Ange Postecoglou elected against playing Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie in Tottenham's win over Southampton with the team's return to Europa League action in mind. Tottenham host Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Thursday evening, with the return game coming in Germany seven days later.
Both Van de Ven and Udogie were named on the Spurs bench for Sunday's 3-1 home win against Southampton but remained unused substitutes throughout the 90 minutes. Heading into the fixture with an opportunity to rotate his players ahead of such a crucial match in their season, the head coach chose to make a total of three changes from their defeat at Chelsea three days earlier.
Van de Ven and Udogie were two to drop out of the team as Ben Davies and Pedro Porro came in, with Brennan Johnson for Wilson Odobert Postecoglou's only other alteration. During his time speaking on Tottenham's Review Show after the win, the Australian revealed that he didn't want to make too many changes as he "thought it was important to get some sort of cohesion moving into Thursday".
However, he did admit that it was also "important" for Van de Ven and Udogie that "they got a full recovery" after starting in the 1-0 defeat at Chelsea. In his post-match press conference, Postecoglou also opened up on Richarlison's return to the squad and the importance of him taking his place in the 20-man matchday party again even if he didn't get to take the field.
"Yeah Destiny and Micky are fine. They have missed a lot of football this year so it made sense to put them on ice today," explained Postecoglou after the victory.
"Richy is good. We've kind of done this with a few of the boys coming back and getting them involved in the matchday and the possibility of him getting a run today, but I just thought when they're involved in matchday it gets rid of a lot of the nerves of coming back or anxiety from coming back from a long time out. He'll get a few more days in training and play a part from now on."
One other team selection Postecoglou made ahead of the Eintracht game involved Lucas Bergvall. The Tottenham midfielder, who recently missed out on two games for Sweden during the international break due to illness, was substituted on 64 minutes against Chelsea and it was a decision that didn't sit well with Spurs supporters.
Speaking the following day when previewing the Southampton game, Postecoglou told football.london that his midfielder "didn’t look himself physically and in terms of running power". Amid the disappointment of his early exit at Stamford Bridge, the Swede was back to his usual self against Southampton and was unlucky to have a goal ruled out for offside.
Given his recent absence on the international stage, Postecoglou opened up on the importance of Bergvall getting game time against Chelsea and "another good block" prior to the Eintracht Frankfurt showdown.
"Yeah, look he looked a bit leggy on Thursday night but I thought it was important for him to get it out of his system because he hadn’t played, because he didn’t play the internationals, for two-and-a-half weeks and he hardly played," revealed the former Celtic boss.
"With Thursday in mind, I thought giving him 60 minutes on Thursday (against Chelsea) and another good block, he looked a lot better today, physically stronger and in the first half I felt the midfield three of Rodri, Madders and Lucas were really, really good defensively but also when we had the ball, they were really strong and it worked well."
Clearly having one eye on the Eintracht Frankfurt match but also knowing the importance of beating Southampton and building cohesion for their return to Europe, all will be hoping that Postecoglou's decisions pay off when the German side visit N17 later this week.
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