Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur is keen to make up for misplaced time forward of his return for the Boxing Day journey to Nottingham Forest.
Bentancur has sat out Spurs’ final seven home matches as a result of a Soccer Affiliation suspension for racist remarks about captain Son Heung-min earlier this 12 months.
The absence of the 27-year-old Uruguay worldwide has occurred on the worst time for head coach Postecoglou, who has been with out a string of senior gamers for a jam-packed December and watched his depleted squad battle for consistency.
“Even the injured guys, they’re across the group on a regular basis and so they wish to assist, they wish to contribute,” Postecoglou stated.
“They know we’re in a tricky second and, for Rodrigo, it has been much more irritating as a result of it’s not an damage which has stored him out.
“As I’ve stated, he made a mistake, served his punishment now and needs to assist the crew.
“It’s good to have him again. He’s been working laborious at coaching. By way of Boxing Day, we’ll see, however definitely (a lift) simply to have an additional physique.
“I believe what the gamers have needed to cope with, the core group of gamers over the past type of three weeks or so, has been very, very demanding on them.
“Most of them have gotten by way of it fairly nicely, by way of not getting any extra accidents, fortunately for us, however it’ll be good to have just a few capacity to rotate some gamers and even make substitutions in video games that hopefully will assist us.”
Spurs’ joint-leading scorer this season is Brennan Johnson with 10 targets, however he has been restricted to a spot on the bench within the final three matches with the in-form Dejan Kulusevski most well-liked at proper ahead.
Postecoglou insisted there’s “nothing extra” the Wales worldwide must do to power his means into the crew forward of a return to outdated membership Forest.
Nevertheless, two logical options for Postecoglou to clean up his beginning line-up on the Metropolis Floor can be to recall Bentancur and Johnson – probably rather than Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr.
Requested what extra Johnson wanted to do, Postecoglou replied: “Nothing extra. He has to simply maintain doing what he’s doing.
“Clearly we’ve the steadiness of the crew and we’ve had Deki there and Deki has accomplished very well, scored within the final 5 video games.
“It’s simply the steadiness of the crew. A part of it’s once more, we don’t have a variety of choices up there and it’s about managing that load.
“We’re already overburdening a few gamers in that space, so it’s good to have Brennan, who we’re managing by way of this era and he’ll play vital minutes.”
Significantly at their place, it may be an ideal problem for us
Postecoglou on Forest
Tottenham are in want a optimistic lead to Nottingham, however will come up in opposition to outdated boss Nuno Espirito Santo, who has turned Forest from relegation candidates into Champions League hopefuls throughout his 12 months in cost.
“He clearly got here right here and it didn’t work out for him, which simply occurs, however he’s proven he’s a prime supervisor and he’s doing a improbable job at Forest,” Postecoglou stated.
“They’ve bought some high quality gamers in there and so they’re having a extremely good season. Significantly at their place, it’s going to be an ideal problem for us.”
