‘I’m going to be polite’ – Postecoglou on his future and latest injury blow | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou batted away questions over his future at Tottenham and the possible implications of exiting the Europa League to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

Spurs go into their round of 16 second-leg clash with AZ Alkmaar needing to overturn a one-goal defeat from the first leg if they are to progress to the quarter-finals.

But asked about whether failing to progress could spell the end of his Tottenham tenure, Postecoglou remarked on the uniqueness of football management.

“There aren’t many professions in the world where you have to come in and answer questions like that, is there?” he said.

“I’m going to be polite and just say I’m focused on winning the game tomorrow night.

“We need to put in a better performance than we did last Thursday. Obviously that wasn’t anywhere near the standard we wanted to play.

“We did some good things on the weekend and some not so good things but we certainly feel like if we can play with the intensity and tempo we played with on the weekend, we’ll give ourselves a good chance to progress.

“We’re obviously disappointed with our performance in the first leg but the good thing is that we didn’t make the tie impossible to get back into.”

Postecoglou confirmed he will be without defender Kevin Danso for the game, who has suffered a hamstring injury.

He joins Radu Dragusin, Richarlison, and Dejan Kulusevski on the injury list but Ben Davies is back in contention after his spell on the sidelines.

Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are also back available, with Romero having started in the draw with Bournemouth on Sunday before being replaced by van de Ven in the second half as both made their returns from long spells out with injury.

On the returning duo, Postecoglou said: “They got through the game well.

“Romero had no issues and it was great to get Micky back out there. He felt good so they’re both available.”