BBC article about our injuries, questioning whether Postecoglou is at fault for them: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c17e5ekg5vro I'm sure his head of sport's science at Celtic is trying to be supportive, but it's actually damning. The part about making one of their players play through a hamstring injury is particularly poor.
I’m glad to see this article because it raises the point that it’s not necessarily our medical team that is the cause and that Ange’s approach is the potential issue. Something else I mentioned a few weeks back!
He's between a rock and a hard place though. It seems he really trusts 14 or 15 players and some have no natural replacements. I blame him for Spence and Reguilon. Dorrington presumably isn't showing enough and neither is Lankshear, so we have bare bones.
I suspect part of the issue with Lankshear is that when he was selected he got stupidly sent off. Not the sort of thing that would go down well with Ange I believe. As for Spence and Reguilon, one of the first rules of building a high performing team is that you set a high behavioural bar for who can be in it. If people don't comply they get left out and have a huge hill to climb before being re-selected.
He doesn't say that anyone played with a hamstring injury. I read it as the medical team being asked to speed up the recovery period so he could play in a cup final. That's a risk v reward call that's properly down to the manager.
AFAIK there's been no indication of Reggie having poor behaviour, he was merely left in limbo as the club told him to find a new club in the summer and he didn't
But a totally different standard is applied to Romero and Bissouma? Give me a break. The issue with Lankshear is that our manager is a buffoon.
A lot of hay is being made of Dortmund sacking Nuri Sahin with the club in midtable in both the Bundesliga and Champions League The difference that is being ignored is Sahin managed that with a fully-fit squad, not with four out of five of his first choice back line injured
Reguilon is the most damning treatment. The bottom line is that he should not be playing a single competitive game. regardless of squad injury status. He should be undergoing the most physical training sessions possible with the squad that holds his fitness/touch as close as possible to that of a starting XI regular (in the event a loan/transfer opportunity arises) .
Love how some are solely blaming injuries for the poor league form of the last 14 months. It goes beyond that. Even if the squad was fully fit (unlucky to ever happen) the results still weren’t good enough.
Lankshear scored in the very game he got sent off and if getting sent off has caused him to be excluded from minutes then it shows a double standard amongst other players seeing as Bissouma (x2), Dragusin, Udogie and Romero have all been sent off since Ange was manager. In terms of any behavioural issues, there’s been nothing to imply Reguilon has ever had as such and Ange said in the summer how impressed he was with Spence. Spence also bizarrely signed a new deal before he started getting game time this season, I doubt the club would sign off on a new contract for a player that wasn’t playing, was omitted from Europa and had supposed behavioural issues.
Agreed! Spurs were awful when they had a fully fit squad. I was one of those that initially wanted Ange to manage spurs, but since that game against Chelsea in 2023, I have simply been horrified by his tactics/formations that have largely contributed to our downfall, including injuries. Appointing Son as our captain was lunacy too.
I don't think there was an obvious alternative to Son for the armband tbh. Kulusevski has since emerged as a player with a really strong mentality (his interviews are always very impressive and he clearly demands a lot from himself) and his performances are now matching that on a consistent basis. I'd give him the armband tbh and it might just stop him being pinched in the summer.
So many Spurs fans, on here and social media in general tried praising him for that night too. Blew my mind. It was one of the dumbest bits of management I think I’ve ever seen when he played the makeshift high line with 9 men - and Roy Hodgson once made Harry Kane take corners!
Maddison being one of the deputy captains is far more of a confusing choice, TBH I we needed to shake up the leadership group since most of that group from the Poch-Conte years had left (Kane, Lloris, Sissoko) or were being moved on shortly (Dier), and Romero certainly does have captaincy traits - but Maddison's shirking underlines he is one of the least viable options to have in a leadership role
It was utterly horrifying but to be honest, it was fun to watch! I was indeed entertained! But it certainly wasn’t the correct approach to adopt.
