Ange on century-maker Cuti: "An absolute winner in everything he does"
Tue 27 August 2024, 13:45|
Tottenham Hotspur
Ange Postecoglou knew he had a special player on his hands in Cristian Romero.
Speaking ahead of Cuti reaching his 100-appearance milestone against Everton, Ange told the media how he immediately believed how the Argentina centre-back was going to be a vital cog in his Spurs team - a view underlined last summer when he was named one of Heung-Min Son's vice-captains alongside James Maddsion.
Cuti responded with a fine 2023/24 campaign alongside Micky van de Ven, making 34 appearances for us in all competitions to take him up to 98 - starts against Leicester and Everton this term have seen him reach 100, and he celebrated in style with a win, clean sheet and a goal in our 4-0 victory against The Toffees on Saturday.
Asked what he'd made of Cuti ahead of the weekend in Friday's press conference, Ange said: "Outstanding. Obviously with all these kind of things you have the image of a player from afar and before I got here, I thought he was going to be really important to me because he's such a fantastic centre-back for club and country.
"But being here, watching him, the way he trains and the way he plays, unbelievably strong mindset, an absolute winner in every thing he does.
"He was really important last year and he's going to be really important moving forward. He is one of the players within this group who has achieved things from a team perspective and those kind of things are transferable. He has won the World Cup, he has won the Copa America, so he's part of a successful team and I think he's a really strong influence in the group."
Ange was asked about our defensive display on The Review Show after Saturday's win. "Yeah, it was good," he said. "Really important for us, you know, they're always a threat from set-pieces, long balls, and I thought we handled them really well.
"We knew that was going to be a big part of what they did, yet Vic (Vicario) didn't really have too many worrying moments. It will do them good to to know we kept a clean sheet against a difficult, awkward opponent, and they also played a part in us scoring goals as well."
