After Tottenham’s FA Cup win against Burnley, Ange Postecoglou was understandably upset about several things. Friday night’s clash was the first game without Son Heung-Min and Papa Matar Sarr, and Spurs were struggling for fluency until Pedro Porro’s wonder goal sealed their qualification for the fourth round.
The Lilywhites had a number of chances, but Burnley sat deep and defended their box superbly until their resolve was broken by Porro with a powerful shot from 25 yards that flew into the top corner. With Tottenham already actively involved in the January transfer window, the game was somewhat overshadowed by the departure of Eric Dier, who is closing in on Bayern Munich, who are ready to sign the England international.
This seemed to be the reason why the 29-year-old was not in the squad for the game against Burnley, but Postecoglou admitted that his absence was due to injury. The Tottenham boss was then even more pressurised on the issue, with the question of a transfer to Bayern being directly mentioned.
“That’s a separate issue, but don’t question my integrity,” Postecoglou angrily replied. “When I say he is hurt, he is hurt. He didn’t train yesterday. I can get you Vision [footage of Spurs’ training system] or ask him. It has nothing to do with anything else.”
Postecoglou added: “When you ask me if he is injured, he is injured. I didn’t make that up. If he wasn’t injured, I would say he wasn’t selected. I can easily say. He is injured and he is not on my radar in terms of anything else that is going on. I have not heard anything about that. If something happens, I will certainly find out, but it’s fair that in the last 24 hours we are focusing on the game and the guys that are available.”
While Postecoglou lost Dier to injury, he was able to welcome back Micky van de Ven, who missed the last two months with a thigh muscle injury. The Dutch international did not play, but Ryan Sessegnon, who missed the last 11 months, came off the bench.
With the departure of two key players, the return of the duo is a big boost, but unfortunately it seems that Postecoglou’s favourite has suffered another blow. “Ben Davies seems to have injured his thigh muscle,” the Tottenham boss said when asked about any fresh injuries. “So it looks like he won’t be out and Gio [Lo Celso] is a bit tight but hopefully it’s nothing serious.
Rodrigo Bentancur has also just returned from injury, with his 60-minute cameo last weekend followed by another start before being withdrawn late in the game, with Postecoglou revealing an update on his fitness. “Yeah, he’s fine,” he said. “He was just tired. Obviously he didn’t play and he probably played more than we wanted, but he felt good.”
Manor Solomon, Cristian Romero and James Maddison are still missing through injury, while Ivan Perisic is the only long-term absentee for whom Postecoglou has given a worrying return date. “To be fair to Ivan, he is working hard. Obviously he has some national team commitments that he wants to get done as soon as possible,” he said.
“Again, it’s a big loss for us. I thought he was going to make a really big contribution this year because of his experience and we saw that in the first couple of games because he was influencing games, but yeah, he’s not going to … he’s probably not going to play for us anymore.”