Tottenham Hotspur

Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Richarlison, Udogie, Porro, Sessegnon, Solomon and Scarlett ahead of the Premier League match against Crystal Palace

Here’s every single word the Tottenham Hotspur head coach said in his press conference ahead of the Premier League match against Crystal Palace

Is there a possibility Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie will recover?

Because he’s trained, Destiny has a chance. Let’s see how he arrives.Pedro is most likely still a week away.

Six victories, six losses, and three ties have occurred since your last game against Crystal Palace. How do you think your team has fared over that time?

Quite mixed in a lot of ways. While there have undoubtedly been setbacks and injuries along the way, overall, I believe we’ve been competitive. Has our football team performed at the desired level? Most likely not, but I believe that our current situation is a result of the boys’ unwavering effort, determination, and competitive spirit.

With the majority of the squad available now, is the target still those Champions League spot?

First off, there have been a few injuries.Richardson will be absent for a fortnight or so. He will be sidelined for a short spell due to a knee injury sustained in the last game. Obviously, Ryan [Sessegnon] had a significant setback during the previous game, which is why we’re still short by a few numbers.

Nothing has changed from the beginning of the season until its conclusion. The goal is to continue improving our football, close off the season strongly, and mold our players into our preferred style of play. Not only will this allow us to see where we end up this year, but it will also position us for future success.

How proud were you to win the Manager of the Year award at the London Football Awards last night in your first season?

I said last night that it’s a bit weird, it’s only February, just into March, and I’m not really sure where that fits in terms of recognition. Having said that it is an acknowledgement of the work we’ve done since the start of the season, on the back of a disappointing year last year, so I guess we as a group made an impact.

It’s an acknowledgement of that so I need to appreciate that and feel honoured that that award, for want of a better word, was bestowed upon me, but we’ve still got a fair chunk of the season to go and our sights are firmly set ahead.

It was nice to be there though. It’s a great cause, the Willow Foundation and I got to meet Bob Wilson, had a great chat with Harry Redknapp which was nice as well. I’m still a bit of a fan with those things, bumped into a few legends, so it was still a nice night.

With this time off, how have you used this time?

We’ve tried to use it as a semi-normal week without a game. They haven’t had any time off. They’ve trained right through and it’s given us an opportunity to keep working on our game and those kind of things. It hasn’t been ideal. It’s felt a bit like that all season, it’s been a really disruptive season apart from maybe the first 10 or 11 games when we were playing regularly. We had a bit of momentum and it just feels like we’ve had a lot of stops and starts to our season. Now we’ve got a couple of games and again it’s the international break. After that break at least we know we’ve then got regular football until the end of the season.

Is it hard to face a new manager?

It’s always challenging because with your scouting you try to look at teams in recent games and with a new manager things adjust naturally. Usually there’s a positive effect when you a new manager comes in and you saw that last week with the way Crystal Palace went about things. Oliver’s a very well-credentialed coach, especially at Frankfurt he produced a really strong team with a really distinct style of play, so you’ll probably see elements of that.

At the same time, I think we’re at the stage of our development where real emphasis is still on us and playing our football and making sure we bring the kind of energy and commitment to our game that we’ve shown at times this year. But also the effort that’s got us to where we are right now. So that will be our main focus.

You must be disappointed for Richarlison and Sessegnon?

Yeah, with Richy, disappointed because he has obviously been a key contributor for us but it’s how our season’s gone. We get ne back, we lose one. We’ll just have to compensate for him being out. With Sess it is a tough one. Through no fault of his own he’s worked hard to try to come back and it’s always more challenging when it happens as a series of events and he hasn’t really had any reward in terms of the hard work he’s put in for his rehab to really get out there and play and do what he loves. And just show people his ability. It’s a tough one for him but he’ll get all the support he needs. He’s had his surgery now and he’s still a positive guy. He’s obviously been through this before so hopefully that helps him come back strong and get out there and play.

Would you like to see all internationals condensed into one period rather than across the season?

No, I don’t think so. Part of the reason for us is we’ve had no European football, we’re out of the Carabao Cup really early. Obviously we had a schedule change with the Chelsea game. It Just been a combination of things for us, not so much the international window. It’s just been a combination of things that hasn’t allowed us, apart from the start of the season, to have a serious run of games for us to build momentum and a bit of rhythm within the lads. And obviously we’ve had injuries which haven’t helped as well. It’s just been the nature of the season and you hope it’s unique. Hopefully next year will be different.

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