Every word Ange Postecoglou said on VAR, Johnson, Maddison, Odobert display and what pleased him

Ange Postecoglou has spoken to the media following Tottenham's 3-1 Premier League win against Southampton. The Spurs boss made a total of three changes to his team that lost against Chelsea on Thursday as Ben Davies, Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson all came in.

Spurs started strongly and took an early lead courtesy of Brennan Johnson's finish high into the roof of the net. After seeing a Lucas Bergvall effort chalked off for offside, Johnson ensured Spurs had a two-goal advantage going into half-time with another neat finish.

Mateus Fernandes did give Saints hope in stoppage time but Tottenham did manage to add a third goal courtesy of Mathys Tel's penalty. The result sees Spurs move up to 13th after starting the day 16th in the Premier League table.

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Here is every word the Spurs boss had to say during his time with the media as he reflected on the win:

Was that the perfect moment and occasion with Thursday night on the horizon?

To a certain extent. I was really happy with the first half. First half I thought we were really disciplined, well organised and sort of limited them to one chance. Every time we went forward we looked dangerous and as threatening as we've looked for quite a while, really fluent, obviously scored two goals, one disallowed and Aaron [Ramsdale] has pulled off some good saves. Really pleased.

Second half not so much as I thought we became way too passive without the ball. We allowed Southampton to get a little bit of rhythm, we were really sloppy with ball and the substitutions we made didn’t really make the impact I wanted. As you said, that allows them to get a goal at the end which was disappointing and something we need to improve on. Overall the important thing is we got the win, scored three goals and everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night on Thursday.

I hate to ask you about VAR but semi-automated offsides coming in next week should speed up the process.

I've got no idea mate, that's the assumption. Again, if you told me a few years ago that we would be spending five minutes during a football game standing around I would never have believed you. But everyone loves it, everyone wants it, everyone is delighted by it and it is working so well and we're getting all the decisions right so we might complain about it.

What did you make of James Maddison's performance?

Especially in the first half all our players embraced both their attacking and defensive roles and we need to take that into Europe. We know European football every moment of the game is important. I thought Madders was really good with the ball but really disciplined without the ball.

First half I was really pleased with the lads. It can be a game when you go out there and sort of urge yourself or rush yourself to victory but I thought there was a really controlled way we went about it without diminishing the intensity we want to play. Like I said, second half that wasn't the case and we need to improve.

In the first half we saw you pretend to flip a coin and do rock, paper, scissors during the VAR stoppage, does that just sum up that it is very much pot luck?

They draw those lines, is anyone convinced by those? This is not a slight on anyone as I don't think it favours us or not favours us but the fact we're waiting five minutes I really don’t think that’s what technology was brought in for. I think it's gone too far down the road for anyone to claw it back. We used to allow the assistants to make those decisions and we all accepted it.

There was one in midweek with Chelsea and if they had gave it I wouldn't have complained and said it was a toenail offside because I've had that my whole career. Offside was never meant to be microscopically adjudged but if they ever get to a place when that is done instantaneously then I accept it because offside is offside.

I just can't believe that this is what we brought it in for to stand around for five minutes for something that in the end is still, in my view anyway, is inconclusive. Like I said, the semi-automated will come in, says it's going to hopefully improve and speed up the process but I didn't think there was a crying need for the game of football to be disrupted like this but it has been and, as I keep saying, the overwhelming majority of voices are in favour of it and that kind of means it is very hard to stem that tide.

Brennan Johnson's numbers are really good but how do you get him to be more consistent?

It’s tough but I think whenever Brennan plays that he's always a goal threat. He has been really good for us in terms of goals and, even though I don't rate them highly, even his assists have been important to us as today he won the penalty. He's really important for us in the way we play and I don't think he has been inconsistent this year.

The disruptions we've had in the team and the ability to get some real cohesion in the group has disrupted everyone this season. Great for him today, I was really pleased for him, not just goals but his general play was really good. He's important for us as a wide player there aren't many around that are a constant goal threat like he is. I'm really pleased for him today.

Is that a concern those particular type of goals you are conceding?

To a certain extent but it's more how we got to that point. If you allow the opposition to kind of get into a rhythm they're going to find those opportunities whereas in the first half we never really allowed it. They had the one but aside from that we rarely let them into our half, but in the second half we sat back and maybe the guys were thinking about Thursday but I don't think you can play that way.

It was disappointing to concede because again in Europe every goal is important. The ones you score and the ones you concede count for a lot more in terms of the outcome of a tie. It was disappointing to concede a goal today but I thought it was more disappointing the way we went about it in the second half.

With Brennan it feels like he has lacked confidence, what should that do for his confidence?

With Brennan he's always in the areas we need him to be. He's probably one of the most disciplined players we have in terms of making sure he's always in the right positions and that's why he gets his goals. There have been times this season when his form has suffered because of the team more than anything else.

I think like we played in the first half Brennan becomes a really important player for us as we're a constant threat, breaking lines, making half-space runs, we were getting balls into the box in the areas we need to and every time we went forward we looked like scoring. If we do that then I think it's not a matter of confidence for Brennan, it just gives you more opportunities as the one thing about him is that he will always be in those positions so it's up to us to match his discipline in that.

Destiny Udogie, Micky van de Ven and Richarlison didn't come on but are they all fine?

Yeah Destiny and Micky are fine. They have missed a lot of football this year so it made sense to put them on ice today. Richy is good. We've kind of done this with a few of the boys coming back and getting them involved in the matchday and the possibility of him getting a run today, but I just thought when they're involved in matchday it gets rid of a lot of the nerves of coming back or anxiety from coming back from a long time out. He'll get a few more days in training and play a part from now on.

How big a moment was that for Mathys today?

It was good for him to get a goal. The guys coming on are really important. I thought Wilson today didn’t look ready when he came on and only came to life the last 10-15 minutes but sometimes these guys coming on are going to be really vital for us in Europe because you know the ties are going to be really intense and you're going to have to make changes, not just because players are not performing, but because we need that extra energy.

Guys like Mathys and Wilson are young guys and we're going to need them. They have the quality for sure. I thought Archie and Biss came on and helped us a bit in terms of getting a bit more control of the game. For all those guys now that we've got a healthy squad that they're ready to play.

First goal started with Romero’s pass out from the back, which you’ve missed, how good to see that and see a goal which feels a real Tottenham goal?

Yeah it is a goal that we have done a number of times, but we haven’t done consistently. I think in the first half we had many, many, many of those moments and with Cristian back there and Ben, when Micky plays, we have centre-backs who are comfortable on the ball and can give us the right pass and find really good solutions. Then it is about making sure the guys further up find the right spaces.

I thought first half we did that a lot and it was an excellent team goal from start to finish. I think that was a by-product of us being really disciplined with our football in the first 52 minutes.

Mentioned Bergvall’s physicality after his substitution on Thursday but he looked back to his best today?

Yeah, look he looked a bit leggy on Thursday night but I thought it was important for him to get it out of his system because he hadn’t played, because he didn’t play the internationals, for two-and-a-half weeks and he hardly played. With Thursday in mind, I thought giving him 60 minutes on Thursday (against Chelsea) and another good block, he looked a lot better today, physically stronger and in the first half I felt the midfield three of Rodri, Madders and Lucas were really, really good defensively but also when we had the ball, they were really strong and it worked well.

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