Every word Ange Postecoglou said on Sarr injury and exasperated Romero and Van de Ven answer

Ange Postecoglou held his press conference following Tottenham's 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Friday evening.

The first half brought an organised display from a makeshift Spurs line-up and they created a couple of good chances through and Wilson Odobert, while Antonin Kinsky made a great save from Ollie Watkins before the break.

Villa could not find the breakthrough they needed until after the hour mark when Ezri Konsa hooked home after a corner was headed into the six-yard box. Villa scored a second with just over 15 minutes remaining as Boubacar Kamara ran into some space on the edge of the box and his powerful low shot flew past Kinsky.

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Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to after the 21st Premier League defeat of the season for the north London outfit. Here's a full transcript from the press conference at Villa Park.

Pape Matar Sarr looked like he was limping down the tunnel and Moore needed treatment. How are they?

Pape felt something in his back so we took him off as a bit of a precaution. I don’t think it’s anything too significant speaking to him afterwards but he just felt something in his back and I think Mikey (Moore) was okay. It was fatigue as much as anything else. He hasn’t played that sort of amount of minutes before.

What did you make of the performance?

I thought up until they scored the boys had worked hard, they were really disciplined and organised. We didn't really let them create too many clear openings. We had our moments as well, going the other way, but once they scored we lost a little bit of belief. We got a little bit fatigued. A lot of those guys haven't played a lot and we looked like we were fatiguing and then the game just got away from us.

You said you hoped someone would give you a decision to make for the final, did anyone do that tonight?

I think from my perspective, at least different to the Palace game, I felt that the lads worked hard and competed and at least made it difficult for the opposition. So from that perspective I thought that was more important for me than the individual context. It was good to get some match minutes into players like Sonny and Wilson and a lot of these guys haven't played a lot this year, so just to get them through another game was important.

Will Son be ready to start in midweek?

Well he's ready and he's available. He started today. They're all ready to start so I think him playing 70-75 minutes today was important and you could see he opened up a couple of times and I think he's feeling... it's as much about Sonny himself, and feeling that he's getting back into a rhythm and I think there were moments tonight where he showed that.

What did you make of Wilson Odobert playing centrally?

I thought Wilson was good. The issue with Wilson is he has just missed so much of the season. You can see he lacks match sharpness but he is an intelligent player. Now I thought at times tonight, in tight areas he found his way forward and a couple of things didn’t fall his way. He was unlucky with his finish which I thought was an outstanding finish but it fell straight at Emi Martinez. I think with Wilson, at least we have got him some significant minutes again. With the way we are in that midfield area, he might be one we need to rely come Wednesday so it’s good for him to play.

Van de Ven, Romero and Udogie were left out of the squad. Are you concerned about it being two weeks between the last time they played and the final?

Yeah but they are available. They are available. For us there’s no point bringing them here, they weren’t going to play today. They stayed at home, they did a really strong (training) session and come Wednesday, knock on wood, they are all available and that’s the most important thing. That’s the primary thing. When those guys play, that back four with Vic in goal, our chances of success significantly improve.

Was it not worth risking them?

Yeah I don’t know how else to say it. They are available. If something happened to them today then they wouldn’t be available and I just don’t think that be would the smart course for us to take.

How much of a lift is it to have Son in the team?

It's important, especially when we've lost some key players in recent times. Madders is also one of the leaders, and Deki, and Lucas in the last three weeks. Now getting Sonny back at least gives us another experienced player. I think the last two or three fixtures our average age has been three or four years younger than the opposition. You can see that at times so just having another experienced player available is great for the team.

A look behind the scenes & Postecoglou's big decision against Aston Villa. to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham!