Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Cristian Romero has not been fully fit for "two or three weeks" and that he told him it's an important time for the centre-back to take a pause even if Tottenham are travelling to face Manchester City on Saturday.
Romero picked up a toe injury during a challenge on Morgan Rogers in Spurs' big win against Aston Villa earlier this month and after he returned to face Ipswich, he travelled to play for Argentina in their World Cup qualifying match in Paraguay and had to come off at half-time of the defeat with the problem.
A couple of days later, Romero became a father for the second time after his partner gave birth to a baby girl called Lucy and the 26-year-old has been recovering while dealing with the new addition to his household.
"To be fair, with us, he hasn’t been fully fit for probably two or three weeks. He’s soldiered on through it because that is the kind of character he is, and we needed him but I think when he went away, he realised, this is not healing the way we want it to," said Postecoglou.
"It’s a couple of separate issues, and I spoke to him and said 'Look. Just have a break. We need you 100% fit'. As much as we’d love to have him out there, I think it’s best for him he gets totally over everything. He had the birth of his daughter this week as well which is also a significant event in his life. These kind of things, I think it’s important for him to pause a little bit and just spend some time with his family. I think it’s the right thing for him to do."
On the Argentine's injuries, he explained further: "One was obviously the knock on his toe which has been a bit troublesome and prior to that he had a bit of a tight hamstring. It wasn't a hamstring injury but he was tight. So we're being careful with him. He’s kind of over both now, but we’ll just wait. Rather than throw him back in this weekend, like I said, he’d had the birth of his daughter as well, it just felt like we’ll take this time to get him 100 per cent."
Some Tottenham fans questioned why Romero was allowed to go on international duty to South America if he had been carrying a few knocks. Did Postecoglou have a moment where he would have preferred him to remain with the club?
"Yeah you do, but there’s always a line there, especially with someone like Romero where you've got to trust his judgement as well," said the former Australian boss. "He understands the responsibility he has. Look, he didn’t make it any worse.
"He just didn’t feel like he could perform at the level he wanted so that’s the reason he came off at half-time. If anything, when he came back, it's actually improved. So it hasn't made the situation worse for him. I just think he needs to get his body right so he can be at his best."
At this time last season Spurs were going through an injury crisis and this time around they have three players out with hamstring injuries, with Micky van de Ven set to return next month and Richarlison and Wilson Odobert out of action until next year. Despite the current trio of hamstring woes, Postecoglou explained that last season's review of the medical side of the club did bring plenty of alterations.
"Yeah, a fair bit has changed. We changed a fair bit in that space in terms of personnel first of all, people. Then with the way we’re dealing with injury prevention and injuries," he said. "This year, the unfortunate thing is that we’re hit in the same sort of areas. In the attacking third we’ve had significant injuries which means you’re thin in that place and can’t overload people and some of it’s a circumstance of that, but we have addressed it in the off season.
"The nature of the way we train and play is always going to be on the edge, it’s kind of by design which means you can have some attrition but the ones we’ve had this year for the most part like Richy and Wilson are just a consequence of the way we train and play and players just not being ready for it."
He added: "You can [ease off in training], but I just feel it will take away from what we’re trying to create here. I believe you get more robust as you move along the journey and we’ve seen that with some players really thriving, getting better performances and better physical outputs from a lot of the players in this second year with us and that gets inbuilt as you go along but there’s some attrition, yeah."
After Spurs' dismal defeat to Ipswich before the international, which robbed the north London club of the chance to climb into third place in the Premier League table, Postecoglou took the blame and said that he will have to adjust his approach. So what does that actually mean in practice for the Australian?
"I’m always reflecting. I don't think I would have lasted this long if I was just… and I know people try to paint me as one-dimensional, there are certain beliefs that I have that I won’t waver on, but within that process, there’s always things [I adapt], because there’s different challenges wherever you go," he said.
"I just think the games we’ve really got stuck in this year, where we’ve really struggled to find solutions in games, I’m thinking about Brighton second half, Palace and Ipswich, where we didn’t really have solutions out there. The solutions do exist, they exist within our football but maybe the way I’m messaging that - that’s the reflective bit for me.
"To say 'How can I become even clearer' or find a different way of showing the players that when we do get stuck in these moments, because obviously currently how I am doing it hasn’t had the impact I’d hope it would have. So there’s always self reflection. I am steadfast and I am clear that I have some really strong principles that I just won’t budge on, but that doesn’t mean I don't feel at times I need to adapt in the way I deliver things or the way I work."
Saturday evening's match at the Etihad Stadium will represent Postecoglou's 50th Premier League game in charge of Tottenham and he believes that you need to look across that entire stretch of games and see where the team was before he arrived at the helm.
