Will Carlos Vinicius and Gareth Bale start tomorrow?
The only player that I confirm is Davinson Sanchez because he comes to the press conference and I hope you have many questions for him but don’t ask him any questions about the amazing goal he scored on Sunday.
But you said Bale might start if he didn’t on Thursday?
I’m not going to answer and tell the team. Only Davinson. We have everybody selected. These guys are not old fashioned like the Premier League and they allow us to go with a squad of 23 players, so everybody is selected. Tanganga and Eric Dier are still injured and apart from that, and the boys I had to leave outside the Europa League [squad], everybody is selected.
What do you think of the stories about a European Super League?
I leave it for Mr Levy. In this moment I’m playing Europa League and that’s not the competition we want to be in but is the competition we fought a lot after the lockdown to be able to play. We already did a few miles to Macedonia and Bulgaria to be able to be in the group phase, and our focus now is the Europa League, competition where we are.
A team you never played in LASK, does that excite you?
Difficult team. I played against Austrian teams before but LASK the first time. From my analysis, my point my view, they can be a very difficult opponent. In both matches to qualify for the group phase, they were playing for a long time against ten men and that makes a difference of course. But before, when it was 11 against 11, they were always very dominant. They are a team that wants to dominate, to always press in the opposition half. They’re a very difficult team and I like to play against difficult teams.
Can you win the competition?
We’re going to try. It’s the third time I played the competition and the other two times, one with Porto and one with United, we managed to win it. So the record in the Europa League is great, never knocked out. Of course, lost a few matches in the group phase but managed always to win it. It is difficult, it is a very long competition, the group phase is tricky then you go to the knockouts and you get teams coming from the Champions League which is very unfair. If you play Champions League and you don’t qualify you go home. In the Europa League group phase if you finish third you go home, you don’t have another competition to play. It is what it is. A very long competition and difficult, but at this moment let’s focus on the points we need, 10, 11 points you need to qualify through the group stage.
How hard was it to leave Gedson and Paulo Gazzaniga out of the Europa League squad?
It is very difficult, to leave a player out is like to stop the player to fight for something he wants, that is always is very, very hard. The good thing is in January you can change, so if you have a different view you change. The Gazzaniga situation, with Hugo and Joe we believe that for the next couple of months we can do it with an academy goalkeeper, with a young English kid. The problem is with the foreign players, we have some players like Ben Davies, like Matt Doherty that they are homegrown in the Premier League but not in Europe and that creates a problem. It is sad to leave people out but we have to make decisions.
What can fans expect from Joe Rodon and how quickly can he adapt to the Premier League?
Let’s see. Fundamentally let’s see how he adapts to us in training, to the different level, to the different intensity. He has already a little bit of experience in the Championship, with Wales and for some reason we got him. We got him because we see a future in him and a player that can be adapted to the way we want to play. Let’s work and let’s see the evolution and step by step he will be there.
Are you aware of the term ‘Spursy’? How do you stop them being like that?
The nomination is not important for me. The past is not important for me. The future is of course important for me. What can I say, we are a team in evolution. I believe that nobody played better than us with the ball, which is a big evolution from last season. We are a very exciting team to watch I believe, and that is very important and that is the DNA we want to have. Is that enough to win football matches? No. You have the proof, that we only have eight points when we played so amazing in every match apart from the Everton match. But Southampton, Newcastle, Manchester United, West Ham, we played amazing football and this is very difficult to do but we are doing it. Of course we need to play for a result and we have to learn how to do it.
Is that mentality or game management?
To be honest what happened is a little bit out of context from what happened the rest of the season. Against Southampton we were losing and we were strong enough to change the result. At Manchester United the worst thing happened, which was after one minute we were losing and we were strong enough to change that result. Against Newcastle, we were solid, we weren’t playing amazing, we were solid, and then what happened is one of the beauties of the VAR this season. So this game was completely out of context. I believe that winning 3-0 in minute 80 we could play 50 more matches and it’s not going to happen again. So I don’t want to be sticking on this and stories about Spursy, or this kind of thing. We have to just defend better at set pieces, because even defensively the team is playing very well. We conceded one single goal from open play against Southampton, one. Apart from that penalties, lateral free-kicks, VAR goals, and we are quite solid.
