Ange Postecoglou admits 'not wise' mistakes as Tottenham set for end of season evaluation into injury crisis | OneFootball

Tottenham’s season has been disrupted by injuries as several key players have spent significant time on the sidelines

Ange Postecoglou admits he could have eased Cristian Romero back into action at the start of the season

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Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has admitted he was mistaken to use certain players, including Cristian Romero, from the start of the campaign because they had experienced "disruptive" pre-seasons following international tournaments.

Postecoglou's Spurs, who face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, have been decimated by injuries this term, with Romero featuring in just 17 of their 46 matches so far.

The centre-half was part of Argentina's Copa America-winning squad last summer, while Rodrigo Bentancur also featured for Uruguay at the finals.

Dutch defender Micky van de Ven, Romania's Radu Dragusin and Italy goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario were part of their countries' Euro 2024 squads, and all five players were given extended breaks following the tournaments.

Romero and van de Ven both suffered fresh injuries on their return to the Spurs team after lay-offs in the reverse fixture against Chelsea and they could start together in the Premier League for the first time since that game at Stamford Bridge this week.

"Looking at how we went into the season, some guys, especially Romero, hardly did any pre-season with us and it wasn't wise to play him from the first game," Postecoglou said.

"That's something that we need to look at, guys who don't do pre-season. I've done it before in my career where you wait until they're ready to go. But I think that's all for the end of the year.

"[Pre-season was] really disruptive in terms of the amount of players who weren’t part of it for an extended period of time [and] we just went into the league season, and then into Europe and a decent run in the Carabao Cup.

Micky van de Ven suffered an injury setback in the reverse fixture against Chelsea earlier in the season

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"In retrospect I should have looked at it from a different perspective in terms of when we introduce players into the first team to really drive into our season.

"We had a lot of players on international duty who came back pretty late in the piece.

"What I’m trying to explain is that players need a good two-to-three week block of training before they play.

"If that means somebody comes in the last week of preseason rather than putting him in the first team, give him that block and make him available for selection after we’ve had a decent hit at it."

Spurs have announced a pre-season friendly against north London rivals Arsenal in Hong Kong on July 31, with other tour dates and locations to be announced by the club in due course.

There are no international tournaments this summer but Postecoglou says he plans to tailor pre-season to each individual to ensure Spurs are better prepared for next term.

"It's not the actual design of pre-season," he added. "This year, what we’ve done so far, it’s looking like from a games programme and the trips we need to do it’s a decent games programme.

"I don’t think any player wants to do preseason. If they could all avoid it they would… I think with the way football is going and has gone in recent times, with the volume of games plus the fact they’re not really getting the traditional summer break you’ve got to start thinking about it.

"I’ve done it in the past where you kind of tailor it more individually rather than say we do preseason on the first day, everyone ready to go. I just don’t think that world exists."

I don’t think any player wants to do preseason. If they could all avoid it they would

Ange Postecoglou

Postecoglou's decision to start Romero and van de Ven in the 4-3 defeat to Chelsea backfired, with the former suffering a thigh injury after just 14 minutes and the Dutchman forced off late on with a recurrence of a hamstring injury.

"Romero was coming back from a knock on his toe but he was fit," Postecoglou said.

"Micky with his hamstring, he'd passed all the tests, we'd done everything and everyone felt like he was ready to go.

"There was some other context around that: we'd lost a couple of other centre-halves. And it unravelled.

"I know going into the game, my main concern was Micky. I wasn't really concerned about Cristian but then you lose Cristian to an unrelated injury and it puts more pressure on Micky and then he gets injured.

"Yeah, look, again, in hindsight, I would have not played either of them -- and they would have got injured in the next game mate. That's just the way football works."

Ange Postecoglou is eyeing a first win over Chelsea as Tottenham boss

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Chelsea have been frustrated by defensive teams in their last two home games, 1-0 wins over Leicester and FC Copenhagen sealed by second-half goals, but Postecoglou characteristically played down the prospect of Spurs setting up to frustrate their rivals.

"Sorry to disappoint," he said. "We’ll go there and have a crack and see if it’ll be a good game and hopefully we’ll come out on top.

"I think every club’s on its own journey and I was brought here for a couple of specific reasons. One was to change the way the club plays its football, rejuvenate the squad and bring some success. We’re well and truly on that road and we’ll stay on that road until those things happen."