"You’ve got to look at it in totality of those 50 games, because your question probably would have been framed differently if we’d won the last game – it might have been 'after 50 games would you expect to be third and still in the Carabao Cup and going well in Europe?’ So because of one result, we look at it the other way," said the Spurs head coach.
"What I try to do is look at that totality and consider our starting point, and I keep going back to that because I think people forget our starting point. I took over a club that finished eighth. I didn’t take over a club that finished second, third, fourth, fifth. Finished eighth. No European football. Significant player turnover. Significant. Change of playing style.
"Where did I think we’d be after 50 games? God knows. It could have been a whole lot worse, but when you look at it in the current prism of we’re tenth, you’re going 'it doesn’t look good' and I understand that and we have to improve that, but over the 50 games I think there’s enough there that shows we are progressing as a team and we are developing into the team we want. The key is the next 50 games, if they can be in totality better than the first 50. First, that means I’m here but second, I think we’ll be in a good space."
Many point to those early months of his tenure last year with the team unbeaten and on top of the Premier League. Did that phase set the bar too high for the major work that was to be done in rebuilding the club?
"No because it was what it was. That’s become a millstone because I started too well. What was I supposed to do? Start crap, and everyone says ‘oh they’ve improved’?" he said. "We were riding a bit of a wave, with new enthusiasm, but a lot of those games were very close mate.
"Last minute goal against Sheffield United. One or two of those go differently and our season doesn’t look that much better. So you understand that context. I didn’t get carried away with that, nor have I sort of lost any belief in what we’re doing just because we’re where we are now.
"That’s always my view on these things, I won’t just look at what’s in front of us right now. I look at the totality of what we’re trying to do. I firmly believe we’re on the right path. I firmly believe in this squad of players. I firmly believe we will have success. Those things are still there but I can see why outwardly, if you put a pin in it right now, it doesn’t look that way."
The 30 days ahead will bring nine matches in all with a game every weekend and midweek until the end of 2024. It's a stretch of matches that could go a long way in deciding how Tottenham's season shapes up.
"In the league it might do, although I’ve got a sense it might be tight all season," said Postecoglou when that was put to him. "Certainly for us I think it’s a significant period because I think you look at those games and we’ve got the league where we’ve got to improve our position and a couple of important European fixtures that can set us up for the back half of the year. Also, a Carabao Cup quarter-final.
"So at the end of that period we could be in a decent position for a strong second half of the year, so for us it is an important period. You know there’s no more international breaks, so the full focus is here, so you can build some momentum through that, or if things don’t go well you could get yourself into a bit of a grind. So, for us, it’s going to be a really pivotal part of the season."
So what will Christmas be like in the Postecoglou household if Spurs are still stuck around 10th spot?
“Christmas is a joyous occasion, mate, irrespective and I think it should be celebrated…if we’re still 10th then people won’t be happy, I won’t be happy, but we might not be 10th," said the Tottenham boss.
"Of course. When I say I don't look at the table, I don't look at the table in terms of where I think our progress is, but obviously the table reflects where we’re at. Of course. If we had beaten Ipswich, we’d be third and I reckon this press conference would be much different wouldn’t it?
"I’m not going to let my life be dictated by one result, I’m sorry. I take a wider perspective on these things because I know how fickle it can be, but we need to address our position for sure. And if we’re 10th at Christmas, yeah it won’t be great, for sure. Rightly so, there would be a lot of scrutiny and probably a lot of scrutiny around me which is fair enough but that’s not where I plan for us to be."
Spurs travel to a City side buoyed by Pep Guardiola signing a new contract and committing his immediate future to the Manchester outfit. Postecoglou is relishing the chance to continue to try to catch the six-time Premier League-winning juggernaut that City have become under the Spaniard.
"It is a great challenge, but I love the fact that there's a massive target out there that can seem insurmountable. That raises my level and gets me going," he said. "I lived the experience of equalisation in sport in Australia and it's great from a competitive point of view because everyone believes they can win, but after a while I used to get frustrated by it because excellence tends to be capped at a certain point. It's up to everyone else to bridge that gap [to City]. I love the challenge of that and I would never see that as a bad thing."
Postecoglou laughed when asked whether there was any part of him that wanted Guardiola to call it a day as City boss.
"I look at it the other way. I go 'imagine if you knock him off' [the top]. That'd be something. I'm at the stage of my life where I'd rather have the chance of knocking him off than missing that opportunity," he said. "When greatness is around, you want to be around it, and hopefully it challenges you to be like that as well."
