While Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr will be at the Africa Cup of Nations, Son Heung-min is leaving for the Asia Cup, which runs from January 12 to February 10. This has become manager Ange Postecoglou’s latest headache.
Son ended a five-game losing streak over the weekend by helping Spurs defeat Newcastle United 4-1 with a goal and two assists. The only players who have scored more league goals than the South Korean are Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah
Tottenham is also preparing for the absence of key midfield players Bissouma and Sarr from the AFCON, which runs from January 13 to February 11. Bissouma, Sarr, and Son will miss the FA Cup third and fourth rounds on the weekends of January 6-7 and 27-28, respectively, as well as league games against Manchester United, Brentford, Everton, and Brighton if Mali, Senegal, and South Korea advance far in the AFCON and the Asia Cup.
FIFA regulations state that clubs must release players two weeks prior to major tournaments. With Bissouma and Sarr out due to injury, manager Postecoglou is left with only Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Oliver Skipp, and Giovani Lo. Rodrigo Bentancur and James Maddison are also out.
The true test for Postecoglou, who acknowledged that losing players wasn’t ideal, will probably come in January. Following their victory over the weekend, he said to reporters, “In this league, you’re going to struggle if you have one or two key players out.”
“You brought up James and Micky, but you overlooked Bentancur. Perisic was crucial to our late-game victories, and he was the one to supply Manor Solomon. I could write forever. Although it may sound like an excuse, this is the reality of the Premier League, and it doesn’t take a lot of analysis to understand why our results over the past few weeks haven’t been as clear-cut as they were earlier in the year.”
On Friday night, Tottenham will go to Nottingham Forest in an attempt to inflict further suffering on Steve Cooper’s team, who were only able to draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers the previous weekend.