A little while ago you scouted Marko Arnautovic. Do you have any Austrians on your radar at the moment?
Marko was not me scouting him, it was a very good technical director that I had at Inter that saw him and believed he was a player with a future. And despite Marko being very young. And we got him. To be honest I think in football now it’s very difficult now for us coaches to be scouting, very difficult. I don’t find time enough to be scouting. The work is very hard for us coaches, the market is wide open all over the world. Talented players are born every day so I leave scouting more for the structure than for myself. But, without giving you any name I would say that Austrian football is in an evolution period. I think you had a great period of your history with incredible players like Prohaska and Krankl and all these big guys. Then you had a dark period where not even at the national team level the talent was coming, but now you have good teams, competitive teams. You have good players, the league is getting much better, the league is getting more exciting. You have clubs like Red Bull Salzburg, Rapid Vienna, LASK Linz. You have good teams so also the national team is improving, and some of the players you have abroad. So I think probably another golden period is arriving for you. Jose Mourinho confirmed that he will be without Eric Dier and Japhet Tanganga for Thursday night’s clash with LASK (Image: 2020 Tottenham Hotspur FC)
Is Austria at the same level as Portugal?
No. I think Portugal at this moment they have one of the best national teams in the world, and not just 11 players. Portugal is in a moment now where the players, they are developing a lot in their country. They leave the country very very early to top clubs, you see where the Portuguese players where they are and they are almost all at the top clubs in Europe, and that leaves space for other young players to come through the academies and play in the Portuguese league. Portugal in this moment is a very strong country that I think even at the national team level at the next Euros and World Cup they are going to be there fighting.
Do you think LASK have a chance of getting through, together with you?
Together with me or without us? We have to make sure that the stats don’t make us believe it’s done. We need nine, 10, 11 points to make it. We will have two matches in December in the midst of a completely crazy fixture congestion. We have to make sure that we start in a positive way, getting points and qualifying. Apart from that I don’t care about anything else. The group is very compact. Belgium teams are never easy, the way LASK plays is very difficult to play against. They will make lots of points, Ludogorets is champion and champion and champion in Bulgaria. They’re not going to be easy either. So first of all let’s qualify and then let’s see after.
Yesterday, the club left Danny Rose out of the Premier League squad and he was out of the Europa League squad, can you explain your thinking on that and what’s going on with Danny now?
Danny is not part of our squad. Danny wanted very, very, very much to leave in the January window last season. Why? Because he wanted to play and play and play. He went to Newcastle and in that moment I had immediately the feeling that a player with his mentality, his desire of being always first choice, always because he didn’t hide that he was thinking of the national team and the Euros, I always thought that our future would be Ben Davies and, at that time Ryan Sessegnon. Then later we got the opportunity to get Reguilon and that was also good for Ryan because it gave him the possibility to leave and to play and to have this experience in Germany, also for a kid to grow up it was great for us. So in this moment we had Ben Davies, Ryan Sessegnon and Reguilon. It’s as simple as that. Danny didn’t become part of our plans. Then the market, the market, the players make the market, the agents make the player’s market. If he didn’t find any solution that he was happy to move, it’s something you have to ask him.
Gareth Bale showed great skill but somehow missed, is he just that fine margin from being the player he was or is it unrealistic of Spurs fans who remember him from 2013 to expect him to perform at the same level he was at then?
No player is the same with such a gap in time, 2013 to 2020, we’re talking about seven years. We’re not speaking about seven months. It’s not Gareth Bale, it’s every player in the world. Seven years, the players they change. Sometimes it’s not about changing for better or worse. It’s about change. Just an evolution in their qualities, their style of play. Sometimes it’s even in the positions they play. So of course it’s not the same player, it’s just a different player.
