Tribal Football

Postecoglou speaks on facing Man City, Bentancur's new contract and Solanke's return

Zack Oaten
Postecoglou speaks on facing Man City, Bentancur's new contract and Solanke's return
Postecoglou speaks on facing Man City, Bentancur's new contract and Solanke's returnAction Plus
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has spoken in his latest press conference as he prepares to take on Manchester City on Wednesday night.

After wins against Manchester United and Ipswich Town, Spurs face a City side who are coming off losses to Real Madrid and Liverpool. Tottenham won the reverse fixture 4-0 and Postecoglou will be hoping for a similar result now that many of his first-team players have returned from injury. 

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Postecoglou first gave an update on his squad and revealed that nobody has picked up any injuries from the win over Ipswich. 

"Everyone who played (against Ipswich at the weekend) got through really well, and it will be a similar sort of squad for tomorrow." 

He also said that Ben Davies won't be available for the game but that Richarlison, Cristian Romero, Dominic Solanke and Micky van de Ven are "all tracking really well" with returns likely in the "next seven to 10 days." 

The Tottenham head coach then praised opponents Manchester City and manager Pep Guardiola despite their struggles so far this season which has left them out of multiple competitions including the Champions League. 

"You're always looking forward to the challenge. Manchester City are an outstanding football club, a great manager, still got great footballers and still play really challenging football to any opponent. 

"We've enjoyed our games against them, whether that was this year or last year. They're going to try and win, they're going to try and play expansively and we are going to try and do the same. It's going to be a good test for us." 

Rodrigo Bentancur was the next topic of conversation and Postecoglou stated that him potentially signing a new contract could be on the horizon due to his excellent form. 

"Rodri has been great. In terms of his contract situation, that is handled by other people. In this later period, he is really getting back to the levels he wants to be at. 

"He just needs regular game time and he is getting up to speed. Really good guy around the group and he's experienced now. From our perspective, in this run in, he's going to be really important." 

Finally, he spoke on youngster Dane Scarlett who at just 20 years old grabbed an assist against Ipswich after he set up Dejan Kulusevski in the final goal of the game. 

“Yeah, look, he's working hard, Dane, like you said, he's had a couple of difficult loans and that's part of the process as well for him. We were just talking about Djed, who had three difficult loans, so some of it is just perseverance and keep working hard and waiting for your opportunity. He has done well for us. I said when he came back, he wasn't in the greatest physical condition and he's working hard on that and hopefully, he gets more opportunities. 

“As an aside, I've got to say the assist is the most useless statistic in world football. Seriously, it could come off your backside, fall to somebody on the halfway line he scores, and it's an assist. So it doesn't impress me, but Dane's assist at the weekend was a good one.”