Stellini gives verdict on whether Spurs can finish in top four as he responds to Son comments

Cristian Stellini is urging his Spurs players to “play attacking football” as they battle to finish in the top four of the Premier League.

The Italian has been tasked with steering Tottenham to the end of the season .

Spurs are currently fifth and three points behind fourth-placed Manchester United, who occupy that final Champions League spot with a game in hand to boot.

And when asked whether he thought Tottenham could finish in the top four this season, Stellini told a pre-match press conference: “We could do. We have to play final eight games like eight finals. We started with Brighton and we have to play attacking football.”

Stellini hasn’t changed much about the way Spurs play since Conte left the club but getting Son Heung-min back in the goals would go a long way to helping them qualify for the Champions League.

Speaking earlier this week on getting in positions to score, Son said: “I try to always be in this position [as against Brighton], but sometimes it’s difficult because [the defenders] don’t want me to shoot in this position. But also, it’s kind of where [the way] we play, like we want to sometimes be crossing the ball more, so then I have to be in the box because I have to leave the wing-backs in a one-versus-one situation…

“If I’m in this position [as against Brighton], I’m really, really confident I’ll score goals. Look at last season, how many I scored in this position, so if I have these chances I can score more.”

In response to those comments, Stellini said: “It is not something that depends only from us because it depends also on the opponent and the way they want to play. We have to find spaces like Sonny did well in the last game but it is not only one thing we can control alone.

“We play against an opponent and we have to find the right solution to create chances for Sonny, for Harry, for the wing-backs, for Kulusevski, for Danjuma and all the players that play in that moment with different characteristics.

“So we have to take care of the characteristics of the player and hopefully we can exploit again like we did against Brighton with Sonny but also I think we can exploit spaces with other players.”