Ange Postecoglou unique: Tottenham boss concentrating on silverware in his second season in cost

“Usually in my second season I win things.”

Ange Postecoglou’s phrases might be music to the ears of Tottenham followers, who’ve been starved of silverware for greater than 16 years.

The Australian’s hopes of profitable Spurs’ first trophy since 2008 seem to have been considerably heightened following the club-record signing of Dominic Solanke.

His £65m arrival from Bournemouth lastly fills the Harry Kane void and provides Postecoglou the No 9 he sought to maneuver the group ahead.

Talking completely to Sky Sports activities two days earlier than Solanke’s signing, Postecoglou was already in an optimistic temper forward of his second season in cost as he mentioned how his group can enhance from their fifth-placed end, James Maddison’s type and the summer time switch window…

What did you get from this pre-season?

“Positively a progress within the gamers. Their understanding and their embracing of the best way we practice and the best way we do issues. It was all very new to them final yr, it is truthful to say. It was a reasonably drastic departure from what they’d been used to.

“Whenever you have that change, there’s always a little bit of uncertainty. They look more comfortable this year in embracing what we’re going to do and what we have been doing. Again, that’s good for me and the other coaches because it allows us to say we’ve now got to challenge them and ourselves to make sure what we’re delivering is at a bigger level than it was last year.”

How do you are feeling about your second season in cost?

“I guess I’m not the shiny new thing anymore, so there’s other new managers. People can go off and discover them and their childhood and not have to speak about mine anymore.

“Normally in my second season I win issues. That is the entire concept. First yr is about establishing rules and making a basis. Hopefully the second yr goes onto win issues. After all it is simpler stated than finished, significantly within the Premier League and the competitors we’re in. That is at all times the best way I’ve checked out it, is that the second yr you need to be able the place you possibly can push on, relying on how the primary yr has gone.

“Last year we had some really good moments, obviously we had some tough moments. I think we learnt as much from the tough moments as we did from the good stuff and hopefully that means we’re in a good place. We’re definitely a better-prepared team than we were last year.”

What is the subsequent step for this group?

“What we actually discovered final yr, and it was no shock, was that each time we had disruptions, whether or not that was accidents or suspensions, we lacked some self-discipline, we actually struggled to keep up the degrees of soccer that we established when everybody was up and operating.

“Invariably in any year you’re going to have some challenges. It’s about coping with that better. Having a better squad hopefully copes with that. A better understanding of, through that time, what we need to focus on. That means to me that we’re better prepared for the challenges that are always there.

“It would not matter which group you might be or how you probably did final yr, each group will go into this season realizing there’s going to be a difficult interval for them. And hopefully with what we went by way of final yr, what we learnt and the event of gamers… as a result of we’re nonetheless a really younger group and numerous them it was their first yr within the Premier League or their first yr at Tottenham. Whenever you’re a benchmark I feel most of them left a reasonably first rate one final yr, so if we will enhance on that that can put us in a reasonably good house.”

Which specific aspects do you think need some polishing?

“I feel in all elements. The very first thing is, have I bought a bunch of gamers who consider in what we’re making an attempt to do? I actually do consider that. That is the primary a part of any type of course of. We have purchased into the best way we need to play as a result of it is difficult. You have to be courageous. You’ve got bought to have the ability to do issues a bit of bit otherwise, positionally, or in the best way we strategy video games. You have to have an open thoughts about that. The primary yr is about making an attempt to get individuals to consider in that.

“Probably because we got off to such a great start, that there wasn’t too much resistance. The players bought into it, they enjoyed it and they wanted more of it. But now it’s about doing that on a more consistent basis and not allowing, whether that’s oppositions or outside influences, to take us off the road we’re on. I thought it happened too often last year where there was an opposition tactic, or something we did self-inflicted – whether that was a lack of discipline or we had injuries and we had to shuffle the team around. We didn’t stay as consistent in our approach. But I think for the most part, the players still tried to do what we wanted them to do. Hopefully we execute better.”

After James Maddison’s England omission for Euro 2024, did you will have an opportunity to talk to him about it?

“I haven’t had an extensive chat with him. But again, I think that’s part of a footballer’s journey. I’ve often said that I think sometimes we see things in such a linear sort of way where we think that everything is going to be great and it never is. You could be the greatest at something but there’s going to be challenges, there’s going to be stumbles along the way and it’s how you react to them, what you do about them. How you embrace the next challenge that comes along.

