Ange Postecoglou after Spurs' 4-1 win over West Ham(Image: Chloe Knott - Danehouse/Getty Images)

Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Maddison, 'outstanding' Udogie and what he told Spurs stars

Here is every word Ange Postecoglou had to say in his post-match press conference following Tottenham's 4-1 win against West Ham on Saturday afternoon

19 Oct 2024, 14:43 by Rob Guest · football.london

Ange Postecoglou has spoken to the media following Tottenham's 4-1 demolition of West Ham. The Spurs boss made two changes to his team for the London derby as Son Heung-min and Yves Bissouma came into the side.

Spurs did fall behind to Mohammed Kudus' goal in the 18th minute but they reacted extremely well to the setback and got back on level terms through Dejan Kulusevski. Tottenham completed the turnaround in the second half after scoring three times in eight minutes.

Going ahead courtesy of Bissouma's finish, a Jean-Clair Todibo own goal and a strike from Son completed the scoring for the hosts. West Ham were reduced to ten men in the closing minutes with Kudus seeing red after striking Micky van de Ven and Pape Matar Sarr in the face.

You can read what Postecoglou had to say in his post-match press conference right here.

You must have been pleased with the second half?

It was very good. Even the first half we had to work pretty hard, it was a bit of an arm wrestle. They're a big, physical team and you have to match them in certain areas. Obviously disappointing to concede but we worked our way back into the game and had some good chances in the late first half and got our rewards for it.

Second half we went up a gear and again I thought our football was excellent but we did some of that hard stuff we needed to do to gain control particularly in the midfield area and it gave us a good platform.

Was that a tactical substitution with James Maddison going off and Pape Matar Sarr coming on?

I just felt West Ham ask you certain questions in midfield areas and I just felt Pape's running power would help us in the second half. They obviously worked hard in the first half and I thought he could give us some real energy. I thought he did really well and he gave us a platform to really threatening every time we want forward and clinical in our football.

Dejan Kulusevski has had a really good season and he's now captaining Sweden, he's someone else you can really count on...

Absolutely. Deki is captain of Sweden, Biss is captain of his [nation]. As I said the other day, it's not just about one or two. It was good to get the real captain out there and fair to say great to get Sonny out there. He's obviously a quality player and we saw that with his finish.

I just thought it was a real strong overall performance and it needed to show us to show various facets which is probably the most pleasing thing.

The midfield battle was pressing at its best...

When you look at their midfield they have guys like [Tomas] Soucek who is a big, physical presence and [Lucas] Paqueta and [Guido] Rodriguez who is technically quite good. You need to win that battle because if they get it to their front players under control then they are really threatening and all three of them are quick and dynamic.

We needed to stop it at the source so to speak and I thought we did that really well. I said it was a bit of an arm wrestle at the start but I thought we maintained our intensity and eventually broke them.

Is that your football at its best when you pick out an area of your opposition to work on and maybe exploit something and turn it over?

That's part of the evolution of the team and where we want to get to. It's a little bit of us making sure, I made it pretty clear about the Brighton game, there's certain principles underpinning our football which allows us to be the expansive and creative team we are.

There's some real emphasis on hard work, organisation and discipline and we had to show both today. I don't think we would've been as dominant in the second half if we'd not had that underpinning of a strong foundation there.

What did you make of the Kudus red?

I think the referee handled it. Players are frustrated out there and I'll let the referees deal with that.

Is a derby win important for you as before today you had not beaten West Ham, Chelsea or Arsenal?

I guess so when you put it in that frame of reference. It’s important for our fans for sure because these are the games they want to feel good about and win obviously. Personally for me any game we win I get equal joy out of it as I've always said.

Part of the kind of momentum we built in the second half came through the edge the supporters gave us, especially after the second goal you could really feel the atmosphere inside the stadium lift and that pushed us along and we had a 15-20min spell where we were outstanding.

It goes hand in hand. We need the supporters especially at home to provide but to be able to provide we need to give them something in return. Today is hopefully a little bit of a reward for our fans.

Was that a big day for Destiny Udogie as he would have been disappointed by the goal but he bounced back well and it felt like the Destiny of last season?

He was better. I still think for their goal he could’ve done better. We've got to continually work with Destiny as he's still a young players, it's his second year in the Premier League but I've got no doubt that he's going to become an outstanding player for us. The only way he's going to become an outstanding player for us is if we keep exposing him, playing him and letting him learn from his mistakes.

It's part of the process for young players that you have to expect that it's not going to be smooth but you know eventually you're going to have a fantastic footballer. I've no doubt about that with Destiny. I've absolutely no doubt. We're constantly working at his game, constantly working at areas for him to improve and the beauty of it is that he wants to and he embraces it. I thought after the goal he bounced back really well.

[Jarrod] Bowen is not an easy player at all to play against and their front three are tough for anybody because they have the quality to beat you on the dribble, they're quick and they're all very strong. It was a big challenge for our full-backs today and I thought, like I said I was disappointed with the goal. but I thought they handled it really well.

What was the reason for Djed Spence's absence today?

He picked up a bit of a groin strain in training. Hopefully nothing too bad but he missed out today.

Kulusevski been in middle areas this season, his physicality seemed really important today and he enjoys that?

Yeah he has been doing that all year and the evolution of Deki as a player, that is now his role not just for us but he's playing there for the national team too. He's got this ability to get out of tight spaces and he's a really strong runner. He is relentless in his running capacity and he also has the quality.

In that final third I still think we can get more goals out of him, more assists but he is constantly in those threatening areas and he's been outstanding for us all year. Today he had to show some other facets of the game, some defensive work as well which I thought he did well but I thought the whole team did well.

I mentioned it to the lads, I know Brennan Johnson didn't score today but I thought that was his best performance for us with the amount of work he did to help out Pedro and help out the team in a defensive capacity and still be a threat going the other way.

That is the stuff we have to keep focusing on so what happened at Brighton doesn't happen again and the players understand whatever good things emerge from our football, the foundation is players doing some of the other things which are just as important.

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