December 10, 2023
TIMESTAMPS:
You called for conviction from your players, was that what you were after today?
Yeah I thought we were better in that area. I thought Sonny really set the tone for us early on. Whenever he got the ball he was really positive with it. That's what you need from leadership and I think the rest of the lads fed off that and we were a lot more threatening in that front third than we have been. I thought we got the goals we deserved and could have had a couple more at least. So yeah really pleased with that aspect.
It was a big day for Richarlison with his goals but also his performance, how pleased were you with him?
Yeah Richy was great. Really important. I thought him and Pape coming in gave us some real energy. We were going to need it today with the midweek fixture and I thought they did that. Their general play was excellent but just their general energy was very good and obviously for Richy getting a couple of goals as a striker that was positive for him.
Those were his first goals for Tottenham with his feet, how important is that given what he's gone through?
Richy was important to us at the start of the year too, but he wasn't fully fit. I think you could tell he was kind of restricted with his movements. At times we had to play him out wide just to get him through games. Since he's come back, it's fair to say he feels a lot better physically and I think that's helped him mentally as well. Great for him to get two goals today, but it wasn't just his goals, it was his general work rate, energy and physicality.
You sprang a surprise with Richy in the middle and Son on the left, what was the thinking behind that?
Richy's healthy now and I think that's his best position, through the middle. With Sonny, looking at the last few weeks, most of our chances and opportunities have fallen to the wide players. He's still our best finisher and I thought getting him back on the left would give us some more avenues to score goals. As I said, Sonny set the tone early on and I think the rest of the lads fed off him.
You've still got Micky van de Ven and James Maddison to come back, but does it feel like the team coming back together now?
Yeah, look I have been struggling with that a little bit all week because we're trying to build something here and part of that is through the tough periods to not allow the lads too much latitude in terms of excuses but the reality is and I have probably been too hard on them in retrospect but we got decimated after the Chelsea game. And it is no coincide that now we are getting some players back that we are starting to look a lot stronger. I will not speak on Eddie Howe's behalf but I can see what he's going through and in this league if you have one or two key players out, you're going to struggle.
You mentioned James and Micky but you missed out Bentancur, how important Perisic was and when we won those games late, he was the one providing and Manor Solomon. I could go on and on. It sounds like excuses but tha
By HaytersTV
