Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is set to make his first league start of the season in their upcoming clash with Fulham.
Yves Bissouma, a standout performer for Spurs this season, has been ruled out due to suspension following his red card against Luton Town in their last match before the international break.
Postecoglou expressed his confidence in the team’s ability to adapt to Bissouma’s absence, hailing their impressive display with ten men in the Luton fixture.
Postecoglou said (via Tottenham’s official website): “We had to adjust without Bissouma at Luton, which I thought we did awfully well with ten men.
“We’ve got some options. Pierre is a ready-made replacement. He’s been training really hard, and he’s probably wanted to be playing more. But when he has come on for us, he’s done really well.
“For me, he’s the logical one to come in, but we’ve got a couple of days.”
Brennan Johnson and Giovani Lo Celso are set to return to the squad after recovering from recent injuries, providing Postecoglou with options for the upcoming match.
However, Rodrigo Bentancur is still several weeks away from making a comeback.
The Australian manager expressed his delight that Bentancur has been fully integrated into the training group but stressed the need to manage his reintegration carefully due to the extended period he spent away from the pitch.
“Brennan’s had a good couple of weeks training,” Postecoglou added.
“The flip side of players going away is that we can work with the ones that are here, so Brennan and Bryan were players that haven’t played a lot of football so far, and they have progressed well through the international break.
“We’ll see how they perform on Monday night, especially in Brennan’s case. It was a really solid block of training for those guys.”
Ryan Sessegnon is out for a while and remains a long-term absentee.
