Expect a little bit of continued rotation tomorrow when Spurs travel to Coventry for the League Cup — Ange Postecoglou has confirmed in his pre-match press conference that midfielder Yves Bissouma is still recovering from an ankle injury picked up while on international duty with Mali, and will miss the match.
But that’s the only significant injury to report, according to the gaffer.
“Biss is still not where we want him to be but hopefully he there is a chance that he will be okay for the weekend.”
It does then beg the question as to how much rotation we’ll really see against the Sky Blues tomorrow. It’s possible that, with a long suspension likely coming, that we’ll see Rodrigo Bentancur back in central midfield in order to maximize the time we have left with him. It also wouldn’t surprise me to see Radu Dragusin come in for one of Cuti Romero or Micky van de Ven, and Ben Davies and Djed Spence rotating in at the fullbacks. We might also see the likes of Timo Werner, Lucas Bergvall, and Archie Gray, though Postecoglou might not want to significantly rotate considering Coventry are a decent Championship side.
Big Ange didn’t really give anything away about his lineup, but did suggest we’ll see at least SOME rotation, even though he clearly wants to win.
“I think the main thing is that we want to win tomorrow night and so you are looking at which players are in the best position to do that. You do take into account there was a game a couple of days ago so we are looking at how the guys to see how they’ve recovered. We’ve got guys who haven’t played much and are looking contribute and get the job and that’s what we will do tomorrow.
“Yeah, [the young players] are ready to play and we’re keen to get them some game time. That’s why we brought them to the club. They’re training really well and the games haven’t gone the way we wanted in terms of giving them some more exposure but we always knew that this is the period where it starts. Not just between now and the next international break but post that, probably until the end of January we’re going to have a really busy schedule and they’re going to play a big part in that.
“So guys like those three you mentioned, Wilson who hasn’t played much so far, Pape and a lot of these guys, we’re keen to get them playing because we’re going to need them.”
Elsewhere, Ange was asked again about his comments about “always” winning trophies in his second year at clubs, and understandably, the coach got a pretty tetchy with the journalist who asked the question.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? I just stated a fact and it seems like, am I supposed to just lie or just say it never happened? But, no, it’s just confusing to me that people are making a big deal out of something. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to answer something that is true.
“Like if I don’t win it in the second year this year and I come out next year and say ‘well, I always win it’, well, no, actually it’s not true, but I’ve just said something that’s true, and it seems like it’s upset a lot of people for some reason.
“But do you really think it’s me sort of boasting. How am I supposed to answer something that’s true. Is it to say ‘well, actually, no, it wasn’t that important, they were easy competitions and they don’t mean anything’. If you’ve achieved something, aren’t you supposed to say ‘ yes, I have, and that’s what I hope to do again’?
“I’m not really sure why people misconstrue it as me trying to boast about something. I’ve answered a question which I think somebody else brought up here anyway, before that, which is true. That’s always happened and my plan is for it to happen again this year.
“And if it doesn’t happen, then I can’t answer that question in the same way next year, I can say ‘mostly’ not ‘always’.”
I wrote yesterday that Tottenham fans have been really weirdly fixated on this comment, and the media is apparently the same way. His comments make it clear that Ange clearly wasn’t trying to make a prediction about what supporters should expect from this team. I’m also just baffled why this question was again brought up for clarification in a press conference, when it’s emphatically clear that Ange was trying to spin a gotcha question into a positive by stating facts about his past record. It feels like such a nothing issue and I’m just annoyed that the discourse is still talking about it as something to beat him with.
Finally, Ange was asked about the fine margins in Tottenham’s first three games whereby the team has played well but only taken four points in their opening four matches. Ange again reiterated that Tottenham are doing a lot of things well, but there are issues with consistency and offensive performance at key moments in the process.
“It’s a consistency [thing] and sort of belief in what we’re doing. I’ve said before it’s not an easy process. It at times can feel pretty disheartening when things don’t happen smoothly, but I’ve always believed in certain things to be true, and one is that if you keep playing well, the results will come, but you just can’t do that and expect it to happen.
“There’s still elements in our game that we need to improve on. I think when you look at the four games, I think that you could summarise all four games in a very similar way of us, outperforming the opposition but not taking the critical moments in our favour and you pay a price for that.
“But that doesn’t mean you need to change your approach. If anything, you just need to keep doing what you’re doing and make sure that in those critical moments, we take advantage of it.”
Spurs take on Coventry City in the League Cup tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. BST. The match will be televised on Sky Sports in the UK, and streamed on Paramount+ in USA.