Ange Postecoglou slams Lucas Bergvall leak as the last thing devastated Tottenham teenager needed

Ange Postecoglou believes "levels of decency and respect don’t exist anymore" after information about devastated teenager Lucas Bergvall's injury was leaked on the day of Tottenham's big Europa League semi-final first leg.

The 19-year-old damaged ligaments in his right ankle while turning during a training session on the eve of ' huge European game against Bodo/Glimt. was left gutted by the freak accident as he realised that his season was likely over and so were his hopes of playing not only in the semi-final matches but a potential final in Bilbao.

Then word of the teenager's injury leaked on to social media on the morning of the huge match and once again fed frustration over why someone in or around the north London club would allow sensitive medical information to leak out against a youngster's wishes and on the day of a huge match.

"It’s not helpful. Some of it is just to protect the players themselves. You can imagine, Lucas was devastated. He didn’t want to deal with it and we didn’t want to make it public, not as much about the opposition but to give him the time to process it," said the Australian.

"He’s a young man. He had such a high in the week, he had signed a new deal, he was playing well, his whole family was out here looking forward to the game. We wanted to protect him more than anything else, but those kinds of levels of decency and respect don’t exist anymore."

He added: "I've said before it’s not helpful. It’s not helpful to our club. Not for any other reason, but it's information you give to the opposition, it's information they can use against you. But we live in a world where those kind of things have gone out the window. You guys live it every day. People just want to be the first whether it’s credible information or not. They get it out there and they feel like they’ve achieved something whether it’s totally off-base or totally wrong.

"I used to love your profession. I did, because I was an avid reader, a voracious reader, and I would love that people would double and triple check their sources before committing to something. Unfortunately that world doesn’t exist anymore. It’s not necessarily journalists, it’s just anybody now. They can literally just say whatever they like and pretty much, even if it’s wildly wrong, no one will pull them up for it and they can do it the next day."

In the days ahead of the Europa League clash, Postecoglou admitted he had gone in hard on his Spurs players after their defeat at Liverpool, showing that he is certainly not throwing away the Premier League matches, even if he needs to rotate for them as he will again for the trip to West Ham on Sunday.

"I’d hate to think people don’t think I’ve been preparing the same I always have for these games and want to win these games," he said. "We were hugely disappointed with Liverpool, notwithstanding the fact they were outstanding all year and it was always going to be a difficult day whichever way we went.

"I was really hard on the players the day after the game. I wasn’t really sure how they would react to it, but I just felt we need to feel that pain. At the same time, you put that to one side and concentrate on the task at hand. As I keep saying, irrespective of our season, we’ve got an opportunity to do something special and I don’t want to let that slip because of us losing focus on what is important."

When asked how the players took the tough love, he added: "The boys are good. They take the feedback. It’s not personal. It’s a pretty young group. I’d hate to think we get used to not performing at the level we need to.

"I didn’t feel we handled things very well. I want them to grow. I don’t think there’s growth unless you’re honest with people. There’s always then danger that you might put some noses out of joint but I’m confident that they buy into what we’re doing and that whatever feedback we give them, positive or negative, it’s for the right reasons. They’re pretty good at taking that on board."

The feedback appeared to do the trick with a strong display in Thursday night's 3-1 victory against Bodo/Glimt and Postecoglou had praise for one of his starting players, , and the Brazilian's current physical condition after a difficult campaign ripped apart by injuries.

"Knock on word, he’s in great shape and last night I went a bit conservative with him because playing out left is different and I could see that he was working so hard for the team. He gives everything he has and I didn’t want to push him beyond the limit, knowing what we have got ahead," he said.

"He probably could have played another 10-15 minutes, but he’s in great physical condition, he’s played 90 minutes already. He’s backing up in games and he’s really desperate, hungry to contribute at this stage. He’s a great asset for us. He’s such a handful in the box.

"Whatever Richy has to give, he’ll give it every time, whether it’s five minutes, or 90 minutes, he’ll give every little bit of himself. Obviously Dom is an important player for us, we saw that last night. Richy on the bench would have been great to throw him on for that last bit. He plays such a crucial role for us.

"Both are really important and having them both for this run-in, we have to balance off how much we use them and history tells you you are wary of players that have missed a lot of football in a year given their ability to back up consistently. We’ve been careful with all our players who have been out for a while, but he’s certainly in great physical condition now and is going to be important for us."

Richarlison is yet to have an iconic, memorable moment for Tottenham during his three seasons at the club and Postecoglou is hoping it arrives this month.

"It’s not through a lack of trying with Richy. It’s preceded me, his stop-start career at Spurs. To be fair when he’s got a run in the team he’s always made an impact," he said. "Last year in the middle of the year he was making a massive impact and scoring goals until he got injured. It would be great for him because he’s been through a tough few years. But that’s the beauty of football and life. If you keep turning up and doing the right things, sometimes it goes your way."

Next Thursday's return leg in Norway will bring a European semi-final played on an artificial pitch in the town of Bodo, but Postecoglou rejected any similarities to the tricky FA Cup third round tie at non-league Tamworth earlier this year.

"No. It’s very different. The surroundings are different, circumstances are different, the opposition is different. They’re (artificial pitches) all very different. When I was up in Scotland there were two, maybe three, artificial pitches and they were all very different in how they played," he said.

"It’s all unique. The key to it is you obviously understand that it changes the game but not to let it become too much of a focus. Ultimately, if we do the things we need to do that we did last night in terms of our organisation and our discipline then irrespective of the surface we will still be a hard team to stop.

"But it does change the game, you have to take that into account, there are things that you need to do a little bit differently. Every away venue has its [challenges]. Frankfurt's surface was brilliant but there’s different challenges of Frankfurt, it’s not the surface, it’s something else. Every away game in Europe has its challenges."

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