Ange Postecoglou senses 'opportunity' to save Tottenham season as he lays down Europa League challenge | OneFootball

Spurs boss confident his side can produce winning run to move up the table

Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham must be aiming to win the Europa League after being eliminated from both domestic cups and believes there is still "an opportunity" for the club to quickly move up the Premier League table.

Postecoglou's side are through to the Europa League last-16, where they will face one of Real Sociedad, AZ Alkmaar, Galatasaray or Midtjylland in a two-legged tie next month. They remain, though, 14th in the league, with two wins from their last 12 top-flight matches ahead of the visit of Manchester United on Sunday.

"We need to improve our league position," Postecoglou said.

"Where we are I don’t think is reflective of what we have and that’s my role, to get maximum out of the guys we have.

"We need to move up the table and see where that takes us. I still think it’s really tight. At some point, unless teams are really lucky, the kind of injuries we’ve had will catch up with others as well. Which gives us an opportunity if we can get on a run to move up the table.

Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham will not let their season peter out

Mike Egerton/PA Wire

"We can’t put the cue in the rack in terms of the league and say let’s peter out and finish where we finish. That’s not the mindset I want. We need to improve our league form and move up the table. We need to tackle the task of trying to win a European trophy.”

"We’ve got a clear course now of what’s left for us," Postecoglou added.

"We know league wise our programme without too many disruptions anymore. Games were getting shifted about and if we were in the Carabao Cup final we would have played Fulham next week in midweek, now we know that’s not there.

"And in Europe, it’s a pretty set path. It does give us a chance to map out the rest of our season and also give the players some clearer objectives to how we would tackle it."

Postecoglou is hopeful of welcoming back no fewer than six of his injured players against United or, at the latest, by next weekend's visit to Ipswich.

Key centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are still working their back to availability, however, with Postecoglou hopeful that both players could be available for the Europa League knockouts.

Asked if they could be available for the first leg away from home on March 6, Postecoglou said. "Yeah, with a bit of, for want of a better word, momentum, in terms of them getting some good training work.

"If it’s not then, it won’t be much after. We’ve got an international break so it won’t be much after that. I would include Dom [Solanke] in that as well. He’s in a similar sort of boat.

Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are eyeing a return to fitness next month

John Walton/PA Wire

"Once the boys get the green light, they’re going to push pretty hard. It’s like Madders, he should have been out for another two weeks.

"Vicario we had scheduled for the middle of March. It just depends on the players. But I would certainly expect Micky and Cuti to be around the mark of that time."

Postecoglou added: "They’re not training always with the team. They’re doing a lot of individual stuff which is more based around them getting back to the levels that they need.

"To just paint a clearer picture, we’ve hardly trained for two-and-a-half months. I keep saying that you blokes [the media] could have joined in our training and I mean that seriously. We’ve literally just been walking around going through tactical stuff.

"For them to join in that, it serves no purpose because they get nothing out of it physically. Our [fit] guys have just been recovering.

"It’s just now, in the last three days, and the hope is that we can drop, now we’re training properly, Micky and Romero over the next couple of weeks to be part of our team training totally.

“Call it modified, call it what you want, but a lot of work they’re doing now is individual training.

"What I’m saying is they’re not bed-ridden, they’re not in sitting just getting treatment, they’re out there running. They’re doing significant training but it’s just not with the team always."