Ange Postecoglou has warned Tottenham defender Cristian Romero that his attacks will be under scrutiny for the rest of the season.
Romero is back after a three-match ban for a red card against Chelsea earlier in the month and was criticised for a poor tackle on Callum Wilson at the end of Spurs’ 4-1 win over Newcastle on Sunday.
VAR reviewed the incident, which was upheld as a caution, but if Romero had been sent off he would have faced a four-match suspension, further depleting a Tottenham squad already without eight first-team players for Friday’s trip to Nottingham Forest.
Postecoglou said: “It’s safe to say he will be in the spotlight for the rest of the year.
“Every challenge he makes, whether it’s something that’s quite obvious like the Chelsea game or last week, which I thought was as awkward as anything.
“He is aware of it and understands it. He just has to adapt what he has to do during the game, but I don’t think that’s a subject for long conversations.
“It’s quite obvious what an influence he has on us when he plays and when he doesn’t, and we much prefer him on the pitch.”
The Spurs have failed to win any of the games Romero has missed through suspension, his ban coinciding with a thigh muscle injury to teammate Micky van de Ven.
Van de Ven will only play in January and although Postecoglou is happy with the partnership between Romero and Ben Davies, a left-back by profession, he is keen to bring in another central defender in January.
“I feel that as a team we were much more organised in the crossing (against Newcastle),” Postecoglou added.
“Romero contributed a lot to that, but Ben Davies was also outstanding for me last week. He’s getting more games now, but we always have to be aware that he’s not a central defender.
“We were very lucky that Ben was able to come on for us. He takes information very well, he understands the game, not only his role but also how we want to play and that has helped him.
“In that sense, he is also helped by Romeo and Vic (Guglielmo Vicario), who has taken the lead.
“After all, we still have to sign another central defender because we are a bit on the ropes at the moment because if something happens again, we will run out of players, which we are already short of.”
Postecoglou revealed that Giovani Lo Celso will miss the game at Forest as he was injured in training this week.