Tottenham Hotspur have had another blissful week with only one match, and are preparing to travel to Ipswich to attempt their third straight Premier League win. And the other weird thing about this particular match is that Spurs are actually playing a 10 a.m. / 3 p.m. Saturday fixture, the first time that’s happened since September 2023.
Tottenham infamously lost the return fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in what was one of their more disappointing matches up to that point in the season. Now, out of relegation battle danger and with the wind at their back a bit, Spurs are hoping to grab another important win.
Speaking in a press conference ahead of the match, Ange Postecoglou said the extra days of rest have helped Tottenham’s beleaguered squad immensely, and while three players picked up knocks in last weekend’s win, everyone’s okay and there are no fresh injuries to talk about.
“No new concerns. Sort of from last week, everyone sort of got through okay. The three guys who picked a knock up last week were all good. Obviously, again, having a full week to recover and prepare is good. And the other guys are ticking along well. We’ve got now two games in quick succession in the league. Good opportunity for us to get some match minutes into guys who have been out for a while. We saw Brennan and Wilson, obviously, Vic come back last week, Madders, but Destiny as well.
“We need to get them some match minutes and these two games will give us an opportunity to do that. Then we’ve got a week before the first Europa game. We’ve got the weekend off. And again, that’s about the time we’re hoping that guys like Romero and Micky in particular they should be in and around that sort of mark. And Richie and Dom not too far behind, to be honest. And again, with that, we’ve got sort of two games before the international break. So we’re kind of mapping it out and trying to sort of navigate a way where we can have f as fit and healthy squad as we have all year for the run-in.”
The bit about Cuti Romero and Micky van de Ven is interesting, as it almost implies that Ange’s goal is to have his best XI available for Spurs’ opening Europa League Round of 16 match against AZ Alkmaar in a couple of weeks. Does that indicate prioritization of competitions? Maybe, or maybe it’s just that’s the way their injury recoveries and training have worked out.
“Yeah, [Cuti]’s had that and it’s going well. He’s in a good place. So, like I said, with him and Micky, it’s just picking our moment now. I’m really keen to get them back and have him back for the rest of the year. We’ve got a really good sort of period coming up where I think we can manage that where they’re back, they’ve had good weeks of training with us, so that when they do come back in, they’re in a good place. So, yeah, he’s still going well.It’s going well for him and he’s in a good place. I’m really keen to pick the right moment with him and Micky to make sure we’ve got them for the rest of the season.”
Ange was also especially open about how he’s given his squad extra rest the past two weeks to recover and give themselves a breather, both physically and mentally.
“I think it helps enormously because, I mean, there’s obviously the physical toll, which we kind of know and just their bodies being able to recover as much as anything else. And then, you know, like I said, mentally it does. It takes its toll because you don’t invariably get a lot of time to switch off when you’ve got games constantly because, again, you’re in recovery mode and then you’ve got to prepare for another game. You don’t really have the energy to do anything else. So, you know, home life probably suffers a fair bit and the ability to switch off is difficult. So we gave the boys two days off for the beginning of last week. We did a similar thing this week.
“And yes, I think you can see that in them that both physically and mentally they’ve really benefited from it. And sort of hopefully that means that the remnants of that long run has dissipated in their minds as much as in their bodies. But it’s also allowed us then to really train well because when they do come back in, they’re refreshed, they feel good and it means our training has become so much more sort of meaningful in the last two weeks.”
Finally, Ange gave some insight into Djed Spence, who has blossomed into one of Spurs’ best players when he was brought into the squad due to the injury crisis. The Spurs coaching staff has caught a lot of flack from fans for not giving Djed a chance earlier, but if you listen to Ange he says that it was as much about Djed proving to them that he was willing to put the work in as it was about his ability and potential.
“I think with Djed, it was just we wanted to give him every opportunity and, you know, we knew that certainly there was a player there, but a lot of it had to be up to Djed himself.
“And he’s just worked really awfully hard and stayed patient through that early period. You know, it could have been easy for him to get frustrated when he wasn’t playing a lot. There was opportunities for him to play and he wasn’t getting a run. I think looking at his attitude through that, I think there was real growth for him personally in that maybe in previous years, he might have sort of given up the fight and said, ‘you know, right, I don’t fit in here, let’s just move on,’ but he just kept going. That makes an impression on people around him, me, his team-mates and, he earned his shot at it and he’s just grown since then.”
Tottenham kick off against Ipswich Town on Saturday, 10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. UK. The match is not televised in the UK, but will be broadcast on USA Network in the States and streamed on nbcsports.com.