Postecoglou on Son fitness, doing 'something special' and his future

[ASFN Admin]

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has been speaking to the media before Thursday's Europa League quarter-final second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt (kick-off 20:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Son Heung-min will miss the match on Thursday as he has "been battling with his foot problem for a few weeks" and after not training on Wednesday they decided to leave him out "to allow him to recuperate and see the best mode of recovery for him".
• Postecoglou added: "Look it's a blow but it's consistent with everything else that's happened this year, so it's just another challenge for us to overcome. The reason we left him out at the weekend was to give him time to recover because he's been struggling with this foot thing for a couple of weeks now, but he couldn't make it."
• The Spurs boss does not see the match "as salvaging the season", but as "an opportunity to do something special", adding: "You're at a point where you have got an opportunity to get to the semi-finals of a major competition. Obviously you know the challenge before you and that's the bit you're excited about."
• He added: "That has kind of been my message to the players. Irrespective of everything else that has happened this year, we're a game away from the final four of a major competition. We shouldn't take that for granted in terms of something that is a regular occurrence because it certainly hasn't been for this club, but we'll try to take advantage of that."
• On his position as Tottenham head coach: "I don't define my career or me as a person by what people think of me. I never have and never will. If you don't think I'm a good coach today then you are not going to think I'm a good coach tomorrow. Even if we win, mate, one game is not going to make a difference to that. If people think us winning tomorrow then all of a sudden I'm a better manager than what I am today, or losing tomorrow somehow makes me a worse manager, that is their burden, not mine."
• Postecoglou continued: "I couldn't care less, mate. I really couldn't care less. There's no burden on me, there is no anxiety on me. What I'm sitting here doing is thinking we've got a great opportunity to get to the final four of a major tournament. Mate, I'm not going to let that slip by without fighting tooth and nail for it irrespective of what may come the day after."
• On Guglielmo Vicario and Cristian Romero after Sunday's match: "They were disappointed, but the thing about both of them is they don't shy away from that responsibility. They owned up to it, the mistakes were on them but once we reviewed it and put it to bed, they trained the next day with the mentality you expect them to as leaders and experienced players. I guess if they were going to make errors like that, it's better they did it on Sunday than tomorrow night."

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[BBC]

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