Ange Postecoglou only interested in Tottenham progress despite European talk

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou played down talk of European qualification after the 1-0 win over Manchester United.

Spurs have endured a difficult winter with a plethora of injuries and they started Sunday’s fixture in 15th, but a second consecutive Premier League victory moved them on to 30 points and up to 12th.

With 13 league fixtures left, Tottenham are 11 points behind seventh-placed Newcastle and while Postecoglou will not get carried away despite the return of key trio Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison and Brennan Johnson, he senses an opportunity to build momentum.

“Considering you guys were asking me about relegation around 10 days ago, I don’t think either is where we’re looking at,” Postecoglou responded when asked about a late push for Europe.

“It’s only mid-February. There’s a fair way to go. European football for us this year is important. We’re in the Europa League and we’ve got an opportunity there to make an impact, but I thought we could make an impact in the league.

“(This) was a step towards that. We can play better, for sure. We will play better. We’ve got an opportunity to address the situation we’re in.

“We’re not happy with where we are. It’s unacceptable that we’re in the position we are, but the circumstances have dictated that to a great extent.

“The circumstances will change. The guys who came back in will improve and make us stronger. There’s still two or three more on the horizon who will also come back.

“It’s only one game, but I thought it was an important game if we were going to start that progress.”

Tottenham defender Kevin Danso limped off, while midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur had an ice pack on following his withdrawal, but Postecoglou expects the duo and captain Son Heung-min to be fine for Saturday’s trip to Ipswich.

Postecoglou added: “I don’t think it is anything significant, but the beauty of it now is we can actually get them to recover instead of trying to patch them up and throw them out again midweek.

“I think from what I’ve heard, knocks all three of them but they should be fine.”

United’s 12th defeat of the league season continued Ruben Amorim’s tough start.

Amorim lost Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Amad Diallo in the build-up to the fixture and named a bench largely full of teenagers at Tottenham, with 17-year-old Chido Obi introduced for his senior debut late on.

“If you see Chido playing, he is clever with every ball lost in the box, so I wanted one more player, but I felt the team was good during the game and I didn’t need to change. Chido was that one player who could, with one long ball, make the difference,” Amorim explained.

“At the beginning of the week we had a squad with time to train then day by day we lost players.

“I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Every coach in the world has problems with that.”