:32is it about everything but also for
14:34yourself
14:36the challenge that you've taken on
14:38I tend to
14:40look at it more from a sort of
14:42from a footballing perspective
14:44in terms
14:46of revenue I guess it helps the club
14:48in terms of prestige it helps the club
14:50but just from a footballing perspective
14:52like I said
14:54it's a different challenge
14:56from what you face in the
14:58Premier League even in
15:00competitions for the most part
15:02I think whenever you can expose
15:04individuals or
15:06groups to different environments
15:08different challenges I think there's
15:10greater opportunity for growth
15:12whether it's
15:14playing against an opponent you've never
15:16played before or a player who played differently
15:18or playing in a country or in a stadium
15:20with a different kind of atmosphere all those
15:22things are opportunities for growth
15:24I think that's what European
15:26competition
15:28enables you to do I think for us
15:30I kept saying last
15:32year I think if we had
15:34been in Europe irrespective of
15:36the competition I think
15:38we would have been able to evolve a little bit
15:40quicker in terms of what we expose
15:42our players to
15:44but having sort of European
15:46competition especially with a young group we've got
15:48a lot of them it'll be their first
15:50time playing in this competition as a group
15:52it's a first time for us to play in Europe
15:54the squad's changed a lot in the last
15:5612 months so
15:58I think for all those reasons I just see it
16:00as a fantastic opportunity
16:02to evolve
16:04for us as a
16:06team in a footballing sense
16:08that hopefully gets us closer to our goal
16:10In terms of winning
16:12a competition
16:14it feels like because you no longer get the dropouts
16:16from the Champions League you know who's in it at the start
16:18you know what you're up against does that feel like
16:20it's something that's
16:22I don't know if it's easier to target but
16:24something that's more conceivable
16:26to target?
16:28I don't know I mean I think
16:30whenever you're in a sort of this kind of
16:32competition you never look kind of beyond
16:34what's the first part
16:36of it is getting out of the group and then you're kind
16:38of it's only sort of in the knockout stage
16:40you start sort of looking at okay
16:42what are potential match-ups who's left
16:44and so whether that was
16:46you know last year teams dropping
16:48down or this year I mean I
16:50think we'll get a decent idea of
16:52where we sit on the table and likely outcomes
16:54after that but I think it's only really
16:56in the knockout phase that you kind of
16:58focus on okay
17:00you know what sort of opposition do we have
17:02here so I think the challenge is still the
17:04same I don't think it makes it necessarily easier
17:06because if somehow
17:08this is easier for us I assume it's easier for
17:10all the other teams that are really strong in this competition
17:12as well so I don't think that changes
17:14it's just like I said it's a
17:16unique format it's different
17:18you know
17:20God knows how you
17:22look at that table in one screenshot
17:24because it's about 37, 38,
17:2636 teams whatever it is so
17:28you try to work out
17:30where everyone sits will be a challenge
17:32but
17:34like I said for us what we do know
17:36is we've got eight really good games
17:38and an opportunity to progress from
17:40there. Thanks guys.