The Times

Tottenham Hotspur’s injury crisis has been compounded by an illness running through the squad before their game against Newcastle United on Saturday.

Tottenham will already be without nine players for the match at home to Newcastle, including their first-choice goalkeeper and three of their four central defenders, who are all injured.

Postecoglou gave players Monday and Tuesday off this week after the draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday to help them recover, but those plans have been derailed after Postecoglou said “a few” had been struggling with illness over the past few days.

“We had a bit of an illness bug running through the squad,” Postecoglou said. “A few have missed training but that’s all right, we’ll be OK.”

Postecoglou’s squad has been stretched to

After just one point from three games over the festive period, and with his side 11th in the Premier League table, Ange Postecoglou is under pressure as Tottenham Hotspur manager. On Saturday, they face in-form Newcastle United at home and their following top-flight game is the North London derby on January 15. We asked four Tottenham-supporting Times staff members what they think of their head coach and what the rest of the season could look like…

Glenn Ebrey

Yes. It is unfair to judge him on the basis of the past couple of months — any team in the Premier League, Liverpool included, would struggle without their first-choice centre backs and goalkeeper for a prolonged period, plus several other injuries which have exposed the depth

James Maddison and Brennan Johnson headed to the darts to let off steam but Tottenham Hotspur will need more than a night at Alexandra Palace to give their nose-diving season a lift.

Ange Postecoglou gave his squad Monday and Tuesday off after Wolverhampton Wanderers’ late equaliser made it one win in seven league games for Spurs on Sunday, with the plan always to use this rare period without a midweek fixture to try to recuperate. “The whole group probably needs a couple of days just to get away from everything and recover, because it’s been fairly intense for a real small core group of players,” Postecoglou said.

Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, Archie Gray and Radu Dragusin have all been used relentlessly over the Christmas period

Ange Postecoglou has suggested he could enjoy the last laugh as a “genius” if he sticks to his guns in the face of critics ridiculing his adventurous playing style at Tottenham Hotspur.

The head coach believes that the steps he is taking with his players will eventually pay off as they learn through their experiences, giving him a full-strength squad that can be easily rotated between matches.

However, in another blow for Postecoglou, Tottenham could be without a fit centre back for Sunday’s home match against Wolverhampton Wanderers and have been investigating why their players have suffered recurrences of muscular issues. The immediate concern is a run of four defeats and 19 goals conceded in nine matches across competitions since a 4-0 win over Manchester

Nottingham Forest and their fans are dreaming about a return to European football after their win against Tottenham Hotspur sent them up to third in the league.

A year ago, as Nuno Espírito Santo took over at a struggling Forest side, the Christmas wish for many of their supporters would have been purely to stay in the top flight. Now, 12 months on and they are chanting about the possibility of a Champions League adventure after Anthony Elanga’s first-half goal gave them all three points at the City Ground.

There is a long way to go yet, but with one game left until the official halfway point of this campaign and Forest only four points off second, why shouldn’t their supporters dream about a return

“I get the idea that people think I should just flip a switch and change and somehow that will miraculously make us a better team. I’m just going to continue, stay focused on trying to build this team to be the team we want.”

Postecoglou also has admitted Tottenham will need new signings in January even when players return from injury. Spurs have only won twice in the eight games that have followed their 4-0 win over Manchester City.

Injuries have particularly hurt, with Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Guglielmo Vicario all absent for the heavy defeat by Liverpool, a game in which the 18-year-old Archie Gray started at centre back for the third time in a week.

“Absolutely,” the head coach said when asked if reinforcements would be required next month. “Some of them will be internal. We’re at different stages of getting players back from injury. We’ve got a couple of long term ones in Vicario and Wilson [Odobert], but the rest hopefully at some point in January they’ll come back.

“That will help us in terms of numbers and dealing with the schedule, because the schedule is not going to change. We’re in the Carabao Cup semi-final, we’re still in Europe and the FA Cup starts. We’re still in all the competitions, so it’s not going to get any easier. We’re going to need some of those players hopefully to come back and contribute.”

