Tottenham pulled off an excellent comeback against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night, which will give the Spurs players huge confidence as they make their way to Craven Cottage. Postecoglou first spoke on team news ahead of the game, which was all positive.
“Yeah pretty good. Nothing from last night. Everyone got through it well, and no one is coming back in. Obviously, Reguilon and Werner are available. Rodrigo Bentancur is available. Yeah, from last night, nothing untoward.”
Both Djed Spence and James Maddison both missed out on the England squad announced earlier today by new head coach Thomas Tuchel. Postecoglou says the team selection will always gather criticism and that his players will get into the side if they stay consistent.
“I’m not across it. I’m pretty critical myself when people question my selections because every manager has all of the information they need. Madders, in a really challenging season for us, has grinded his way through and his quality has really come through in the last few weeks — especially when we have been able to give him a spell (rest) every now and then. Again, last night I thought he was a real catalyst for us in an attacking sense and also worked hard for the team.
“Djed has been super this year. I always feel with these things, particularly with national team selection, it’s never a kind of thing where you just draw a line through it. I have no doubt if Djed keeps performing how he is and Madders keeps working hard I’m sure Thomas will be looking across the board at his squads over the next period and I’m sure both of them will be in the frame.”
Questions then turned to Lucas Bergvall and his physical side to the game which has been much discussed in recent months.
“I think everyone has worked with him, the coaches have worked with him, he's worked on it. I don't think he's left Deki's side since he's been here and Deki is in the gym all the time. He's a great role model for him and I think if nothing else, Deki has forced him to get in there and work hard on his game.
"He's also an outstanding technical player. I think his technical proficiency is still his greatest asset. He's growing, you've got to remember he's only just turned 19. He's still a very young man and if he keeps building up physically as well, to the standard the Premier League, particularly in that midfield position, you need, if you have that physical ability and that technical proficiency then you've got a decent player on your hands.”
Postecoglou then opened up on Bergvall’s discipline, which he says is one of many things the club have been helping him with since he joined the club to try to improve him as a player.
“I think he's had to work on that. Fair to say when he first got here the coaches spent a lot of time with him, working on his tactical awareness and being disciplined and again a big thing you look for in players is their coachability and their ability to take in information and then the ability to take that information to help them improve. He's certainly taken that on board.
“At the start it took him a little bit of time. He tended to run too much. I remember a couple of early games in Europe when he just ran out of steam because he was running too much. He was maybe overplaying the ball at times. He's simplified his game and the coaches have given him feedback and he's taken that on board.”