Here's every word the Tottenham Hotspur boss said after their dramatic 2-1 victory against Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday
How was that for an ending?
Yeah, there was a fair bit going on out there today. A great ending, in terms of what we're trying to build, there's the football side of it but there's also trying to build the spirit and character and resilience within the group and they showed bags of it today. Hopefully it gives us the opportunity to fuel that further. Every time you have to deal with adversity and you overcome it, I think it helps in what you're trying to grow.
All the team helped with that ending but how important was Richarlison's big contribution for him?
Yeah Richy was great. I thought all the subs who came on really helped. But that's been a consistent theme. And yeah for Richy I think it's the point I was trying to make yesterday - for him to understand that you try and maintain a balance in life. And his football hasn't been that bad, he's still been contributing for us.
Sometimes when you struggle with certain parts of your life you let it go into other areas. But the football is one area where he can control, and he works hard everyday in training and really got his rewards today. And hopefully that gives him a bit more of a settled feel to deal with the other areas in his life. For everyone, it's about not letting it overwhelm you. And hopefully a day like today helps him.
Did you say anything to him before the game?
No I didn't speak to him. That's not my area of expertise, not just for Richy but for all the boys. If they have issues we have people who are much better equipped to handle those kind of things. For me, I try to provide an environment for the players where they can feel comfortable to come into that space. I didn't want to overwhelm Richy by asking him a million questions or offering advice for stuff I don't really know and probably shouldn't because that's for him to work out with people better equipped than me.
My role is to provide an environment here at the football club that allows them to feel secure in this part of their life. So I didn't really have anything to say to him. I'm sure it's a group of players and they've been around him, and you saw at the end how happy they were for him.
It felt like you made your substitutions a bit later, were you taking into account the large amount of added time to come?
Well, that's what I was thinking but at the same time I was surprised when only three minutes went up in the first half. Inside me I thought we would get at least 10 minutes, if not longer, when I was thinking about making the subs. I still thought we were on top. I still thought that in terms of our football we pretty much dominated the game, we just lacked that goal that would have broken them open.
They’re always a threat from long throws and set pieces, when they get the ball in the box. So you go a goal behind and it's just a matter of when to make the subs but I was pretty confident there would be at least 10 minutes which I thought we had enough time to make the changes we needed.
It's early days but the connection already between yourself and the fans and the players and the fans seems to have developed really quickly and healed with the club from last season, how important is that to you and what you're doing?
Yeah, it's crucial. I think you're right, the fans played their part today. It was a real frustrating game, in terms of there was a lot of stoppages and dead time. Sometimes we didn’t deal with it well, talking to referee in unnecessary moments instead of getting on with the game. It would have been easy for our supporters to get frustrated but I do think our supporters are seeing in this team, even when things weren't going to script today and we were 1-0 down, they can see the team trying to play the kind of football they want to see and I think that helps. They can resonate with that. That's what they want to see in their team. They want to see aggression when we have the ball and aggression when we don't have the ball. I think they've bought into that because they can see that's what the players are trying to do. In this early phase it's crucial because that hopefully fast tracks our development as a football club because there's no doubt that the players got energy from the supporters today. No doubt about it.
You're now 50 league games unbeaten at home in your career, you must be quite proud of that and does that tell us where your real strength lies?
I've got many mate, I've got more than one. I've got more than one strength (laughs). It's funny you say that because I do put a big emphasis on that, wherever I've been, because ultimately for your supporters, as much you enjoy the away wins because you've got to earn every one of them, it's when they come to their home ground that you want to really reward them.
From that perspective, if you can create that atmosphere, I've been very fortunate that at the last three clubs I've had we've had even in Japan 30,000 to 40,000, and at Celtic they're always sold out, and it creates an atmosphere and you can see today it helps the team.
I think that helps you as a club if you're really strong at home so yeah it's something I'm proud of.
How important is it for you to establish an identity in this team?
That's everything. That’s what I’m talking about, me as a football manager, that's what I've always been about. You can track back my career as long as you want, my teams have always played in a certain way and I think for every club that has appointed me they've appointed me because that's what they're seeking.
It's everything for me. The way we play, it's not just that I believe it's what gets you success, it does, that's what I believe and it has in my career, but it's also says a lot about you, you as a football club when you play the game that way because it requires a fair bit of bravery, a fair bit of courage, a real relentlessness when you play that way and I think that has to sort of marry with the image of the football club.
Have you made changes in your training to account for the extra stoppage time in matches?
Not really. I think my motto is that you just keep going until the whistle tells you to stop. We pride ourselves on being a really fit team and I think in all our games we've finished strong. Also I think that's where the subs make a massive difference because you can make five substitutions and that's half your outfield team. You can maintain intensity and tempo for as long as the game goes but there are lessons in that, even for us, sometimes we had this old picture in our heads that even at 1-0 up the game goes for 90 minutes but it doesn't. You saw today, it goes for 112, 113 minutes. That's a significant amount of time, particularly towards the end of the game.
Did you watch any of the home games last season and atmosphere and have concerns because it got quite toxic at times?
No, because that wasn't really relevant to me. I wanted to come in and come in with the energy of no baggage or remnants of last year. There's no point having that as a reference point for anything you do, for what we were going to do is become a different team, different players, different coaches and a different look in the way we did things so there was no point having some sort of reference point that wasn't really relevant to us.
At the same time we felt it probably from the Shakhtar game and certainly the United game, this is only our second home game this season, that's two pretty memorable home games that create a pretty good atmosphere moving forward.
What did you make of Sheffield United and how much heart can they take from their performance?
Absolutely, you saw how difficult they made it for us. I thought their keeper was outstanding, they defended their box really well, really brave and courageous and they were a threat up front with McBurnie and Archer, they can cause teams problems. We knew that. For us it was about maintaining our composure. We felt that if we got a goal ahead we would be able to find more space, but I Paul has a clear idea and they've got a few injuries at the moment. In all the games they've only lost by the single goal and they've been competitive and I'm sure they will be moving forward,