Jose's five-point preview - Wolfsberger AC - first leg

1 - Team news

Serge Aurier, Sergio Reguilon and Giovani Lo Celso remain out, while Jose revealed that four younger players have made the trip to Hungary...

Jose: “I would say that Sergio has some chances for Sunday, many chances for the second leg. I don’t believe Serge Aurier can do either of these two, and, of course, Gio is not there. The good thing is that in the Europa League we can have 12 players on the bench, so you travel with 23 and all of them are on the bench. That is a good opportunity for some of the kids, and there is always the chance they can play. Dennis Cirkin is selected, Dane Scarlett, and the first time for Marcel Lavinier and Jamie Bowden, which is good for them and good for the others, it gives them a window of hope. Even if they don’t play, it’s a great experience for them.”

2 - 'If the door opens...'

With the four Academy players travelling, it was put to Jose that the Europa League had provided an important platform for our younger players in the recent past, most notably Harry Kane...

Jose: “The group phase is different because it gives you more space and some of these boys have played minutes. Even a young goalkeeper... it’s so hard to play some minutes, Whiteman did it and Scarlett, the youngest to play for the Club. At this moment, it’s knockout, and knockout is you are in or you are out, you are in the next draw or not. There are 32 (teams), but, after every match, it will be only 16 and it’s quick, 32, 16, eight, four, so this is pressure. I don’t like the word ‘pressure’, but this is responsibility, motivation, and we cannot put the kids in extreme situations, but if the door opens, we are ready to push them. Even if the door doesn’t open, it’s a great experience for them to be involved and to be part of it, to train with the team, to understand the way we work. It’s great for them.”

3 - 28km

Jose revealed in his press conference that some players had clocked up over 28 kilometres of running in the last two fixtures against Everton and City, we asked him more about that...

Jose: “Sometimes we feel it’s not human, but the perception of some people is that top professionals, they have to do it, they have to be able to do it. One thing is to be able to do it, another is to be able to do it at a high level. We all felt that the second half against City wasn’t easy. I also believe we could feel that in the Everton-Fulham game (Everton lost 2-0 on Sunday after our FA Cup tie). But I agree with the general perception, we have to do it, we must have that responsibility, that resilience, that team spirit, the squad has to be ready and players have to help each other. In this moment, it’s knockout, and when you get into the (last) 16, you start looking at the light, and the light is to get into a final. We are motivated, in training the work was good and I felt the intensity was back. Let’s go to win.”

4 - Wolfsberger AC - part one

Jose has full respect for our Austrian opponents this evening...

Jose: “I played Feyenoord in the Europa League with Manchester United. I played CSKA Moscow with Manchester United in the Champions League. Manchester United was my previous club, not 10, 20 years ago, it was a couple of years ago. So, for Wolfsberger to beat Feyenoord, beat CSKA and to qualify, that for me says a lot.”

5 - Wolfsberger AC - part two

What does Jose expect from Wolfsberger?

Jose: “The style of play, the intensity is quite similar to LASK (our Austrian opponents in the group stage). We went to LASK and it was not easy to draw 3-3, they keep the intensity very high. They are defensive yet, at the same time, they take risks, and they are fast on the counter-attack. They have good local players, some Croatians and Serbians, a loan player from Eintracht Frankfurt (Dejan Joveljic). The team is very interesting and can give us a difficult match, but no excuses. We have to go there and get the result.”

Jose on Spurs TV