Asked whether Tottenham will be able to recruit players in the transfer window, he added: “Yeah, I guess if the right players are there. Again it’s about making sure it’s something that’s going to help us continue to build on what we’re doing.”

Tottenham are eight points off the top four and they will spend Christmas day 11th in the table. Postecoglou said he was unhappy about the team’s position when asked about whether he felt pressure about their standing. “People aren’t throwing platitudes at me so that’s fair enough,” he said. “Again from my perspective, all I can do is navigate us through a difficult period and try and make sure we do get to a position where hopefully we have a healthier squad.

“If you’re saying that [position in the table] means I’m not doing a good job and I maybe somehow should be uncomfortable, well that’s for others to judge.”

Meanwhile, Arne Slot, the Liverpool head coach, said he felt the victory rivalled his side’s best away performance, their 3-0 win over Manchester United in September. While the Dutchman was pleased to top the table at Christmas — Liverpool have opened up a four-point gap over Chelsea with a game in hand — he was unhappy to have conceded three goals.

“Until 60 to 65 minutes, I really, really, really enjoyed what I saw,” he said. “If we would have gone into the dressing room with a 2-1 lead [at half-time], that would not have done justice to all the chances we had.

“That was why I was quite happy with the fact we scored 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, an incredible display.

“But then you also saw that no matter how much quality players have, they think they don’t have to run anymore. In this league, especially against Tottenham because they are so good with the ball as well, they immediately start to create and they scored two goals.

“I was happy when the sixth one went in, to be fair.”

Arne Slot is not a showman and under his command Liverpool have been efficient in giving us spurts of beauty and breathtaking pace and finishing –but not too often. It is a long and harrowing and draining campaign and the Dutchman plans for the long haul. But sometimes an opponent is so open and so vulnerable that it is harder to be deadpan than witty and so Liverpool played as if with a fit of the giggles. This was great fun and, crucially, did not sap the team at all.

The Merseyside club moved four points clear of Chelsea at the top of the table as Slot registered his biggest league win of the campaign so far. His has been an efficient, 2-0 sort of

Marcus Rashford looks set to miss Manchester United’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur despite the club’s head coach Ruben Amorim saying he wanted the forward to stay at the club.

Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were omitted for the Manchester derby at the weekend but while Garnacho is set to return for Thursday night’s game, Rashford looks like he could miss out after appearing not to have travelled with the squad.

He was not with the rest of the squad as 21 members of Rúben Amorim’s squad boarded the train at Stockport Station to go to London on Wednesday evening. It is not yet clear why he was not with his team-mates but he missed training on Monday through illness.

Amorim wants Rashford to stay

“And through it all, we’re playing the way we want to. Big Ange Postecoglou, whether I’m right or wrong.”

Robbie Williams singing an adapted version of Angels in August last year. That was peak Postecoglou. Something had shifted. Spurs fans would declare they did not care what the result was, they just loved his style, his demeanour, the way he made Tottenham stand apart as a free-flowing, entertaining team.

Watching Tottenham was fun even if you didn’t support them. The manager was hilarious, what with his gruff Aussie accent and the way he could make the word “mate” sound pally or intimidating depending on his view of the question asked.

A breath of fresh air; that was Postecoglou. Corner kicks? Pah. They are boring in

“I’m now in the place I want to be,” says Giovani Lo Celso, rejuvenated at Real Betis after he never found his place at Tottenham Hotspur. Lo Celso has scored seven goals in 12 games for Betis already, which is a remarkable start, given his last seven goals for Spurs spanned nearly four years.

He is happier now, playing free again, but the wounds from his time in England have still not fully healed. “It’s a bit of everything, about feeling comfortable, and being made to feel comfortable, about having rhythm and confidence, that’s what allows a player to give his best version,” he says. “That’s not what I had before.”

Perhaps nobody encapsulates the chaos of the past half-decade at Tottenham better than Lo