Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Yves Bissouma has “done everything right” so far on his road to regaining trust, but admitted “there’s always temptation down the road.”
Bissouma, 27, was suspended by the club for their opening match of the season after filming himself taking nitrous oxide.
The former Brighton star apologised for his actions and is now looking to return to the starting 11 this weekend, especially with Rodrigo Bentancur unavailable due to concussion.
Postecoglou outlined his road to redemption in his pre-match press conference, insisting that consistency is key for the Malian.
“You know what’s it like when you punish a child and they do everything right for the next two days?,” the Australian first joked.
"He’s first in the meetings and he’s doing everything right, but there’s always temptation down the road, so we’ll see. I’ve always believed in opportunity for redemption and learning, so we are still in that space with Bissouma, but obviously, that door closes after a while if it’s repeated.
“He’s been good, but I would’ve been surprised if he wasn’t. The key for Bissouma is consistency. Consistency of behaviour [and] what he does. It’s not that he’s doing a lot of bad things; the last transgression was obviously very serious, but it’s the little things along the way also — and I think that sometimes manifests in his game where he’s really good and then he will have a moment where he’s not.
“I think it all correlates, so from our perspective, it’s about trying to continually guide him. But, that’s up to him. He’s got to try to be the best version of himself he can possibly be.”
“I have just lost my key striker a week after buying him”
Dominic Solanke is unavailable for tomorrow’s match after he picked up an ankle injury against Leicester on Monday. The club-record signing impressed against the Foxes, often latching onto crosses and pressing from the front.
The former Bournemouth star, who is still in contention to play against Newcastle next week, has quickly shown Postecoglou how he can take Spurs to the next level, and the manager insisted his injury is just a bump in the road.
“It is [a big blow], but every story is written differently. They are not all fairytales where they make a debut and score a hat-trick. He was very good last week. I guess we’re just as disappointed because it’s really exciting to see that he’s going to fit into really well into what we’re doing,” the 58-year-old outlined.
“It’s just a small hiccup. He misses a game or two. It’s game one of 50+ games; he will have plenty of opportunities to recover from that. Just watching him in our team last week, I can see he’s going to be a really good fit.”
Later on in the press conference, Postecoglou insisted he has never been the type of manager to ‘put his arm around his players’ to make them feel better.
“He’s a big man. I think I have always said that to footballers. Nothing runs smoothly. I mean think of the poor old manager. Forget the player, what about me? I have just lost my key striker a week after buying him. What about me? Who puts an arm around me? I need an arm around me,” he joked.
“It’s all good. We did not sign Solanke for one match. He knows that. He’s here for hopefully for a long time to have a real impact at this football club [and] to bring success to it.”
Richarlison is “a really physical presence in the box”
With Solanke out injured, Spurs will have to fill a noticeable void left by him. Dejan Kulusevski had a prolonged stint as a striker during pre-season, but Postecoglou insisted he does not “think it’s his best area”, even if “he’s such a hard worker, runs a lot and can link up with the rest of the team in the build-up.”
Richarlison may be chosen to start upfront against his former side Everton. He will not be able to play the full match due to his fitness according to Postecoglou — and his manager outlined that it plays a major part in his inconsistency.
“That [injuries] are a big part. You talk about the Everton game last year, but that was part of a spell of him playing regularly. I thought last year, when he got a series of games, he looked better and better. But then an injury hit," he stated.
“I think that chance on Monday — if he had a full pre-season and played half a dozen games — he would probably have buried it, because he’s so good in the air. I remember last year against Sheffield United [at home], it was a very similar header, but he had a pre-season with us."
"That’s the thing with Richy. It’s just [about] trying to get him fit. Obviously, we have to be a little bit careful with him, because he has not played in quite a while, but I think I’ve said before, whenever he has been really fit and available, I have always chosen him because he’s a handful for the opposition.
"He’s a really physical presence in the box, a good finisher and works hard for the team, but hopefully now getting Solanke in, the whole idea was that we could share their workload and not be so reliant on one player.
"I think he’s still at an age where he can play some fantastic football for us and we have to make sure we keep him fit and manage his workload, so we can get the best out of him."
The Brazilian striker was heavily linked with a move to Saudi Arabia this summer, but he was not interested in the switch. He outlined Spurs as his 'home' on social media, whilst Postecoglou never wanted to lose him.
“Richy’s not going anywhere, but if he did leave, I would certainly sign another striker. We had that issue last year. We were really short in that area. In pre-season we played without a striker; Kulusevski was there as we had not signed Solanke and Richy was out," the 58-year-old coach stated.
"It makes a difference to the way we play when we have a striker there. It’s really important to us that we have two recognised strong strikers in the team."