Tottenham Hotspur haven’t had a good season at all under Ange Postecoglou.
The North Londoners are currently 14th in the Premier League table after winning just 10 of their first 29 games. That is an awful record.
Ange Postecoglou has received a ton of criticism for the way he has set his side out, but it has to be said that injuries have played a big factor in Spurs’ results this term.
Speaking on those issues, Postecoglou highlighted a key mistake that he made with one of Tottenham’s most important players at the start of the season.
Ange Postecoglou admits he made a mistake with Cristian Romero in Tottenham’s first game of the season
Cristian Romero is one of Tottenham’s most important players.
The Argentina international does have a reputation of being rash and making mistakes, but on his day, he is up there with the best defenders in the Premier League.
The World Cup winner started each of Tottenham’s first 11 games in the league this term, but since then, he has played just 144 minutes.
A toe injury first kept Romero on the sidelines, and unfortunately for him, he picked up a more serious hamstring injury just 15 minutes into his return.
Postecoglou now thinks that Romero’s injuries this term could be down to the fact that he did not have a full pre-season with Spurs.
The Tottenham boss said, as per Football London: “That’s what I was talking about before, on looking at how we went into the season.
“Some guys, especially Romero, hardly did any pre-season with us and it wasn’t wise to play him from the first game. That’s something that we need to look at, guys who don’t do pre-season.
“I’ve done it before in my career where you wait until they’re ready to go. But I think that’s all for the end of the year.”
Why did Romero miss Tottenham’s pre-season?
Despite the difficult end to the 2023/24 campaign, there was a lot of optimism going into Postecoglou’s second season at the club.
Spurs were in great spirits in pre-season and picked up a few very impressive results, but most of those games didn’t feature Romero.
That’s because the defender was involved in the Copa America, where Romero played all but one game to help Argentina win the crown.
Romero was given time off after his involvement with his national side, and that meant he could not have a full pre-season.
Despite that, Postecoglou made him play the full 90 minutes in 10 of Tottenham’s first 11 games in the Premier League.
