Every word Ange Postecoglou said on 'outstanding' Mikey Moore and one 'brilliant' Tottenham player

Ange Postecoglou held his press conference after Tottenham Hotspur came away with a 2-1 win with a much-changed side at Ferencvaros in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

With missing a lot of players and playing again in two-and-a-half days' time with a trip to Brighton on Sunday afternoon, named only four players who started in the win at Old Trafford with teenage academy players and Will Lankshear coming into the starting line-up. started at centre-back with Ben Davies at left-back with Lucas Bergvall in the midfield making it four teenagers in the starting XI.

Spurs took the lead on 23 minutes when Moore ran through the middle, knocked a pass through and the battling Lankshear got a touch before the ball bounced off the falling Bergvall into the path of Pape Matar Sarr, who hit a composed shot into the bottom left corner.

Tottenham had further chances but their second goal did not arrive until late in the game when substitute Brennan Johnson made it five goals in five consecutive matches with a finish in off the left-hand post. Barnabas Varga netted a late consolation for the hosts but it was the visitors who went home with the points.

Here's every single word Postecoglou said as the assembled media, including football.london's Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold put the questions to him.

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You put out a team with four teenagers in the starting line-up and you've won a potentially tricky away European tie, you must be delighted?

Yeah, I am. Irrespective of who you play in Europe away, it's always a challenge. You saw with the atmosphere the crowd create, they get really behind their team and the conditions as well. So there's a whole range of things you need to deal with.

Obviously made quite a number of changes to the team, including putting the young boys in, but I thought they handled it really, really well.

We needed to defend and defend well, we played some good football and created some good chances, maybe could have had a couple more and most importantly win an away European tie which I think is a credit to the lads.

You kept Mikey Moore on the full 90 minutes tonight, what did you make of his performance?

I thought he was outstanding. It's brilliant for a 17-year-old to play 90 plus minutes in a European away tie. He just handled it superbly, I kind of knew he would and I think it'll help his growth as a footballer once you get through a sort of experience like that. I think he'll grow and evolve and I didn't feel like I needed to take him off. He still looked strong at the end and was still contributing.

We've had the Busby Babes, the Fergie Fledglings, you've now got Ange's Angels...

Nah, nah, nah, nah, you've got to do better than that. No, no chance.

You've chucked them in and a lot of teenager might not be able to handle that?

I wouldn't say I chucked them in. With all these things, you've got to be really careful with young players. I certainly am. The first thing is that they're part of our first team squad, not because I want some young players, it's because they've earned that spot and then it's about how to help them develop and the moments we need to put them in there, the moments we need to hold off. And we can't discount the fact that Archie is 18, Lucas is 18.

I thought Archie was brilliant today, we asked him to play in two different positions and it's incredible how he just adjusts and he's able to bring his game to wherever he put him. Lucas worked hard and Will was unlucky with a couple of moments when we could have got a goal. These guys are there because they've earned their spot, but they're an important part of our development because whilst we want to be a team that has an impact this year, it's like I said before, it's important we're developing players along the way so that whatever sort of period of potential for success or opportunity for success exists, it's elongated because of the young players you got through. I just think tonight all those boys will come to me and go 'ok that was tough, it was different, but we got through it and we won'.

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Are these teenagers particularly special or...

Yes, they are. They're 18. What were you doing when you were 18? (laughs)

Not this, but my point is that football seems to have got a bit younger, we saw Yamal at the Euros, has the game changed a bit or are these guys just so good?

No, no, I still wouldn't say that. I mean how many 17-year-olds are playing in the Premier League? Yeah, Yamal is brilliant but it's not a common thing. It's still pretty rare because you have to take into account, not just their physical maturity at 17 of being able to handle it, their emotional maturity, you've got to be really careful.

There are always exceptions to the rule and Yamal is certainly one of them, but like I said, if you look at the Premier League, how many 17-year-olds are actually contributing and Mikey is already to is, which shows that he's got something special, but we've just got to be really careful about how we develop that.

I think because it's too easy just to say, oh, you know, he's a great young player just throw him in there, especially in the Premier League because of all the leagues probably in Europe, it's the most physically challenging. So young players, the first thing I want to see is can they handle it and to be fair, Mike handles it pretty well, and certainly Archie and Lucas have that, but we've got to be careful with them.

But at the same time, we've brought some really talented young players to the club and part of my pitch to them was that we will develop them and they will play and it's my responsibility to make sure they do that. I can't shy away from that because the next 18 or 17-year-old who I sign will point to recent experience. So it's important we give them the game time they deserve.

What is it you really like about Mikey?

It's just his ability to deal with pressure and keeping the ball in really tight areas and making really good clean decisions for a young guy. It's not easy today, out there you can see the conditions, it always suit defenders because they can fly in with tackles and he got one in the first 30 seconds I think it was.

He kept his feet well and he takes the responsibility of driving inside or taking his man on. He makes good decisions with the ball. He's got so much growth still, but the good thing is he wants to learn, he wants to develop and I couldn't be happier for him but also pretty pleased that he's part of our football club.

Can I ask you again about Brennan Johnson, another goal and he keeps finding the bottom corner, it's not a coincidence is it?

No, [it's not] and I thought he was unlucky with the one that hit the bar as well. Look, he is in a great vein of form and obviously feels good about himself at the moment, really confident. I guess with all attacking players, goals and assists, they kind of thrive on that stuff, but I've said before he has been fantastic for us. Even if you look at his figures last year. He moved to a big club and still got a decent return of goals. It was always curious to me why people were singling him out because if you compare him to other wingers in the league, his numbers always stacked up anyway and now he has probably bypassed all of them. I had no doubt he would make a massive impact for us. Now he is making not just an impact but changing games for us. Again, still a young guy, still working hard and wants to learn, so that's great for us.

Are Ferencvaros stronger now compared to when you faced them with Celtic in 2021?

Hard to say. I do remember both with Celtic and today, I knew today the supporters create a fantastic atmosphere here. You can see why Ferencvaros have such a strong home record and not just domestically but in Europe. They're hard to beat here because the supporters create a great atmosphere, I remember that from when we played them with Celtic and we had to work hard that day to get a win, 2-1 I think if I remember correctly. It was a tight game today as well and similar to today. I played against AZ when Pascal was coach there and similar they try to play a high-tempo, high-energy game which is what we want to do. We knew it would be a difficult challenge, but I think for the rest of this Europa League campaign at home they are going to be a challenge for any team.

Did Ferencvaros surprise you in the first 20 minutes?

To a certain extent. I knew what to expect because the supporters create a great energy and the players have energy at the start. But we always know that no team is fitter than us and we will always finish strong. They had a couple of chances but we were still in the game, still controlling the game. We created a couple of opportunities ourselves. After that 20 minutes I knew we would get stronger and stronger. It didn’t surprise me. We spoke about it before the game. Every time we play away in Europe, that first 20 minutes is pretty important because the crowd is excited and all the players have energy. It is inevitable that the home team are going to have some period of dominance and you have to be strong. I thought we were strong and we eventually broke them down and got our goal.

You changed Archie Gray and Ben Davies in the second half, why was that?

I felt like we were starting to get on top and stronger. Archie has got a great capacity to run, and I thought putting him at left-back he would be able to get forward for us more, and Ben with his ability to defend and his left-foot meant he could get the ball out to the left side. I just wanted to use Archie’s energy, as much as anything. He did a good job for us first half but I just felt in the second half we could put them under more pressure if we had somebody on the left-hand side in the same way as the right-hand side who could get forward and get back. I thought he did that really well. In his first run he ran the whole pitch. It helped us balance our attacks on both sides.

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