Ange Postecoglou admits Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke is ahead of schedule in his return from his knee injury but he is wary of pushing the England international too quickly.
The 27-year-old has enjoyed a strong start to his Spurs time with 17 goal involvements in 29 matches since his £60million move from Bournemouth last summer. However, a freak non-contact knee injury suffered in training while taking a shot has ruled him out since mid-January and Postecoglou was asked for the latest on Solanke as well as injured centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
“The first European game [at AZ Alkmaar next Thursday] I’d say outside chance for any of the three of them but certainly they’ll be back training fully by then and then we’ve got Bournemouth at the weekend and I reckon much better odds for that,” said the Australian. “Definitely, by the second European game they should all be available to play.
“Dom’s the only one where we’ve got to be careful because he’s ahead of schedule so I don’t want to push that in case we need to pull the reins in a bit but with Romero and Micky that’s the plan at this stage.”
He added: “We’ve a little window where hopefully we can get something into them and have still got two European games and three league games between now and the international break so I really want them up and running by then.”
The Spurs head coach was asked about whether he’s tempted to push up the intensity of the training sessions now he has got players back from the injury crisis that strangled the club somewhat during the winter months.
“I would love to do some double sessions but we’ve got to be sensible about it. It has been a balancing of also some rejuvenation for the group that’s been through it. So it’s two separate groups, there’s the group that’s back and hungry for work and want to hit the ground running and the other group. I think so far we’ve got the balance right,” he said.
“We gave them a couple of days off before the Ipswich game then two or three solid days’ work so it’s always a balancing act between the two. But even the players enjoy it, they’d much rather come to training and feel like they’ve had a good session rather than not go through the motions but go out there knowing they’re going to have to sort of hold things back because there’s another game in a day’s time.”
Postecoglou explained further about how important tempo was to training sessions and the subsequent matches.
“[Having players back has] made an enormous difference for us. It was part of the frustration because obviously when you’re going through that period of so many games and with the small squad because of our injury situation, we couldn’t really train,” he said. “So you want to rectify things and the best place to rectify things is on the training track and we just couldn’t do it.
“You try to replicate it but at a really low tempo, which wasn’t realistic. Whereas now, I think we saw the benefits of that in the Ipswich game. I think that’s as fluent as we’ve been sort of middle to front third in terms of our football and it’s because we did so much work leading up to it during the week.
“The players were able to train and it’s not just the training but then also because we’d got players back, we’re not training with the young players from our academy. We’re actually training as a squad which again means the level is really good. Like I said, just being able to work on patterns, work on some of our attacking third stuff, our mid to front third stuff which I think we’ve struggled with.
“A lot of that has been because of personnel, lack of personnel but you could already see the benefit of that at the weekend and again I guess after Wednesday we get another week to work on those things. I know the coaches have loved it because that’s where we can help the players but I think the players have appreciated just being able to work on our game.”
He added: “It’s not just intensity. The kind of match work that we’ve been able to do that we’ve had to sort of steer away from because we had to protect the players.
“Just our normal attacking patterns that we work on. You try to simulate match conditions so players can find solutions in those areas. You can’t do that when you try to protect them from the physical load and also the quality of players we had. Now we can work on our patterns, whether that’s in an attacking sense or defensive sense in kind of match-like situations and at a match tempo, not for the duration but it gives players the opportunity to practice some of the things we talk about.”
One new player in the group is Mathys Tel, who has had to fill the role left by Solanke in recent matches. The teenager has been a willing runner if not having the physical build of players like the England striker, Liam Delap or Erling Haaland to act as a focal point. Postecoglou believes the Frenchman will become something different.
“I don’t think he’s going to be that kind of striker, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a really good central striker, there are different types,” he said. “With Mathys, and I’m not on social media but I can just imagine the comments about him, he’s 19-years-old, he hadn’t played a lot, we’ve thrown him in and kept him in there because I want to build up his fitness.
“But if anyone is expecting him to come in as a 19-year-old and take the Premier League by storm by scoring multiple goals, it’s not realistic. It just can’t happen. What we’re trying to do is work with him. He needs to get his physical fitness up because he hasn’t played a lot of football.
“At 19, I see really outstanding attributes in him that I think he could be a really good number nine, he can play wide as well, but he’s not going to be a Dom or a Delap, he’s a different type. Looking at him in training, his movements are becoming a bit more fluent, he’s getting used to the way we play. He’s getting used to the level of competition.
“What I do love about him is that he’s a hard worker. You watch him in games, he’s closing people down, he’s doing the things we need him to do at the moment to help us. He may not be getting the goals and the accolades, but he’s certainly contributing to the way we want to play. That’s the most important thing. He’s got so much growth in him and I’m sure we’ll see that.”
Spurs will go into Wednesday night’s game against Manchester City as the Premier League’s second-highest scorers this season behind Liverpool. They have the same goal difference as Pep Guardiola’s City side, yet the visitors lie fourth in the table with Tottenham back in 12th, 11 points behind them.
It was put to Postecoglou that that was a bizarre situation and he nodded his head.
“It is. I had it once before, with Yokohama in my third year. We finished ninth and were the second-highest goalscorers in the league,” he said. “On the one hand it gives you encouragement, because you go, ‘OK, there is something there’. But the other bit is the frustrating bit.
“Because you think we’re probably six or seven points off being in a really decent position. You kick yourself thinking about some of the games we’ve dropped. That’s where the anomaly lies. I think the underlying statistics show we should be higher up, but we’re not.
“That’s the reality of it. It’s because in some games we’ve shot ourselves in the foot in terms of moments where we’ve let games get away from us, balances against the extreme situation we’re in in terms of injuries. But I always see those things as more encouraging than not.
“When you’re going through a tough spot and you’re not in a place you want to be, you’re looking for signs. Is there anything there that shows we’re on the right track? I’ve always felt goal difference is a good indicator. Goals scored is a good indicator. Usually the teams who score the most goals are in a decent position in the ladder because it’s the hardest thing to do.
“The underlying stuff is there but it’s been masked by the fact that we’re two or three games away from being where we should be. When I think about some of the games we’ve dropped, that’s a little bit self-inflicted.”
Discussing what changes Ange Postecoglou should make for Man City plus that performance at Ipswich. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham.
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