Ange Postecoglou has been forced into a much-changed Tottenham team to face Wolves in the Premier League’s early kick-off on Saturday afternoon.
The Australian had to deal with the fallout from the Chelsea defeat which resulted in five players becoming unavailable through injury or suspension. The Spurs boss confirmed on Friday that Micky van de Ven‘s hamstring injury will keep him out of action until the New Year, as will key midfielder James Maddison‘s ankle problem.
In defence, Postecoglou also has Cristian Romero suspended for three games and Destiny Udogie is unavailable for the game at Molineux after he also picked up a red card in that costly defeat to Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
Then Richarlison underwent groin surgery this week in order to fix a long-standing issue with his pubic bone with the Brazilian attacker expected to return to training in around a month’s time.
Postecoglou has made four changes to his team. He had to decide at the back between fit again left-back Ben Davies and 18-year-old summer signing Ashley Phillips as a central defensive partner for Eric Dier and it is the Welshman who has got the nod after playing in the role during pre-season. Emerson Royal came in for Udogie at left-back.
- The Australian also needed to make a call on who replaced Maddison on the left of the trio in midfield, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Giovani Lo Celso, Rodrigo Bentancur and Oliver Skipp all pushing to start and in the end he selected the Dane, who has impressed when called upon this season.
