Liverpool face Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday hoping to secure the Premier League title.
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Ange Postecoglou has explained the substitutions of his two key centre-backs as Tottenham Hotspur sank to another Premier League defeat.
Spurs lost for the 18th time in the top flight this season with a 2-1 reverse against Nottingham Forest. Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood put Champions League-chasing Forest in command inside 16 minutes in North London, with Richarlison netting a late consolation for the home side. As a result, it leaves Tottenham languishing 16th in the Premier League.
Spurs' priority for the remainder of the season is the Europa League. They face Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in the semi-finals and the winner of the competition earns a spot in next campaign’s Champions League.
As a result, Postecoglou opted to withdraw Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero at half-time against Forest. Both have had hamstring injuries this season. Regular left-back Destiny Udogie was omitted from the squad entirely following the 1-0 Europa League win over Eintracht Frankfurt last week and James Maddison was an unused substitute.
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Spurs boss Postecoglou said via Football.London: I thought they needed to play some minutes tonight because it becomes 10 days leading into Liverpool. With both of them we've got them in a really good place physically now and I just want to keep them ticking over. I felt that there was no need to play more than 45 minutes today and we needed to get a couple of others game time. I just felt that if it was Sunday we probably wouldn't have played them, but on a Monday, especially for Micky because he's been playing just one game a week, we need to build him up because he's in a really good place at the moment so I thought 45 minutes for both of them would be beneficial
Destiny was fine. We just left him out of the squad tonight. He put in a big physical shift on Thursday and the idea was always to rest him. I wasn't going to put him on so there was no point in putting him on the bench. Madders was pretty sore yesterday but in the last 24 hours he recovered and was keen to be on the bench. They're both fine.”
Spurs turn their attention to a trip to Liverpool on Sunday. A victory for the Reds will see them crowned Premier League champions as they need just three more points.
Postecoglou has admitted it will be a balancing act for Tottenham when it comes to team selection. They want to take momentum and rhythm into the Bodo/ Glimt game but do not want to suffer any injuries against Liverpool.
The Australian said via NBC Sports: “It’s a bit of a balancing act and we have to be smart about what we do. We have to be ready for Thursday in a week with our players healthy. Good test against Liverpool obviously. If we play like we did today but keep our concentrations level where we should, then we can give them a game.”