Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou insists his side can ‘relaunch’ their dismal campaign… as a host of injured stars gear up for an imminent return
Tottenham are just a fortnight away from a major reset that Ange Postecoglou believes can relaunch their ailing season.
Postecoglou expects up to six of his injured players back before Manchester United visit North London, two weeks on Sunday, but knows Spurs could be out of two cup competitions and sunk deeper in the relegation mire by then.
Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner and Wilson Odobert are all closing in behind Micky van de Ven who returned for 45 minutes in the Europa League against Elfsborg on Thursday after three months of hamstring trouble.
‘We’ve obviously got a big week, but after Villa in the Cup we’ve got a clean week to Man United and that’s the week all of them are sort of scheduled to start training,’ said Postecoglou.
‘If we get a full week of training, because at the moment we’re hardly training, with those guys available leading into the Man United game, I think it is a little bit of a point for us to relaunch our campaign, particularly in the league, but then we have real big games of consequence in the cups coming around as well.’
Tottenham, 15th in the Premier League with only five points from the last 33 available, go to Brentford on Sunday before they take a 1-0 lead to Liverpool for the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final on Thursday and an FA Cup fourth round tie at Aston Villa.
Tottenham are on the brink major reset that could save their season, says Ange Postecoglou
Micky van de Ven returned for 45 minutes in the Europa League victory against Elfsborg
Guglielmo Vicario’s absence has been keenly felt but the goalkeeper is nearing his return
Cristian Romero’s scheduled return from a thigh muscle injury is delayed and Radu Dragusin hurt a knee against Elfsborg, which could force Spurs into the transfer market for defensive cover before the window closes on Monday.
‘It might be an area we need to look at and certainly this weekend we are exploring some options,’ said Postecoglou. ‘It’s hard to tell, it’s a knee so we’ve got to let it settle down. There’s always concern when there’s a knee injury but we don’t know the extent.’
Dominic Solanke will miss most of February with a knee injury, but the positive fitness bulletin on others together with a top eight finish in the Europa League to avoid a two-legged playoff promises some light at the end of the tunnel after a heavy injury crisis.
‘I hope so, but every time I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel it’s usually been an oncoming train,’ quipped Postecoglou.
‘We seem to be losing players as we get them back. I’m trying to manage the minutes of the guys we have available because we don’t want to lose anyone else, but again, best laid plans, you know, we obviously tried to shield Radu because he had played a lot of football, and he comes on and you know he gets injured.
‘So again, you can’t plan for these things. We’ve got a big week coming up for sure and we’re going to have to do it with this sort of core group of players, so we’ve just got to be careful about how we go about it.’
