Ange Postecoglou has admitted that he regretted starting a player who was not fully fit as Tottenham lost 2-1 at home to relegation-threatened Leicester in the Premier League.
The man in question battled throughout the game and was replaced just nine minutes after the break, during which Leicester scored twice to turn the game on its head.
With pressure mounting on Postecoglou as Spurs manager, the Australian conceded after the game that selecting the 22-year-old midfielder was a mistake.
However, Postecoglou reiterated that Tottenham’s unrelenting injury crisis forced the inclusion of a fitness-challenged Pape Matar Sarr, with Djed Spence, Brennan Johnson, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner, Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dominic Solanke, and James Maddison all out for the Leicester game.
‘I’ve said all along that the players require assistance, and I’ve also stated that the club is working hard in that area to try to ease some of those issues, because Pape Sarr should not have played today,’ Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference. ‘He clearly wasn’t fit.
‘The guys are going out there and giving everything they have because we can’t cancel games. We have another game in three days that these players must show up for.
‘The injury situation will improve, and I am optimistic they will be able to assist us. Even bringing in one more player in the short term will provide us with an opportunity to navigate the last 10 days, two weeks, of what has been a really difficult slog for this bunch of players.
Sarr missed Thursday’s 3-2 Europa League win against Hoffenheim due to injury, but he was surprisingly called back into the starting lineup for the Leicester game, where senior midfield options were scant.
However, the 22-year-old Senegalese midfielder appeared off the pace for much of the game and was caught off guard by both Leicester goals, scored within four minutes of each other at the start of the second half by Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss, respectively.
Sarr lasted only 54 minutes before being replaced by Sergio Reguilon, who came off alongside Richarlson, who gave Spurs the lead in the first half.
In a further blow to Tottenham, Postecoglou said that the Brazilian’s withdrawal was also caused by injury.
‘He was feeling his groin; he should have left at halftime, but he wanted to play another 10 minutes,’ he explained. ‘I noticed he wasn’t running well, so I took him off.’
Tottenham now sit 15th in the Premier League table, having not won since thumping struggling Southampton in mid-December.
With a tired team, their game calendar will not ease up in the coming weeks, with a return to Europa League play on Thursday against Elfsborg before a trip to Brentford the following Sunday.
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