'Pretty extreme' - Tottenham suffer new double blow ahead of Liverpool semi-final as 10 players now injured
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Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Tottenham Hotspur have more injury woes ahead of their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool.
The Reds will welcome Spurs to Anfield on Thursday 6 February aiming to overturn a 1-0 loss from the first leg in North London earlier this month.
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Hide AdTottenham have been on a woeful run of form and haven't won in their past five Premier League games. Yesterday, they suffered a 3-2 loss at the hands of Everton, which leaves Spurs 15th in the table. As a result, pressure has piled on head coach Ange Postecoglou although injuries have played their part.
Against Everton, Tottenham were missing centre-back duo Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, first-choice left-back Destiny Udogie, No.1 goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, Rodrigo Bentancur, Timo Werner and Wilson Odobert.
In addition, Yves Bissouma, Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke were new absentees. Postecoglou has admitted Johnson, a £47.5 million signing from Nottingham Forest in August 2023 will spend 3-4 weeks on the sidelines and, therefore, will be ruled out against Liverpool. Bissoum’s issue is not thought to be serious. The Australian said: “It's probably three or four weeks, he did it in the second half against Arsenal the other night. So yeah, we're looking at three to four weeks."
In addition, Solanke has a knee problem that was sustained while taking a shot in training and will be absent for a 'couple of weeks, which means he will be doubtful to face Liverpool. The former Reds striker joined Tottenham from Bournemouth last summer for a fee that could reach £65 million.
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Hide AdPostecoglou added: "It's a pretty extreme situation, we've lost three players, significant players since, the last game and we've already got seven or eight out. Obviously, we lost Dom really late yesterday in training, something innocuous, so it's just the run we're on at the moment, the situation we're in. At some point that will change, we'll get some players back, but right now it's just the situation we're dealt and the responsibility lies squarely with me to try to get us out of it.
"Not totally, I mean it was just one of these things and he just sort of went to shoot on his own and twisted it, so we don't think it's serious, but probably a few weeks at this stage from what I've heard."
However, Postecoglou insists that his Tottenham players still have plenty to be motivated for - as he namechecked the Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool as one of them. He said: “We are still in four competitions this season. We are in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, we have a couple of big European games coming up, still in the FA Cup, obviously our league position is not great to say the least. We need to improve that and eventually our players will come back. It is a significant talent that will come back. It is not like this is what it is, there is motivation to get through this so that when we do get our players back we can get something significant out of our season.”
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