Postecoglou opens up on Dier and Phillips and how Spurs will replace Maddison

Ange Postecoglou has explained where his thinking lies with both Eric Dier and Ashley Phillips as Tottenham look to deal with having their defence torn apart by injuries and suspension.

The Spurs boss confirmed on Friday that Micky van de Ven's hamstring injury will keep him out until the New Year, as will midfielder James Maddison's ankle problem. In defence, Postecoglou is struggling for numbers with Cristian Romero suspended for three games and Destiny Udogie will miss Saturday's match at Wolves after he also picked up a red card in that costly defeat to Chelsea.

One player who will now return to the fore amid those absences is Eric Dier, who played his first minutes of the season after entering the fray from the bench and impressing on Monday night. He also volleyed home a strike in the second half that would have levelled the game for Spurs' nine men, only to be adjudged marginally offside.

The England international's contract is running out at the club and with no sign of a new contract or a move away in the summer, there were questions over whether the centre-back would play any part under Postecoglou.

However, the Australian has kept the 29-year-old as part of his squad and instead decided to sell Davinson Sanchez in September.

"I don’t feel the need… irrespective of a player’s individual situation and they’re all in different situations, unless a player expressly says to me or desires he wants to leave and I know his head space is somewhere else, I don’t see any reason to separate him from the group because they’re part of our football club," said Postecoglou.

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"Eric has been part of this football club for a very long time. Every day he's another one who has trained hard, he hasn't had a lot of opportunities but that's because we've been pretty settled in terms of our back four and we haven't had the need to put him in there.

"He's always been ready to be called up. Now he gets the opportunity. I thought he did well the other night. It was a hard game to come into. Firstly, he's come on with ten men and then he's playing with nine men. As a defender, you know there are going to be some challenges there.

"I thought he handled it really well. His experience will be important for us, particularly with Micky's absence and Romero being out for three games. His experience will be important to us."

The question now is who partners Dier in Romero's absence. Left-back Ben Davies has returned from an ankle injury and the Welshman was playing as a centre-back under Postecoglou in pre-season.

That would not create the fastest central pairing though for the team's high line of defending and Postecoglou was asked whether the quicker 18-year-old summer signing Ashley Phillips is ready to step in if required.

"Ash is part of the first team. He trains every day. He's available for selection. If he gets an opportunity, then it will be up to him," he said. "I'm not going to manufacture things for people. Everything they get, they earn.

"If they are selected I think it's because I think they can help us win. If they're not selected, they have to keep working hard and wait for their opportunity."

Postecoglou also gave his verdict on the red cards for Romero and Udogie.

"The Romero challenge wasn't a great challenge, it deserved to be a red card," he said. "Destiny, two yellow cards, the second one was a bit of a desperate lunge, a bit of inexperience, I don't think it was more than that, but he deserved a red card. You take your punishment and you move on."

Without Van de Ven's recovery pace against Chelsea and two fewer players on the pitch, Tottenham relied on the remarkable sweeper-keeper skills of Guglielmo Vicario to mop almost everything up behind the backline, but don't expect to see plenty more of that from the Italian while the Dutchman is out.

"Not necessarily. Obviously we spoke about it the last game that we felt Vic would probably have to be more aggressive with his position in the second half with what we were trying to do, so he started off in a higher position than normal, but 11 v 11 I don't expect there to be too much of a difference from what he's done so far," said Postgecoglou.

"He does have the capacity to do that and it was one of the attractions I had because it does become important when you want to be aggressive with your line, that you have a keeper who is not hesitant coming off it.

"We did speak about it at half-time that we felt like we wanted to be aggressive with our line and being a man down and knowing how Chelsea would set up, there would be fair opportunity that he would have to be ready for that.

"I thought he was outstanding on Monday night. I thought he was brilliant, not just with his goalkeeping, but his whole mentality with at times being a one-man defence with what was coming to him. I thought he was outstanding."

The other major challenge for Postecoglou is to adapt his team to absorb the loss of Maddison, who has been a major part of Spurs' success so far this season with three goals and five assists in his 10 Premier League matches before Monday night.

"I dont think you can replace him but the system kind of adjusts to the individuals within it, we didn't create a system for Madders. We had a system and Madders fit into that he brought his own qualities to it," said the Tottenham head coach.

"Whoever we bring in to replace him isn't going to be the same player, he'll bring different qualities to it, but it won't change our overall structure or intent in the way we want to play. It's just there's going to be some variances in there because of the nature of a different player being in there.

"I'm just disappointed for Madders. He's had an unbelievable start of the season, he's probably been one of the best players in the competition and he was looking forward to striving for more. I'm disappointed for him that that's been interrupted in the short-term."

Postecoglou is not expecting his team to fall back on the excuses of what has happened this week.

"To be fair we've had plenty of excuses already we could have used. I know people seem to think it has been a fairly smooth ride so far, but I can assure it hasn't been," he said. "We've had plenty of reasons not to be where we are, plenty of excuses in terms of the disruptions we've had already and some of the challenges we've had to face.

"Fair to say we won't be using any kind of reason for us not to perform at our best tomorrow. Tough opponent, Wolves are a very good side and Gary O'Neil is an outstanding young manager. We're going to get really tested, but we've been tested in every game and it is up to us to match that."

Much was made of Postecoglou sticking with his high line and pressing football even with nine men against Chelsea. The Australian has been through this before though with people bewildered by his style of football and he will continue to do what has taken him across the world.

"I don't try and lose games purposefully, trust me. I'm very much set on trying to win a game of football," he said. "I get it's slightly unconventional, that I kind of understand, but you don't get from Australia to the Premier League by being conventional and trust me, this isn't the first time people have questioned my madness.

"It's got me to where I am and I continue to do it because I believe we can win that way, not because of any other reason. There were times on Monday night where it went to an extreme, only because the players felt like that was our best way to stay in the game and try to get the equaliser we needed.

"There were some aspects of it which probably made it a little bit easier for Chelsea to break through. The flip side of that was I really liked the players' mentality and intent. They wanted to get back in the game trying to play our football, rather than revert to some other methods, which, you know, can work as well."

Postecoglou laughed when asked if he would see what his players are really made of in their first test of the season.

"The first test? Losing the greatest ever player in this competition the day before the start of the season? Nah piece of cake. We lost players to almost season-ending injuries. Nah don’t worry about it," he joked.

"Mate there are tests all the time in my whole career, I figured out there are only two states of being as a manager - under siege, or it’s coming. I’m well aware that every day nothing runs smooth. There’s always challenges out there.

"I just try to make sure I don’t change my state of being. It is what it is. I try and focus on what’s important - we’re still building a team and an environment where people want to win. It’s not going to change from week to week.

"It’s fairly extreme even for a person of my experience to lose five players in one game, but that doesn't mean it's any worse than anything we faced so far, and it's being a bit disrespectful to this group of players to say that everything has gone their way, because it hasn't.

"From day one there’s been a real resilience and character in the group and they’re going to have to show it again. It’s already there."

So is the siege coming?

"No I reckon I'm there now," said Postecoglou. "Although I did win manager of the month so they should give me five minutes of grace."