Postecoglou reflects on last nights match against Liverpool in the Carabao Semi Final

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Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou is confident everything he is planning will come to fruition  07/02/2025  Tottenham Training Ground, London, UK

Transcript

00:00Morning, long old journey back, not much sleep I imagine, but a bit of time to reflect and

00:08as you sit here now are you any clearer in your mind as to why you didn't get

00:15to the levels you needed to in that semi-final last night?

00:20Oh not a lot of sort of clarity when you're talking you know a few hours later there's still

00:26kind of the emotions of it. As I said last night it was a disappointing night for us,

00:32disappointing night for the club, disappointing night in terms of the opportunity we had.

00:37I said after the game we didn't really perform to the levels we needed to and

00:41Liverpool were too good for us. We saw Richarlison go off with you said a cough injury,

00:48I guess you don't have much more than you had 12 hours ago, but is there anybody else likely to be

00:54back for that game on Sunday? No. In terms of wanting a reaction, have you even had a

01:04chance to speak to the players properly about why they weren't able to get to those levels?

01:09Most of them are still sleeping, we got back at 2am so I think what's more important for them is

01:15they rest up. I'll give them the feedback, give them feedback after the game, I don't need to

01:20give them too much feedback, they're all disappointed with the way things went last

01:23night but the reality is in 48 hours or so we've got a big game coming up, so recovery and get

01:31going again. In terms of that, getting the reaction, as you say you probably don't need

01:36to speak to the players because if there's anything about them they'll realise that they

01:40weren't where they needed to be. There's plenty about them, I'll get the pile on at the moment,

01:44it's really easy for people to stick their boots in and question the players and all that kind of

01:51stuff, but that's not something I question. We were disappointed last night, it didn't go the

01:57way we wanted to, we didn't really perform at the levels we wanted to, but that doesn't define

02:03this group of players by any stretch of my eyes. We'll go out there on Sunday and put on more of a

02:11performance that reflects where we're at. I guess what does define them is that reaction, are you

02:16pretty confident you'll get it from them? Well, like I said, I have a great deal of belief in

02:22this group of players and what they're going through and how they're dealing with it. They

02:25were disappointed last night, we're all disappointed, we'll learn from it and we'll move on.

02:31Do you have to take it all on your shoulders?

02:48No, it's not about taking it on my shoulders. As I said last night, it doesn't really

02:54kind of direct me in what I do and what I think. I'd say we're an easy mark at the moment,

03:00I'll get that. Obviously making a semi-final is an absolute disaster because if we didn't play

03:06well last night, I assume not making a semi-final would have put us in a better place. But that's

03:11the way people are kind of seeing us at the moment and we're an easy mark, like I said.

03:17So when we have a disappointing night like we did last night, it gives opportunity for everyone to

03:23sort of go as hard as they can, that's fine. It's only one way to change that, that's with us.

03:30Just getting back out there and playing football, I know we can, and getting a result on Sunday.

03:38In the past when that's happened to teams and they've been an easy target or there's been

03:42criticism from left, right and centre at them, they've used that as the fuel to go and prove

03:49people wrong, form them a better expression. Is that what you'll do ahead of Sunday?

03:54No, because I don't know which people I need to prove wrong. Like I said last night,

03:58it's irrelevant to me what other people's opinions are. You know, people are on the

04:05TV and the radio and used to be able to give opinions, so I respect that, they're allowed

04:09to do that. But that doesn't compel me, I have no obligation to listen to any of it or,

04:14like seriously, to get fuelled by comments made by people I've never even met.

04:20I don't know how you live your life, but I certainly don't live my life that way.

04:24That's with all respect for the fact that they are there to give an opinion, that's fine. But

04:29you know, it's not like I want to be successful here because I can go to these people and say to

04:34them, oh look, you were wrong. I don't even know them. Why would I care where they think we're at?

04:40They're a million miles away from us, but they're allowed to have their opinion.

04:44Oh, I said we're an easy mark at the moment. And look, after last night, there are times

04:49you've just got to take it, keep your counsel and atone for it in the way that only really

04:58matters and that is with playing the football on the weekend.

05:02Finally, with Sunday in mind, good thing that it's coming so quickly? Good thing or bad thing?

05:08Would you rather have had a week to get it out of the player system on the training ground or

05:12good thing because you can throw them straight out to the pitch and say, right, come on.

05:20We're 48 hours away from a game. I would much rather have had

05:24eight days to prepare like the other teams.

05:29Hi there, Ansh. I think you said it might have been seven to 10 days ago that you were hoping

05:34to have this bunch of players back in seven to 10 days. Is there a disappointment that none of

05:37them are available for such a big game? No, I didn't think anyone. We thought maybe,

05:42you know, Mickey was maybe a chance for Thursday. I didn't think this week. It was the start of

05:48next week where we're still hopeful we'll get at least two, maybe three back for the Man United

05:53game. You know, we've got two full weeks of training, which I think over these two weeks

05:59we'll get the majority of the players back with a bit of luck. Provided we don't lose anyone else

06:03like we lost Richie last night. So, you know, I knew this week was going to be a challenging week

06:09in terms of personnel because we just weren't going to get anyone back.

