It has been clear for a couple of months that Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League fixtures are an unnecessary distraction from their pursuit of Europa League glory.
It was no surprise, then, that for the match against Crystal Palace, Ange Postecoglou made eight changes from Thursday night’s victory over Bodo/Glimt in the semi-final second leg and threw fringe members of the squad together.
Nobody was particularly surprised either when they lost 2-0 to Palace on Sunday. Nobody was particularly bothered that West Ham United’s victory against Manchester United meant Spurs dropped to 17th in the table. There was no anger from the stands or the players at a 20th league defeat — everybody stopped being too concerned by their league form a long time ago.
This game might have been immediately forgotten about if Spurs beat Manchester United in the Europa League final in Bilbao on May 21. But something concerning happened in the 19th minute.
Dejan Kulusevski had already been bruised by a challenge from Will Hughes, but he stayed down after a tackle by Palace captain Marc Guehi. A member of Tottenham’s medical staff rushed onto the pitch and rubbed Kulusevski’s right knee for a couple of minutes. The Sweden international stood up on the touchline and tried to run, but ended up hobbling in pain. He was replaced by Mikey Moore and walked straight down the tunnel with a staff member and team-mate Yves Bissouma.
Tottenham’s season has been disrupted by a crippling injury crisis, so maybe we should not be surprised. It would be a disaster if Kulusevski is unavailable for the final. With Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison ruled out, Spurs are already desperately low on creativity in midfield.
Maddison is responsible for dropping deep and pinging passes into dangerous areas, while Kulusevski and Bergvall are excellent ball-carriers. Brennan Johnson is their leading scorer in the top flight this season with 11 goals, but he is closely followed by Maddison (nine), Dominic Solanke (eight), Son Heung-min and Kulusevski (both seven). It would be damaging to lose Kulusevski and Maddison’s runs from deep and they both excel at drawing multiple defenders towards them, opening space for team-mates to exploit.
They are senior figures in the dressing room, too. Kulusevski started and won the Coppa Italia final with Juventus in 2021 and Maddison lifted the FA Cup with Leicester City that year. Their experience and ability to hold the ball under pressure have been crucial to this team’s progression in multiple cup competitions this season.
Too many people have forgotten Kulusevski was Tottenham’s best player in the first half of the campaign, when he regularly appeared in a central attacking role. He was directly involved in nine goals in 19 matches and inspired September’s victory against United at Old Trafford.
The 25-year-old’s relentless energy and technical ability ripped teams apart. Since January, his powers have been weakened by fatigue and a foot injury. Kulusevski initially hurt his foot in February but continued playing for a couple of weeks. He was so integral to Postecoglou’s plans that he featured in all of Tottenham’s first 42 games this season.
Sunday’s game against Crystal Palace was supposed to give Kulusevski valuable game time. He has not scored in his last eight appearances and has looked sluggish. Even if he makes a rapid recovery, this was a lost opportunity to build up sharpness.
Postecoglou seemed optimistic afterwards about Kulusevski’s injury. “He should be OK, just talking to him after,” the Australian said. “The medical team is not too concerned with him. It’s more of a knock than anything else. We are hoping he should be OK.”
Fans will understandably be cautious about those words, though. Maddison limped off in the second half of the semi-final first leg against Bodo/Glimt and Postecoglou said it did not appear to be “anything serious”. A couple of days later, he admitted “it’s not looking promising”. Maddison will not require surgery but has suffered suspected ligament damage and his recovery could take up to three months.
If the worst-case scenario happens and Kulusevski is unavailable, who will be Spurs’ playmaker against Manchester United in Bilbao? A midfield trio containing Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur feels too functional. Moore has played as a No 10 in Tottenham’s academy, but it would be a huge gamble starting the 17-year-old winger in a fixture of that importance. Wilson Odobert played off Son in the second half against Palace, but there was not enough evidence to draw any firm conclusions on whether the Frenchman could flourish centrally. You can make a strong argument that Kulusevski was the least ideal player to suffer an injury before the final given the lack of proven alternatives.
“Guys had an opportunity today to put their name forward and put some pressure on the guys who played the other night, (it’s) fair to say there wasn’t any compelling evidence of that,” Postecoglou said.
“That’s what I’m trying to push with these guys, that sometimes in football you’ve just got to take the opportunities there before you. They’re never going to be perfect. We made eight changes, but there is an opportunity there and you’ve just got to take it when presented to you, and I’m disappointed more didn’t step forward today.”
The only positive to emerge was Son’s return from a foot injury. This was the South Korea forward’s first appearance since the quarter-final first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt.
But it feels typical of Spurs’ chaotic season that on the same day one of their key players returned, they potentially lost another one.
(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)