Ange Postecoglou has been under fire for a while but his latest win over Manchester United has brought him some respite, and he credits an upliftment of the team’s spirit for the result.
The Australian manager, who has dealt with calls for his exit and calls for an overhaul of his team in the past few weeks, and showed frustration, seemed relieved when speaking with the media after his team’s 1 – 0 win over Manchester United.
James Madison struck the only goal of the game and celebrated wildly with his teammates, who spent the rest of the game chasing a second goal but failing while defending well against their opponents.
Also, Tottenham Hotspur are still below the top 10 but now have all their injured players back which also gave Postecoglou some hope for the remainder of the season as he expressed in his post-match interview.
“I don’t know if confidence is the right word but you are right about lifting the mood and I sensed it in training,” the former Glasgow Celtic manager said. “Not just with the players but even the coaches. We have hardly trained the last two months.
“We have just gone out there and tried to work on things without putting a physical toll on the players because of the game schedule. We have had to do it with U21 and U18 players. This week all of a sudden we have had 20 senior fit players which gives everyone a boost.
“Training is more energetic and up tempo. The players and the coaches all respond to that and feeds in. That’s why I thought it was important today that we got a win. We can do that again this week and build into a big week. There’s no doubt.
“The players understand when they say the likes of Vicario, Maddison, Johnson, all training again they feel good as well. As much as all players want to play, they also knew they needed help and they got it this week.”
Then he added: “I think the important thing is that we did win today. It was an important game for us and an important week. We needed to put in a performance today to get us the result and I think we did that.
“That coupled with the fact that we’ve got some significant players back and they got through the game. They got through unscathed and really contributed, it was important for us. It signals a little bit of an opportunity for us to push on from here.
“Yeah, it does make a massive difference. Getting guys like Vic and Madders contributing straight away, you can see the quality they have and the presence they have. As you said I can put guys on and for guys like Brennan and Wilson, Vic, Madders to a certain extent, it might take them one or two games to get up to speed, but the fact we have them available, yeah, it’s an enormous boost for us.”
