Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media after Tottenham’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim in the Europa League on Thursday evening and we’ve got every single word he said.
Just three minutes into the game in Germany, Pedro Porro knocked a ball over the top and James Maddison took a perfect touch to take it into his path before running on and firing home. A second Spurs goal came midway through the half when Maddison broke upfield and got the ball to Son Heung-min and the skipper ran on and fired a shot that hit a sliding defender and bounced up over the goalkeeper and into the net.
After the interval a penalty was awarded to Hoffenheim after an aerial collision between Brandon Austin and Max Moerstedt only for VAR to intervene just as the spot kick was about to be taken. The referee Morten Krogh went over to his pitchside monitor to see that the goalkeeper had got a hand to the ball in the action.
Hoffenheim did get one back soon after though with a break up the pitch that ended with Anton Stach getting into the box to touch a low cross home. Tottenham restored their advantage though when Rodrigo Bentancur intercepted a pass, gave it to substitute Mikey Moore and the 17-year-old laid it off to Son, who hit a clinical shot into the bottom right corner of the net.
Hoffenheim grabbed a late goal back when David Mokwa was left unmarked to head in a deep cross at the back post, but Spurs held on for all three points with five teenagers on the pitch.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou after the game and we’ve got a full transcript below from the press conference at the PreZero Arena.
What did you make of the performance and to do it with five teenagers on the pitch in the end?
Just outstanding by the players, full credit to them. Winning away in Europe is always difficult irrespective of the situation you’re in, but with the situation we’re in, just a really unbelievable effort. Great leadership by the experienced players. We really needed them to stand up today. I thought Madders, Sonny, Rodrigo and Benny were outstanding.
In the first half I thought we played really well. We created some really good opportunities for ourselves and maybe could’ve had one or two more. Second half we looked little bit fatigued and had to hold on a little bit and defend a lot more, which we did okay on the most part.
When they scored the game tightens up but it was a great finish by Sonny to give us that extra buffer. Yeah we finished with five teenagers, Brandon’s first game in Europe and second game overall.
I think you take European victories for granted, but it was a really unbelievable effort and a really strong-willed group of players today and credit to them.
When you’ve had difficult spells before, what helped you get through it and get success in the end?
I think for me, I’ve been doing this for a long time now and what’s important is that you have a really strong belief in what you’re doing and not get influenced by noise and not get influenced by what the current mood is in terms of people’s assessment of where you’re at.
For me that’s always been the most important thing. I firmly believe in what we’re doing, I firmly believe that we’re on the right road. Whether others agree with that is irrelevant to me. It doesn’t make any decision. It doesn’t affect my decision-making or my interaction with the people at the club and particularly the players and staff.
They’re my focus and they’re who I need to make sure that they have the belief. If they still have the belief then I know we can achieve success. So, it’s not easy to be fair because there’s a lot of noise. In the Premier League there’s the most noise so you have to deal with that but in the end it’s just noise.
You chose Brandon Austin and he put in a really good performance, can you talk us through that decision?
Obviously even when signed Toni, in terms of European football we knew we still need Fraser Forster and Brandon. Brandon did really well in the game he played and he’s trained really strongly since.
We knew this game would be a bit of a target for him and Fraser had an illness that knocked him back a bit and set him back a bit, but I just felt on the back of his performance in the league game that Brandon deserved a crack at it and I thought he did well tonight. You can’t underestimate European football away from home, especially the first game, with a pretty relatively inexperienced team in front of him and I thought he handled it really well and we’ll need him again next week.
What’s the latest on Dominic Solanke’s injury?
With Dom, the information now is that we are looking at around the six-week mark. No surgery. Maybe we can get him back a little bit earlier, just see how he progresses. But at this stage it’s saying around six weeks.
Sonny has had some stick and he produced a couple of important goals. What will that do to him?
I thought he really stood up today. We needed him to. Him, Madders, Rodri, Benny, a lot of our other players, it’s not just Lucas, Archie, Radu and our young players. We also have to factor into it that Richy is just coming back from injury. There is a whole range of things we are dealing with out there. It can be easy, particularly away in Europe, to get swept away.
I thought Sonny led from the front tonight with his football but also with his general actions and most importantly the goals. Look, we are all copping stick at the moment. That is the nature of the beast. What we do, as footballers and managers, we are all in the firing line at the moment. Whether it is warranted or not, you have to stand up and reply to it in the proper way. I thought he did that tonight.
Is it a similar story with James Maddison? He looked hungry to prove a point.
Yeah, you need to respond in the right manner and I thought Madders was outstanding tonight. These players are exhausted, mate. They are professional footballers who are just 24/7 trying to recover right now. All of them. They are giving everything.
I know somebody said yesterday to me, that I could not believe, that maybe they are prioritising one game over another. These guys are giving everything they can. It should not be dismissed that I had five teenagers [on the pitch]. We are a Premier League outfit playing in an away game in Europe and we had five teenagers out there. It is pretty much unheard of in an important game, not a dead rubber. And that goes to show the load these guys are willing to take on themselves, without making excuses.
I could not speak highly enough of the players carrying us through. They will get some help hopefully soon with some players coming back. We are in a real good position in Europe. Get to the knockout rounds home and away, get our players back and we will back ourselves against anyone. The fact that these guys have got us to this position — Madders and all the players that have carried us through — credit to them.
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