Another week, another disappointing Tottenham Hotspur performance, this time a 2-2 come-from-ahead draw against Wolves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. There’s a lot of context behind that first sentence, none bigger than the current injury crisis at Spurs and the state of exhaustion of Tottenham’s core players. This is a team that has played two games a week with as many as ten players unavailable for the past month, and although they get a brief respite ahead of their next match vs Newcastle, that relentless schedule will continue into February.
Ange Postecoglou, speaking to the press after the match, rightfully pointed out that his team is absolutely knackered, and it was a factor in Spurs not seeing out the win today.
“It’s a disappointing outcome. Obviously we went a goal down but after that I felt we controlled the game. It wasn’t easy always to get openings but we did look pretty threatening every time we did get forward. We scored a couple of goals, we obviously missed the penalty and then second half, I just thought we had some really big moments to kill the game off.
“They weren’t really creating much, I mean I think Fraser [Forster] had one save to make with his feet, that was about it. You felt we kind of needed that third goal and obviously they score at the end and you’re kind of left with a disappointing outcome, but it’s not through the want of trying.
“It’s obvious, you know, the lads are fairly fatigued, especially in that front third, we’re not as sharp as we can be, which is understandable because we’re asking a lot of a sort of small core group of players and, as I said, it’s not for the want of trying and they’re trying to get the outcomes for us.”
Ahead of the match many wondered whether Postecoglou would be forced to get even more creative with his defense after Radu Dragusin picked up a knock to his ankle in Spurs’ last match. Dragusin, perhaps surprisingly, started the match and went the whole 90 alongside Archie Gray, though Postecoglou said it was done out of necessity. The other option was to play either Yves Bissouma out of position, or teenager Alfie Dorrington who was on the bench.
“Well we had no choice, if Radu doesn’t play, I don’t know who plays. He wasn’t 100%, but he felt he could get through with his ankle and again, I think the players are all giving everything they can at the moment. It’s just unfortunately we can’t give them what they really need and that is some recovery and rest because we’ve got so many players out, but Radu wanted to play today and you know while he wasn’t 100%, we had no choice to put him out there.
“There’s no choice, but it’s not a risk. I mean it’s it’s a judgment call, you know. It’s not like it’s a muscle injury, it’s a knock on his ankle, but yeah, we’re making decisions. We’ve got no choice unless I throw another 18 or 17-year-old out there, well, that’s the only fit players we have at the moment.”
The other point of concern was the injury to Destiny Udogie, who appeared to injure his hamstring before being subbed off for Sergio Reguilon. Postecoglou confirmed that it looks like Destiny has indeed done his hammy, and that overplaying and lack of rotation is the primary cause.
“Yeah, I think it was a hamstring. Again like I said, we’ve been relying on a core group of players because we just haven’t had the ability to rotate so at some point it was going to catch up with us. Unfortunately it caught up with Destiny.”
For the first time in a month, Spurs will have a week where they only have to play one match — next weekend vs. Newcastle. Postecoglou said that the plan is to try and give his players a mental health break of a couple of days to spend with family and loved ones, and to rest.
“Yeah, it was always planned. We kind of knew this is the first week where we don’t have a midweek game, so I think 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, particularly over the last four or five weeks and I think it’ll do them good to have a couple of days to themselves with their families and give them a chance to recover mentally as much as physically.”
Ange Postecoglou is perhaps one of the most empathetic managers Spurs have had in my nearly 20 years of fandom. He may come across as gruff and a little tetchy at times but it also comes through very clearly that he has a great affection for his players and the struggles they’re going through. Ange was asked if he’s hurting as much as the players, and his response was typically heart-on-his-sleeve stuff.
“Of course I am [hurting]. It hurts me because I’m responsible ultimately. I’m the person in charge. So of course it hurts. When I see how hard they are trying, it hurts even more because you want them to get a reward and I think today they deserved a reward for their efforts even though they were dipping into their reserves of energy, which I don’t even know where they got from. I wanted them to get a reward for their efforts. So of course it hurts. It hurts immensely. At the same time it’s my responsibility for where we’re at right now and it’s my responsibility to try to get us out of it.”
Tottenham’s next chance to right the ship will be this coming Saturday, January 4 at home vs. Newcastle.