Injuries have quite often been on the agenda of Ange Postecoglue’s press conferences in recent times. The loss of several key men such as Dominic Solanke and Micky Van de Ven coincided with Spurs dropping down the table, but as Postecoglue’s once depleted squad continues to patch itself up, the Australian is hopeful that his side can benefit from an increase in depth and time together on the training pitch.
Speaking after Tottenham Hotspurs’ 4-1 win against Ipswich Town at Portman Road, the Australian claimed the benefits of members of his squad returning from injury was already starting to show.
“Look, we’ve certainly benefited from having a couple of midweeks off for sure. That’s coincided with getting a few players back. You saw today we were able to rest a couple of players in Pedro [Porro] and Madders [James Maddison]. I can make substitutions and the players coming on can make a difference.”
Although his side remained in 12th position in the Premier League despite their win, Postecoglue seemed positive that they could still make the most out of this season. They have the knockout stages in the UEFA Europa League ahead of them and his team will attempt to climb up the table as the ex-Celtic manager told reporters that they will look to “address our league position which is obviously not good enough.”
Embed from Getty ImagesWhen speaking about what’s still to come, Postecoglou said “We’ve got Solanke, Richarlison, Romero, Van de Ven, Ben Davies, he’s out today. They’re all still to come back. I just feel like we’ve got a really good opportunity in these next 10 days to be well equipped for what’s ahead.”
While the 59 year-old was looking forward to the return of various important players, he was keen to place praise upon the members of his squad who have endured a tough workload during a challenging few months.
Dejan Kulusevski was on the scoresheet this afternoon and his manager spoke glowingly about the Swede. “You saw Kulusevski today, people forget he was unbelievable at the start of the year. The poor guy’s just been grinding it for two and a half months. Without any excuse, without any complaints. He’s just been going and going. You saw today he’s got energy, he can run at people, scored a brilliant goal.”
Victory in Suffolk meant that Tottenham had registered back-to-back wins for the first time since November, highlighting how issues with availability had affected the consistency of Postecoglou’s side with new issues cropping up time and time again throughout the last few months. The Australian will be hoping the worst will be behind them as they look to potentially go on a good run of form ahead of the final months of the season.