06:15And so, yes, there's no sort of disappointment with anyone missing out.

06:20Just on Richarlison, I think we've spoken before about the kind of the fragmented nature of his

06:25time at Tottenham. Is it getting to the point now where it's maybe going to be kind of worrying for

06:29like the long term future as well because he just cannot get any kind of head of steam going?

06:33Yeah, look, it's disappointing for him. And, you know, it was obviously,

06:37again, he was emotional last night because he'd worked really hard to get himself back. But

06:44again, it's another setback. You know, we're going to have to deal with,

06:48he's going to have to deal with and hopefully get him back as soon as possible.

06:53One positive from the game, Kevin Danso, did he at least prove

06:56exactly why you wanted to bring him in, played in your style?

06:59Yeah, I thought Kevin was really good. I thought Matisse was good considering,

07:02you know, we're sort of throwing him in a sort of difficult night. I'm sure they'll help us and

07:08I'm sure they'll feel better up last night getting that first game sort of under their belt and

07:13moving on from there.

07:14Hi, Ange. Do you feel like there's any extra pressure on Sunday's game because of the result

07:20last night?

07:21I think it's the same pressure. It's a knockout game. So, you know,

07:25you've got to get a result to progress. And had it gone any better last night,

07:31it wouldn't have made any difference to Sunday. It's still a game you have to win to progress.

07:36And given that Sunday's the last of a long run of Thursday, Sunday every week, basically for months,

07:44what does next week look like in terms of what's going to happen here?

07:47Well, look, we'll assess that after Sunday. But we know we've got two clear weeks.

07:54There's a number of our players who are scheduled to come back

07:58during that time. So we'll use it wisely to rest the guys who need rest. And certainly

08:04there's a fair few of them that need some rest and also hopefully get some work into the guys

08:08so that we've been out for quite a while to be ready for the challenge ahead. Because

08:13I think these two weeks we've got now will be really valuable for the finish of our season.

08:23I appreciate you're going to defend the squad and you've obviously got belief in the players,

08:27but last night didn't feel the first time some of the senior players in a big game have made

08:33mistakes or maybe not stepped up. Are you not sort of close to a point now with some of them where

08:38it's either time to move them on or you give opportunities to others if you have the options?

08:44Well, I don't mean opportunity to others. We're giving opportunity to everyone. I don't think

08:48you can be too harsh on them. I don't put any responsibility on the senior players last night.

08:55As a collective, we just didn't sort of tackle the challenge we had last night in the manner

09:00we needed to. And that's not the senior players. I think the senior players are carrying us through

09:07this in many respects. I don't know how many players were playing their first game at Anfield

09:14last night. All these kind of things you try and prepare the group for. I think it's fair to say

09:23we didn't handle the situation well, but that's not on the senior players. I've got no issue with

09:29the senior players and we don't have that many out there to be honest. Certainly they're trying

09:36as hard as they can. From my perspective, my role is to try and support and provide guidance so we

09:45can make amends for a poor performance last night. I know you've always been consistent that you're

09:54never going to ask for time and it's not going to be a five-year project. You're 18 months into

09:58this kind of rebuild and it feels like the squad is still quite far away from Liverpool. How many

10:05transfers, how many months, how long is it going to take you to bridge that gap?

10:12I know that this is all kind of reactive to last night and I get it. There was a big gap

10:16between us and Liverpool, but Vicario, Romario, Romero, Destiny, van der Veen, Solanke,

10:29Wilson Odiber. I could go on and on. I don't know, if you take seven or eight, we had ten missing

10:39last night, senior players. If you take seven or eight key players from any team and you're playing

10:45the best team in the league who are at their best, I don't think you make judgements in these moments.

10:52I get that people kind of, it kind of dulls the senses after a while when you say the same

10:58thing week after week and it sounds like, well, it is what it is. But that's the reality of our

11:05situation. A lot of the players that I've mentioned, Maddison, Brendan Johnson,

11:16I'm not making judgements on last night apart from the fact that we didn't perform

11:24the manner we wanted to. Even if we did, we may not have won anyway. The disappointing thing is

11:28we just didn't play the way we wanted to. So we need to address that.

11:36How important is it at Villa that you actually show more of the sort of football that you have

11:41by and large played for the majority of this time, even with the injuries?

11:45Yeah, look, I think that's probably our main sort of objective now is to get back to sort of

11:50playing a little bit more. Like ourselves, it won't be easy. Villa are a good side,

11:54obviously, playing them at home. And again, it's going to be a challenge with literally

12:00the same group of players backing up. But there's an opportunity for us there and

12:07we want to make sure that we tackle that opportunity in the right way.

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