Presser points | Spurs vs Villa | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media at Hotspur Way on Friday, ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash against Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (2pm UK).

Here's what he had to say...

Team news

First up, updates on Micky van de Ven, Heung-Min Son, Cuti Romero and Timo Werner...

Ange: "The main one is Micky and he has sort of strained a hamstring. It is not too serious but probably after the international break for him. The other ones who were a bit sore were Romero and Werner but at the moment there is still a chance for the weekend. Sonny has trained today so if he gets through training tomorrow, he should be okay."

Ange was then asked if it appeared that Micky's hamstring issue was less serious than last season's that kept him out from November-January...

Ange: "He was disappointed obviously. He was really looking forward to the game so he was a bit emotional. It is definitely not, knock-on-wood, a bad one like last time which kept him out for quite a while. He will work hard and the good thing is there is an international break in there which is an extra two weeks for us. So hopefully it means he doesn’t miss too much football."

Highs and lows

It was put to Ange that fans needed to understand that there will be highs and lows as the team evolves...

Ange: "I keep saying this, fans are fans. There isn't a fan around the world who doesn't want their team to always be playing well. What we have to do, before the game and after the game is stay really focused on continuing to evolve into the team we want to be. At the moment, in the league, we have had some disappointing results but really only one disappointing performance and that was the Palace game. It wasn't a great performance, and we got what we deserved. We have to focus on that we continue to evolve, and learn from that, when we have had disappointments, we bounce back straight away which I think is important it is part of the evolution of the team. It is not going to be a smooth ride but within that, we don't want there to be too many times when we are not playing the football we want to. That is the benchmark for us, that is our measure, and Palace fell well short of that. Wednesday night was a lot better."

8/10

It was put to Ange that the team has won eight of the last 10 games in all competitions - did he feel we deserve more credit? 

Ange: "You get what you deserve, so I probably deserve whatever I am getting! I think it is fair enough depending on your outlook. Whether it is deserved or not, I try to make the point that criticism and scrutiny is healthy because it allows you to reflect on your beliefs and your convictions. Because if you are going to flinch at the first time people are critical or want you to change your path then it probably means you are not definite about what you are doing. It's not something I think 'ah we are copping too much criticism' or unwanted criticism. In fact, if it is unwanted even more that we shouldn't react to it. It is up to us how we behave in that environment because I don't think that ever changes. Even if we went on another fantastic run, at the first sign of us maybe faltering the same sort of questions would come because it is kind of where we are at as a club at the moment. Until we have success then I think that is always going to be the first thing people come at us about as a club and you have got to accept that. It is part of our journey and part of us becoming stronger. And like I said, having real conviction in what we do. I have said it to the players, if you want to grow a beautiful garden you have to handle some fertilizer. That is the only way it will happen."

Unai Emery

Ange was asked how important an appointment was Unai Emery for Villa...

Ange: "Yeah, great appointment. But it shouldn't surprise anyone, he was an outstanding manager before he got there. He's done an outstanding job and another cautionary tale about writing people off because when he was at Arsenal, people were quick to be dismissive of him. Lots of other people's memories have faded. When you're a manager and you see a manager going through what he did, it's firmly imprinted in your mind, it just goes to show, as I said, he was an outstanding manager and for Villa, they identified somebody that could come in and really bring their football club to the levels they wanted to, and he's done that. Since he's been there they continue to get stronger and challenge and it'll be a good test for us. Our games against them have been really good. Last year, we won at their place and played really well but I thought we played well at our place too but they got on top of us, they got ahead of us for the Champions League last year. It's great competition for us."

The S word

It was put to Ange that the team wasn't 'Spursy' against City in the Carabao Cup, holding on at 2-1 after conceding just before half-time. What has changed?

Ange: "Yeah, I don't know about that. I still think that's something, what I've said before, people will always kind of, every time we have stumble people are going to throw at us. You have to accept that, whether you believe that you're not that any more, you have to accept that you can prove otherwise. I think the other night was a really strong performance against a pretty formidable side where we had to show every aspect of our game. We had to defend well, which I thought we really did because they didn't really create too many clear-cut opportunities against us which against City that's your best possible case of keeping them out - because it's the volume of chances that kind of erodes your ability to keep them out. I think we had quality the other way, we created the best chances of the game, had a little bit of everything. It was an unbelievable physical effort from the lads. Even the physical numbers we did after, the amount of running the boys had to do. That's just, I think, what you have to do against a team like City if you want to be successful. So, there's a lot of positives for us but again, I said this after the game, we're still the same team that performed poorly against Crystal Palace. Nothing changed in those three days apart from us addressing some aspects of our football to stay true to that. If we don't veer from that, we'll get to where we want to."

Radu Dragusin

Ange was asked for his thoughts on Radu Dragusin...

Ange: "Radu's been with us 10 months now and I think he's been great. We signed him because we saw some really strong attributes in him in terms of his defending capabilities, his mindset and again a really unique journey that he had to fight hard to get where he wants to. So, he had all those things I look for. He is still young and he is working hard every day on his game and all aspects of his game. Defenders you know they tend to get better with age with experience, the good ones, and with him, guys like Micky and Destiny, the reason we signed them at the age they did is we really believe in years to come they'll get stronger and he is doing that. Every time he is out there I think I can see improvements. He is really embracing the way we play. It is very different to where he came from, playing so aggressively with our line and defending one-on-one but he's embracing that and enjoying that. I thought he was great the other night. Not just in his football but in terms of his presence and demeanour, he took some leadership there. Obviously, we lost two of our back four during the game with Micky going down and then Cuti out. He had Archie next to him who is 18 and I thought he really stood up in that time just to make sure with those disruptions, we maintained our organisation and I thought he was really good."

Dejan Kulusevski

It was put to Ange that he'd played Deki in the more central 8/10 role against Villa at home last season - was that a reference point for his move central this season?

Ange: "Yeah some of it. It was a little bit of discovery you know of just trying things. He always looked like he had the attributes to play inside but unless you do that, you're not sure. As I said, I think as much as I wanted to play him out on the wing, the way we play I don't think it suited his personality more than anything else because Deki loves to be involved in the game. His running capacity is ridiculous and he wants to be involved all the time. When you play wing in our set-up, there are a lot of times where the discipline of it is not being involved. I think he struggled with that as much as he was trying to and it's through discovery he's ended up in the area where he is most suited in our football and he is growing enormous and improving all the time. He was disappointed with his performance at Palace as well and again that is part of the journey of him understanding why things didn't click at Palace and he was back to his best on Wednesday night. When you have that running capacity and the quality he has, it's a hell of a weapon and it's one we can certainly benefit from."

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