Ange puts a positive spin on Tottenham’s trophy quest

[Pelican Press 0]

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Ange puts a positive spin on Tottenham’s trophy quest

Ange Postecoglou has bemoaned the “negative” narrative around Tottenham, but he has been impressed with the focus of his players as they try to win the club’s first trophy since 2008.

Spurs hold a two-goal advantage in their Europa League semi-final with *****/Glimt after a 3-1 first-leg victory on Thursday night (Friday AEST), but Ulrik Saltnes’ 83rd-minute strike has left the tie finely poised.

There was a partisan atmosphere for much of the match before nerves became evident late on, but Postecoglou urged his players to block out external noise as they aim to deliver long-awaited silverware.

“I haven’t seen it in the players,” Postecoglou said when asked about the anxiety around the stadium.

“Even when we played AZ (Alkmaar) in the second (last-16) game, we got off to a great start, then they scored and all of a sudden there’s a real nervousness in the stadium.

“I thought the players handled it really well, and similarly with (Eintracht) Frankfurt.

“Tottenham supporters have had some real near misses for a long time, so there’s always this safeguard of not getting too excited about what’s happening, but part of creating a winning culture is not to fall into that trap.

“Winners don’t think about things in that way. They don’t think about what could possibly go wrong. They have a real clarity around what they need to do to win, and I’m trying to create that with this group of players.

“I’ve said before, the narrative around the club is not positive at all. Whether you follow the club or not, there’s always some sort of negative connotations to everything that happens at the club, but that’s existed for a very long time – you need to break through that.

“If you expect something to go wrong, it will. So, you try to rail against that, but how you do that is just a clear-eyed focus on what’s important.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position to get to a final and we’ve got to treat that on its merits.

“With all these things, there’s really only one remedy – win.

“You can talk, you can try and change things, but winning is the remedy for all these things and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Spurs’ bid for Europa League glory has taken a blow after Lucas Bergvall (ankle) was ruled out for the rest of the campaign, while James Maddison has been sent for a scan on a knee injury.

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