RIGHT DRAW AT RIGHT TIME SAYS KOMPANY

Clarets boss looks ahead to Friday’s FA Cup tie with Spurs

Manager Vincent Kompany describes Friday night’s Emirates FA Cup third round tie with Tottenham Hotspur as the ‘best possible draw’ for his side and says it’s an important game to measure themselves against the eight-time winners of the competition.

The Clarets travel to Spurs, who currently sit 5th in the Premier League and are only six points off top spot and Kompany believes it’s the right opponents at the right stage of the competition to face ‘one of the best teams in England’.

Speaking to the media on Thursday morning, the Burnley boss discussed the importance of the upcoming third round tie but acknowledged the test his team will face in North London.

Kompany said: “To be brutally honest, it’s the best possible draw for us. These are the types of moments you want in a cup game.

“We have an opportunity against one of the best teams in England from the best league in the world and it’s the right draw at the right time for us.

“It’s better to have the outcome of these type of games earlier and hope for a positive cup run. If we don’t win, we move on and carry on in the league, if we win then you hope we would get another draw we could look forward to.

“I’m not saying it’s an easy draw for us or anything like that, we just have to treat it as an important game for us to continue measuring ourselves and working hard.”

Kompany added: “I think for where we are right now, it’s a better cup tie for us. It can sometimes be better to play [a team like Spurs] earlier than later in the competition.

“Last season we played a couple of League One clubs in the earlier rounds before playing Manchester City in the quarter-final. So, if we did manage to get through on Friday, I would be slightly disappointed if we then got someone better than Spurs!”

Ahead of the trip to London, the Clarets chief was asked if there would be several changes to the starting XI at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The Burnley boss responded: “I think we have to look at it as another Premier League game. There may be a change or two but nothing crazy to expect.

“We will try to play how we play and try get a result. The team has to continue working and that continues this Friday.”

Ahead of taking on Spurs, Kompany revealed how long ago he first spoke to Ange Postecoglou and had high praise for his work achieved so far with Tottenham.

“I have been aware of him [Postecoglou] for a long time, before he even started coaching in Japan. I got in touch with him via another person and we had a chat.

“He’s probably done the hardest possible pathway to do it. From Australia, to Japan, then Scotland and eventually in the Premier League and his character kind of shows you why he’s been successful.

“You can just see it when you see the person to have those sort of characteristics, and he has done a great job since going there.”