Our handsome Dutch boy is back. Speaking to the assembled media ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League home fixture against Elfsborg, Ange Postecoglou confirmed that not only is Micky van de Ven recovered from his hamstring injury sustained earlier this season, but he’s likely to start the match on the bench, hopefully getting some minutes.
That’s the good news. The bad news is James Maddison was confirmed to be out 2-3 weeks with a knock.
“Micky is good. He is good to go and we will try to get him some match minutes tomorrow. That’s the plan. Let’s see how much we can get out of him tomorrow. He has a good week/10 days training with the team and is in good condition so he is fine.
“In terms of the other guys, Madders has a calf strain so he is probably two to three weeks. He picked that up in the Hoffenheim game which was a week ago almost. Pape is okay, he still has got a bit of a niggle but he is okay and available. Biss is available. I think that is it for tomorrow night at this stage.
“I am not wary because [Micky] has got to come back at some stage. We can keep him training forever and never play and he maybe gets injured, that’s not how it works. We’ve done everything in our power and we did last time too. Last time he probably played more than he should have him in that first game but again hindsight and the circumstances around that game without rewriting history were pretty challenging anyway, but he’s ticked every box, worked awfully hard and been given clearance by the medical team. Invariably when you’ve had one injury it means you are always going to take a conservative approach, which we have and at some stage he has to play.
“What we’ve got to make sure is to just manage his minutes now to give him every chance to grow into it, but he’s enormous for us because A he is a fantastic player, and B with a lot of these guys who will come back, they are just champing at the bit to help so there is an energy there, a positivity there and for the guys who have been on the grind for a while, just having him training is a boost. Having him out there tomorrow I think even for our supporters it just gives you some energy and renewed energy, particularly for the core group of players who have got us through the last two and a half months, I think it gives us an enormous lift. So, really happy to have him back and tomorrow night is a good game for him to get back into it, European football, so a good way to reintegrate him in and I’m sure he’ll do well.
Ange also gave a brief update on Cuti Romero, who is still working his way back to fitness while training with the full group.
“Cuti’s still a bit of a slow burner. We’re mindful his injury was a bit different and he’s still got to tick a few boxes so, yeah, not for the horizon at the moment in terms of this weekend. We’ll see how he goes after.”
So no Maddison, but a (relatively) healthy Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma? That’s not too shabby. It should hopefully be enough to get a win over the Elf Borg; this is the final match of the group stage and while Spurs have already clinched progression to the next stage of the competition they can clinch top 8 and a bye to the next round with a win on Thursday.
Ange said he doesn’t feel any extra pressure after losing to relegation-battling Leicester City at home this past weekend, but that he wants to get top eight so Spurs have a couple of weeks with only one match.
“No different to any other game mate. It’s a game I want to win and we go into it with the same intent. It’s a competition we have done really well in to be in a great position. We want to solidify our position and finish in the top eight. That’s in our hands tomorrow night. A win makes it certain, a draw is probably going to be good enough as well. Finishing in the top eight for us is hugely important because it gives us a good foothold in the tournament and also gives us a couple of weeks where we don’t have midweek games which at this point we are at is really important.”
Ange also spoke about Yang Min-hyeok’s loan to QPR, a move that surprised some as it leaves Tottenham even more short-handed at a time when it’s all hands on deck. But for Ange, the Yang loan was more about taking the long-term view to make sure he acclimates to England, but also gets some first team football under his belt.
“Just to give him a chance to settle in to a new culture, a new environment, new league, new country. He’s very young and we feel he needs to be allowed to settle. And with our current situation, the last thing I want to do is throw in another young player. We’ve got enough that we’re exposing, they’re doing awfully well. He’s obviously a long-term investment for the football club and we’ve got to do the right thing by him.”
Ange was also asked, as is common (but stupid) in managerial press conferences, about the transfer window and whether Spurs will be making any more moves for incoming players. As he has the entire month, Ange backed the recruitment team of Johan Lange while not really giving anything away… because it’s not his job.
“I’d be disingenuous if I said anything other than fight now there’s nothing imminent but that doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity being explored. Traditionally the last few days of any window tend to be pretty frenetic. I expect us to be involved in that. Does that mean anything will get concluded? I can’t commit to that because I’m a bit of a distance from it but the information and dialogue I have is we’re exploring all the opportunities to see if we can bring some help in with the finances.”
The press conference also featured some OUTSTANDING comments from Dejan Kulusevski about the team and the injury situation… but that’s another article.
Tottenham kick off against Elfsborg tomorrow at 3 pm. The match is televised on TNT Sports 2 in the UK, and streamed on Paramount+ in USA.