Presser points | Coventry City vs Spurs | Ange Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media on Tuesday ahead of our Carabao Cup third round tie against Coventry City on Wednesday night (8pm UK).

Here's what he had to say...

Opportunity knocks

The press conference began with a question asking if this was a chance to get the season going and a chance to win silverware...

Ange: "Yes, every game is an opportunity for us to get on that road to success. The cup competitions there is a definite timeline there so you know you’ve got to win to progress so the focus is there."

Is experience key?

Ange was asked if it helped to have players like Cuti Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur in the squad - players who know how to win...

Ange: "Yes, it helps I guess because that experience of winning - as I said before - there is always common factors when you look across any successful endeavour around coherence and belief in each other and something, making sure you are disciplined in the way you behave and approach things to make sure you’re consistent there. It doesn’t matter who you are playing for or representing, there is always those common factors. The guys who have experienced this before, hopefully they can relay that to guys who don’t have that experience."

Team selection

Ange was asked if it was a balancing act - wanting to get momentum alongside our current schedule of playing seven games in 21 days - and would that affect his team selection at Coventry?

Ange: "I think the main thing is that we want to win tomorrow night, so you are looking at which players are in the best position to do that. You do take into account there was a game a couple of days ago so we are looking to see how they’ve recovered. We’ve got guys who haven’t played much who are ready to play and contribute. It's always about putting a team out that you think is going to win and get the job and that’s what we will do tomorrow."

Yves update

Ange was asked if Yves Bissouma - who was sidelined for the derby on Sunday - was back in contention...

Ange: "Biss is still not where we want him to be, hopefully there is still a chance that he will be okay for the weekend."

Will younger players get a chance?

Ange was asked - could we see players like Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Mikey Moore against Coventry?

Ange: "You can see them. Yeah, they might even be on the pitch mate. Yeah, they're ready to play and we're keen to get them some game time, that's why we brought them to the club. They're training really well and the games haven't gone the way we wanted in terms of giving them some more exposure but we always knew that this is the period where it starts, not just between now and the next international break, but post that, probably until the end of January, we're going to have a really busy schedule and they're going to play a big part in that. So guys like those three you mentioned, Wilson who hasn't played much so far, Pape and a lot of these guys, Radu, we're keen to get them playing because we're going to need them."

Game time

It was put to Ange that last season, he didn't have the number of games he wanted because we went out of cup competitions - as well as winning a trophy, would that be something he wants to impress on the team tomorrow?

Ange: "Yeah, I mean, we didn't have Europe last year either. So, you know, like I said, it was an unusual year last year where for a club of our size and with the squad we carry, we didn't really have the volume of games and going out in the first round of the Carabao Cup didn't help that. Look, it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to play, it's an opportunity to impress, it's an opportunity for us to advance in a competition and all those kind of things are still true and that's what we're focusing on."

Story so far...

It was put at Ange that, after four games, we could be sitting with four wins but we haven't, so how does he manage the winning mentality with his philosophy going forward?

Ange: "It's consistency and belief in what we're doing. I've said before, it's not an easy process. At times it can feel pretty disheartening when things don't happen smoothly, but I've always believed in certain things to be true, and one is that if you keep playing well, the results will come, but you just can't do that and expect it to happen. There's still elements in our game that we need to improve on. I think when you look at the four games, I think that you could summarise all four games in a very similar way of us, outperforming the opposition but not taking the critical moments in our favour and you pay a price for that. That doesn't mean you need to change your approach. If anything, you just need to keep doing what you're doing and make sure that in those critical moments, we take advantage of it."