If Tottenham Hotspur are going to progress to the next round of the League Cup, they’ll need to do it without a couple of their left wingers. In his usual press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Carabao Cup Round of 16 match against Manchester City, Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou said that club captain Son Heung-Min would be held out of the mid-week match and saved for the weekend league tie against Aston Villa out of an abundance of caution.
“Son is almost fit but probably from our perspective we’ll aim for the weekend. We’re quite confident he’ll be right for the weekend.”
Sonny’s been nursing a mild hamstring injury that has kept him out of Tottenham’s lineup for the past few matches. Ange’s comments seem to back up his previous assertion that Son’s close to a full return, but that there’s really no reason to take any chances with his recovery.
In addition to Son, there’s bad news on new signing Wilson Odobert’s recovery — Postecoglou reported that Wilson suffered a “serious setback” in his recovery during training this past week. Ange didn’t specify what that setback was or how long it might be before Odobert is able to return, but it does make it very likely that Octodobert is too soon, and it might be Novembert or even Decembert before we see him play.
“The only other one missing out which is a bit of a disappointment is Wilson, who has had a setback during the week and it seems like it is a serious one so we’re just waiting for more information. From the weekend everybody is ok and Djed is back training.
“It’s not exactly the same [injury] but it’s the same area.”
That’s a bummer — Wilson was starting to eke back into the side after missing significant time early in the season, and there was hope that his return could bolster Tottenham’s wide attacking options.
So what does that mean for tomorrow and the weekend? Well, Timo Werner is obviously a candidate to play on the left and is also probably the most likely to get the start, despite his difficulties in finishing this season. But Postecoglou also suggested Richarlison could slot in at left wide forward, a position we saw him play a lot of under Antonio Conte.
“I think Richy has obviously played a lot of his football on the left and he’s definitely an option there for us and an option through the middle as well.
“He’s getting some good match minutes now so hopefully next couple of weeks we’ve still got a good game schedule. Like I said, he’s only just getting his season started so the more we can expose him without overburdening him in the early stages he’ll be able to contribute even more.”
Postecoglou is likely to rotate for this match despite playing an unbeaten City team. But that might not be necessarily a bad thing — Pep Guardiola has dropped plenty of hints that he’s deprioritizing the Carabao Cup this season and might even play the kids tomorrow. That’s no guarantee that Spurs will come out of the match with a win, but it’s also not a given that they’ll get flattened, even with a rotated squad. Even so, I think we should probably expect players like Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Mikey Moore, and Radu Dragusin to feature. We might even get a little Djed Spence, as a treat!
Spurs kick off against Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4:45 p.m. ET / 8:15 p.m. UK. The match will be televised on Sky Sports in the UK, and streamed on Paramount+ in USA.