Presser points | Spurs vs Ipswich | Ange Postecoglou

After returning from Istanbul overnight, Ange Postecoglou was back in front of the media on Friday to look ahead to Sunday’s clash with Ipswich Town at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (2pm UK).

Here’s a look at some of the things he discussed...

Team news

Ange began by updating everyone on the latest team news and whether anyone who missed the Galatasaray game could return against Ipswich…

Ange: “Last night the brief I got after the game was that everyone came through unscathed so there’s no issues from last night. Cristian (Romero), we’ll see how he goes in the next couple of days, the idea is to try and get him out there and train and he’s pretty keen to, so he has a chance for the weekend. Mikey (Moore) probably is still not right for the weekend, and probably Timo (Werner) as well. Really out of the ones who are out, it's only Cristian who could potentially be back.”

The boss was then asked how Richarlison was feeling after he picked up another injury setback last weekend…

Ange: “He was very disappointed. I think I said in the lead-up, we tried to take a different approach, he worked awfully hard on his rehab but not just that, his general fitness. He’d really trimmed down in terms of his conditioning. He was doing everything right, we kind of eased him back into playing and tried not to overload him and unfortunately he broke down again. He’s disappointed but ultimately, we’ve just got to keep getting him back in there and working with him to get him back up because he’s an important player. You saw last week the impact he had coming off the bench and setting up the goal for us, so it’s disappointing for him, disappointing for us because we haven’t really had him at our disposal this year, but we’ll just keep working with Richy and try to get him back.”

Ange was then asked specifically about Micky van de Ven and whether he still expects him back after the upcoming international break…

Ange: “Yeah, it will be after the international break. When after will just be dictated by his progress during that time. I think probably the end of the international break will be about four weeks (since he was injured), so it will be some time after that, but when exactly we’ll just have to wait and see.”

State of play

Ange was asked when he feels the league table starts to give a true reflection of the way the season is going…

Ange: “I think we’ve still got a long way to go. I think what’s important is, as I said, just to keep progressing the way we have been, our football for the large part has been pretty consistent, pretty good. We’ve obviously had a couple of stumbles along the way but I think within that context I still think we’re making progress and that’s what we’ll keep doing. There’s no point looking at the table now because ultimately it’s where you are at the end of the season that’s going to count.”

Son’s return

Ange was asked whether he feels Heung-Min Son is ready to play 90 minutes after his recent return to action…

Ange: “Yeah like I said, for Sonny where obviously he had the injury, we brought him back, in the first game back he kind of had a relapse and what we don’t want to do is put him back into that cycle. It’s very easy to fall into that cycle by pushing players, particularly when they’re coming back from injury, so we’re managing his minutes and building him up. He got a good 55 at the weekend, he got 45 last night and hopefully we can continue to build that up and ultimately for us it’s about making sure that we get him back and keep him back because we can’t afford any more injuries in that position. We’ve already got Wilson (Odobert) with a long-term injury, we’ve got Richy with a long-term injury, we’ve got Mikey out now so we can’t afford to lose a player in that area of the park, so I’ll always make decisions that I think are best for the club and for us and what we’re trying to achieve.”

Ipswich

It was put to Ange that our opponents on Sunday were close to getting their first Premier League win of the season against Leicester City last weekend…

Ange: “Every league game has the potential to hurt you if you're not at your best. Ipswich will be no different. They got close last week, I think they've been close in a number of games this year. I think Kieran McKenna has done an unbelievable job since he's been there and I think they continue to grow. It's always harder for clubs who get promoted who haven't gone down and got the benefit of parachute payments. He’s got them competitive and I think they have been competitive in just about every game this year which is a credit to him and his players. We're expecting a tough one at the weekend, as we do every week, but our form particularly at home has been pretty strong this year and we want to continue that.”

An open league

Ange was asked how open he believes the Premier League is this season…

Ange: “Yeah, it’s fair to say there's no one apart from Liverpool, I guess, who have hit real consistency. I guess some of it is on the back of some clubs having significant injuries, which will affect every team. Obviously, they've got strong squads but as you saw with us last year you get hit by injuries in certain areas and it will affect you, so that’s part of it. Other teams are showing some real consistency – Forest have been really, really good, Brighton have been good, so it feels more open, for sure. You have to wait until you get further into the season to see how it pans out because any club that gets hit with significant injuries in one particular area could have the same kind of challenges that some of the top clubs are.”

Number nines

Ange was asked whether he feels centre-forwards in the number nine position are starting to come to the fore again, following the performances of several key strikers across Europe – including our own Dominic Solanke…

Ange: “Look, I get that we love a trend, particularly one that lasts as long as three weeks in the game! But we've got Lewandowski, we've got Harry Kane… there's some pretty good strikers around the place. It's a challenging position for sure, it always has been, because scoring goals is still the most difficult thing to do. To play in that position you have to have a certain personality, a really strong mindset, because ultimately you never get a multitude of chances and that ability to forget what has happened before and focus on the next chance, when you get players like that, that's why they're worth their weight in gold. And I've left out a certain Haaland in that as well. We're really happy with Dom, not just his goals but his general play, the way he’s come into the club, he's become a bit of a leader on the field. It’s great for us, and I certainly believe there's more in him. I've always liked to play with strikers. I've dabbled with false nines, only because I was bored for a season! But if you've got a good striker, you put him in your team.”

Kulusevski’s midfield magic

Ange was asked if there was a specific moment when he decided to move Dejan Kulusevski into more of a central midfield role…

Ange: “No, not a specific moment. I think I've said before, I think with Deki, the way we get our wingers to play probably doesn’t suit him. Not his skillset, more I think his personality. He's just a player who is much more engaged in the game when he's constantly involved and bringing him to the central area means he's constantly doing that. At times with us last year, when he was on the wing, with the way our wingers play, you're not involved all the time, there's a discipline in keeping your position and sometimes not receiving the ball is part of that process. We put our wingers where we do to pin back oppositions. I could see he was… not frustrated, he just wanted to give more. So obviously towards the back end of last year we played him inside a couple of times, you could see him growing into that and certainly from the beginning of pre-season this year, it was always the intention to bring him inside and let him develop. And he has, and he's improving, that's the key thing. It's not like he's just gone inside, he's actually working on his game, areas where he can hurt the opposition, working on the defensive side of his game, because it's a little bit different to playing out on the wing. I think he's enjoying it, which obviously helps in terms of his own development.

“I looked at his background obviously, when he was growing up and when he first broke into the first team (at Atalanta), that was kind of his position. It's not that he can't play out wide, he got sort of put in that position because he was effective out there when he played, particularly in teams that played counter-attacking football, which allowed him then the space to run at people. You could see why he'd go out there. But some of it is just the natural development of players. There's plenty of wide players who end up playing inside because their game develops and they understand more about it. I think he's one of those.”

What does Ange feel Dejan can add to his game?

Ange: “That’s exactly my point, just constant improvement in everything. There's nothing he does that he can't improve on. With Deki, we're talking about ambition, if you speak to him, he's got pretty lofty ambitions for himself as a player and what he can do. With that kind of mindset he can improve in all facets of his game. He's already very, very effective for us with and without the ball. The exciting bit is that I think there's a lot more to come.”

Watch | Ange's pre-Ipswich press conference