There’s no rest for the Tottenham Hotspur weary as Spurs are set to take on Liverpool in the first leg of the League Cup semifinal tomorrow afternoon. Ange Postecoglou was back in front of the microphone again for a press conference, his first since his “fair and level playing ground” comments in the wake of the Newcastle loss.
The good news is all the players afflicted by the virus that ploughed through the squad last week have recovered. The bad news is that nobody on the injured list has returned, and Spurs are without Yves Bissouma and James Maddison as they’re both suspended.
“Net wise we are still down. We will get Bentancur back but we lose Maddison and Sarr by suspension. A couple of numbers down there.
“In terms of injuries no-one is back. Mikey (Moore) could potentially be available on the bench. Everyone else from the weekend certainly feel better, Radu (Dragusin) has recovered, Archie (Gray) is better. They were the main ones. Deki (Kulusevski) was under the weather but he is good. Pretty much as it was on the weekend plus Bentancur minus the other two.”
That’s great, but what about Richarlison? There were photos that emerged last week that suggested he’s returned to training. Ange confirmed that he’s back, but after he pulled his hamstring on his first match back from ANOTHER lengthy injury, the club is taking no chances with his recovery and fitness.
“[Richy] is training. The whole plan with him, with what has happened this year, was to give him two full solid weeks of training. His second week will be next week and if he gets through that he will be fine. “
The other big question heading into tomorrow is who will line up between the sticks. Fraser Forster has apparently recovered from his illness, but Spurs just signed genuine first team competition for the injured Guglielmo Vicario in Czech keeper Antonin Kinsky, and third keeper Brandon Austin is coming off of a very competent club debut.
Is there a chance Kinsky could start just days after arriving at the club? Postecoglou didn’t give anything away.
“We will see. He arrived on Sunday I think. He has had a couple of days of training. He is registered and eligible to play. We still have got to do a couple final things with him and then we will see.
“[Kinsky] is one that we had earmarked for the end of the season to bring in during the summer. We’ve tracked him all season and he is definitely someone we are really excited about. Obviously, with our current goalkeeping situation - we explored the possibility of bringing him in this January. It wasn’t easy because he is doing very well for his club, his club is doing well, they are in Europe and top of their league. The club worked really hard to get the deal done in this window and it is a huge benefit to us and adds real quality to our goalkeepers.”
“We’ve to pick players and goalkeepers that fit our system and the way we play and [playing from the back] is certainly something that he does very comfortably, but you know it’s his all-round goalkeeping ability. Johan [Lange] and his scouts have done a lot of background work on him, they’ve been following him all year. The intent was to bring him in in the summer, but obviously that not only changed, we thought why not with the way we are in terms of the goalkeepers to try and bring in him earlier.
“I wasn’t confident that was going to happen, but the club worked really hard to make it happen, and I think it’s great for him, it’s great for us. It gives him an opportunity to come in a bit earlier and get bedded into the way we do things and it also adds real quality to our goalkeeping.”
Finally, the big news of the day was the club’s announcement that they have triggered the one year extension of Son Heung-Min’s contract, keeping him at the club until 2026. That extension does open up a whole new set of questions as to what the club intends to do with Son after next season, but Postecoglou was clear that he wants to make sure Sonny has something to celebrate before he moves on from the club.
“Yeah brilliant. He has already had an outstanding career at this football club. He has played a big role in the last 10 years. Made an impact at the club and in the Premier League. Great to extend his stay and the aim is to make sure he finishes his Tottenham career with silverware.”
Tottenham kick off against Liverpool on Wednesday at 3 pm ET / 8 pm UK at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.