Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham will look to bolster their attacking options in the next two transfer windows as he struggles to cope with a raft of injuries.
Postecoglou is hoping Dominic Solanke will be fit to face his former club Bournemouth tomorrow night after missing Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Fulham but it is still papering over the cracks in a squad short of genuine striking threat.
Son Heung-min played as the central striker at the weekend, flanked by Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson.
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Spurs are without the injured Richarlison, Wilson Odobert and teenager Mikey Moore leaving Postecoglou with a problem he is hoping to rectify, potentially in January.
He said: “Yeah, there is no doubt because when you add Wilson to that, even Mikey, we had Dom out on the weekend, you hope that alleviates.
“With Wilson it’s long-term, hopefully Mikey by the turn of year will be back as well, but he’s 17. With Richy it has been frustrating because I see the potential in him and to be fair when he’s been fit he’s always made an impact, for me anyway. I think back to the start of last year and when he came back into the team during the year he went on a scoring run.
“Even the little games he’s played this year, he’s made an impact. So, you know, that’s what you kind of hold on to, but there’s no doubt we need some bolstering in that front third over the next couple of transfer windows.
“Dom coming in has been great, but again we can’t overload him either, because ultimately even if he stays fit and nothing happens, performance will invariably drop if his energy levels drop. So it’s something we’re aware of and need to plan for.”
A trip to the south coast awaits ⏳
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Postecoglou ready for Bournemouth battle
More pressing is the need to return to winning ways at the Vitality Stadium with the result against Fulham a disappointment given Spurs’ performance in winning 4-0 at Manchester City the previous weekend.
“It’s a Thursday Sunday cycle for us pretty consistently,” Postecoglou added.
“Monday is recovery day for the lads and yesterday training with the guys who didn’t play the majority of the game.
“They’ve all recovered well, no issues from [Fulham] and we’re ready to go for a big game tomorrow.
“They’ve beaten City and Arsenal at their place. They are one of those sides where they have a real consistency in performance and approach so you know that you’re in for a battle. I’m really looking forward to it.”
We’re improving – Postecoglou
Tottenham’s inconsistency continues to hamper their progress but Postecoglou repeated his belief that his team are improving.
“We’re progressing in all our aspects of our game,” he said. “We’ve scored a lot of goals but defensively, we’re much more consistent than we were last year. The fact that we have got quite a few significant absences is just something we have to work through.
“We had a very similar scenario last year and it’s fair to say we sort of ground our way through it and we’re doing that at the moment. We can improve in all aspects of our game, but at the same time, we’re showing progress in areas we’ve felt like we needed to this year.
“We’ve obviously had a couple of games where we’ve been not great in executing our football, those two games in particular against Palace and Ipswich we felt we were below what we wanted to do. That’s probably again an area we’ve tried to improve at but aside from that, it’s progress in all areas.”