Ange Postecoglou defends his decision to make wholesale changes to his side for the Carabao Cup clash against Coventry, insisting that some senior players needed the rest.
Postecoglou made eight changes for Coventry clash
Even though the Tottenham head coach has repeatedly spoken about his desire to win silverware, he decided to start quite a weakened team for the Carabao Cup Third Round clash, making eight changes to his starting eleven from the North London Derby.
The move almost backfired as the home side took the lead just past the hour mark and were looking set to knock Tottenham out of the competition heading into the final few minutes of the clash.
However, thankfully, for Spurs and for Postecoglou, the away side managed to turn the game around dramatically with two goals in the dying moments of the match, with two substitutes, Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson scoring the goals to send the Lilywhites through.
Ange has no regrets despite poor Spurs performance
Postecoglou stood by his selection decision, insisting that he needed to get minutes into the legs of many players since the Europa League was also about to start.
When asked why he made so many changes to the side, the Tottenham boss told Football.London: “Yeah I know, but what I’ve always tried to do is what I think is the right thing. The best thing for us, in terms of what we’re trying to achieve, and you know that there’s no guarantees with anything you do in football.
“But what I’ve always done is back my decisions in critical times to always do what I feel is best. And if it doesn’t work out, I can live with that. But I’m certainly not going to jeopardise what we’re trying to build here by doing something that’s going make me look like I’m in a safer position.
“So we’re always going to play these guys because we’ve got Europe starting next week. The last thing I want to do is throw guys in out of necessity.
“We need to get game time and tonight, some key players for us got some good minutes that mean that when we do need to make changes moving forward, they’ve already played and they’re ready to go.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I do not think fans can have too many complaints with the team that Ange named against Coventry City as that side had more than enough quality to get the job done against the Championship outfit.
Having said that, starting Kulusevski or Maddison and Romero or Van de Ven would have given Spurs a lot more security while still resting a number of key first-team players.
I would always rather see Spurs start with a strong XI and take five players off early than go behind and be forced to throw five players on to chase a result.