Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou aims to bolster squad in January
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Tottenham Hotspur's Destiny Udogie battling for the ball with Fulham's Bobby Decordova-Reid during a Premier League match.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou is finally feeling a bit of pressure following his impressive start to his career in the English Premier League.
After Spurs’ unbeaten run in their first 10 league games, the team have fallen to consecutive losses to Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers, which saw them lose top spot in the table.
On Nov 26, they will host a resurgent Aston Villa side who are just one point behind them in the table, and their recent spate of injuries is not helping their case.
Postecoglou, meanwhile, is looking ahead to the January transfer window aiming to bolster his squad.
“I guess the challenge for us was they (injuries) all came at once as it hasn’t been staggered,” said the Australian, who has key players Richarlison, Ivan Perisic, James Maddison, Ryan Sessegnon and Micky van de Ven all injured.
“In terms of January, Johan (Lange, Tottenham’s technical director) has come in and he’s leading that in terms of all the background work.
“My involvement and my own sort of ramp up to it as we get closer to January is understanding exactly what our requirements are at the moment, although work has been done in the background with Johan leading it and he’s brought in some people to help him in that area. We’ll work with him when the time is right.”
The Spurs boss confirmed that left-back Destiny Udogie will be part of the squad to face Aston Villa, while midfielder Pape Matar Sarr is an injury doubt.
Udogie missed Tottenham’s last game through suspension and the defender was left out of Italy’s recent squad for the Euro 2024 qualifiers to recover from a muscle injury.
“Destiny is fine and is available. He’s had a good couple of weeks,” Postecoglou said.
Sarr started both Senegal’s World Cup qualifying games during the international break, scoring his first goal for his country in a 4-0 win over South Sudan, but is now an injury concern.
Midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur missed Spurs’ opening nine league matches with a cruciate ligament tear but has appeared as a substitute in the last three games. He also started for Uruguay in their 3-0 win over Bolivia.
The rest of Spurs’ South American players returned to training on Nov 24, with no issues for Giovani Lo Celso, Emerson Royal or Cristian Romero.
Romero and Yves Bissouma, however, are suspended.
On Villa, Postecoglou added: “They’ve been good since Unai (Emery) went there.
“Consistent with the way they play football and over recent weeks scored goals and got belief. Going to be a great test for us.” REUTERS
