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Ange Postecoglou can see light at the end of the tunnel regarding Tottenham’s injury crisis, but will aim to manage minutes of key personnel at Brentford ahead of a huge week.
Spurs travel across the capital on Sunday for a pivotal Premier League fixture, which is followed by the club’s biggest match of the season on Thursday at Liverpool where a place in the Carabao Cup final is up for grabs.
An FA Cup tie away to Aston Villa follows on February 9 and days later injured sextet Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson are set to return.
Micky van de Ven made his comeback during a 3-0 win over Elfsborg on Thursday, but Postecoglou watched fellow defender Radu Dragusin hurt his knee in the same fixture.
While Tottenham need points after six defeats in seven Premier League matches, Postecoglou looks set to manage Van de Ven’s game-time at Brentford and potentially Pedro Porro, Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison’s minutes ahead of a huge clash at Anfield.
“Every time I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel it’s usually been an oncoming train,” Postecoglou joked.
“We’ve obviously got a big week but we play Villa in the cup and then we’ve got a clean week to Manchester United (on February 16) and that’s the week all of them are sort of scheduled to start training.
“To have a full week of training with those guys available leading into the Man United game, I think it is a little bit of a point for us to relaunch our campaign, particularly in the league, but then we have real big games of consequence in the cups coming around as well.
“I mean that’s why I’m trying to manage the minutes of the guys we have available because we don’t want to lose anyone else.
“We’ve got a big week coming up for sure starting Sunday. We’re going to have to do it with this sort of core group of players, so we’ve just got to be careful about how we go about it.”
Antonin Kinsky and Djed Spence will return at Brentford after being ineligible for the victory over Elfsborg, which sent Tottenham directly through to the Europa League last-16 stage.
Van de Ven played 45 minutes in his first appearance in almost eight weeks following a hamstring injury and while the Dutch defender will be required again on Sunday, Postecoglou will try to protect him.
Postecoglou revealed: “Probably not 90 only because of the short turnaround.
“The idea is to get him some game-time. Build up his minutes over the weekend.”
There were more chants calling for Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to leave during the Elfsborg match and they have been frequent over the past two months.
We’re going to need the support in this last phase of the season to hopefully create something special, but I have often said I can’t sit here and dictate to people what they should or shouldn’t do.
Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou
Fans have turned on Levy after a poor run of form, which has occurred amid a crippling injury crisis that highlighted deficiencies in the squad put together for Postecoglou during the summer.
“It’s a bit harsh to say I’m responsible. It’s not like I’m in the middle of it sort of starting the chant,” Postecoglou pointed out.
“We’re going to need the support in this last phase of the season to hopefully create something special, but I have often said I can’t sit here and dictate to people what they should or shouldn’t do.”