“For Madders I am certain he was enormously upset in lacking out as a result of he’d been part of that group that went on that journey. However he is nonetheless bought loads of soccer in him and there is nonetheless challenges there for him. It is the way you cope with that. Do you sort of simply write it off or do you employ it as motivation transferring ahead? Do you employ it as possibly a time of self-reflection to say, effectively, may I’ve finished something higher? Whenever you’re trustworthy with your self and ask these questions, you would possibly discover that, no, really I am nonetheless on the proper path. However it’s essential to try this and use that transferring ahead.

“He’s been great since we got back. His season last year kind of reflected ours. He was unbelievable when he was up and going and then he had injuries. It was a bit of a grind when he did get back and that was kind of us as a team, so hopefully the way we’ve learned as a team he’s learned about as an individual – because he’s a big part of our side. We’ve got a very young team and he’s one that has that experience, has that quality and one we’ll be looking for to guide us through it.”

How a lot do you depend on signings to visualise a brand new season?

“It’s an important part of the process and I think it comes back to what I’ve often said – part of recruiting is understanding you’re not recruiting footballers, you’re recruiting people. What kind of person are they? Why do they want to come to Tottenham? Are they ambitious? Do they have an open mind? Are they prepared to take on the enormous challenge of creating something special at the club that has that success? All these kinds of things, and hopefully the stuff that they’ve already identified so that when they come here they feel like it’s the right place for them.

“Hopefully they stroll right into a dressing room of like-minded people who all have that sort of mindset. That helps them then visualise what we’re making an attempt to construct. It is most likely a neater course of for guys, new gamers coming on this yr as a result of they stroll right into a dressing room and the fellows could have absolute readability and provides them absolute readability of what they’re all making an attempt to do. Whereas final yr it was extra about me making an attempt to create that atmosphere, me making an attempt to color these footage to everybody, not simply the gamers and workers, however everybody on the soccer membership.

“Hopefully this year, for the guys we’ve brought in so far, they walk into a dressing room and they can feel exactly what we’re trying to do.”

In technical phrases, what do you look particularly at in an attacking participant?

“Whether or not it is an attacking participant or any participant, what I feel individuals have hopefully understood is that we now have an actual id to how we play our soccer. You sort of know when Tottenham performs, we will have two wingers on the market, we will be very, superb at taking gamers on, being actually aggressive with their play, with the ability to press.

“If I’m looking for a left winger, they’re the kind of attributes that are pretty clear that we need to see in them because ultimately there’s fantastic footballers all over the world. You can pick any one of them and they’d be unbelievable, but I’ve got to see them in my team in the way we want to play. They’ve got to have those attributes.

“In a method that makes the method simpler, nevertheless it’s additionally difficult as a result of it is a a lot smaller area that you are looking at. In at this time’s market, it is not simple to get that squad of gamers when it is so aggressive. For me, whether or not that is an attacking participant or any participant, it is do I see them in our group tomorrow with the attributes they’ve? Clearly we have got to educate them and assist them by way of the method. Have they got these qualities that I see them taking part in in our group? In the event that they tick that field, then that is an enormous a part of us saying, ‘Properly okay, I feel you will be a superb match’.”

What are you able to say to these followers who’re anxious through the summer time switch window? (Talking earlier than Spurs introduced the signings of Dominic Solanke and Wilson Odobert)

“I understand that anxiety because every transfer window is your only opportunity to improve your playing personnel and your squad.

“I prefer to suppose in each window up to now we now have strengthened. Actually final yr we introduced in some improbable footballers. In January, we introduced in Radu Dragusin and Timo Werner. We have introduced in two younger guys – Archie Grey, who’s a improbable younger expertise, and Lucas (Bergvall) joins us, although we signed him in January, however we nonetheless have work to do. There isn’t any doubt about that. That is the character of the switch market.

“For me, I have just as much anxiety because it’s the part of the year I have least control over. It would be great if I had total control over everything, including what other clubs did, but that doesn’t happen.

“I perceive the place the followers sit with it. My position inside that’s to attempt to keep calm, keep disciplined and ensure that come the top of the window, which is an important time, we have had one other optimistic window in that we have made our squad and our group stronger.”