Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou sends warning to Ruben Amorim ahead of Man Utd clash

Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham have lost five of their last eight games but the Spurs boss has a warning for Ruben Amorim and Manchester United ahead of their Premier League clash on Sunday

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou expects to have a much stronger squad available to him when his refreshed side face Manchester United on Sunday.

Spurs have been dealing with an injury crisis over the past two-and-a-half months, coinciding with their dreadful form. Tottenham were without 11 senior players as they were dumped out of the FA Cup at the weekend by Aston Villa, putting more pressure on Postecoglou’s position.

In the Premier League, Spurs are down in 14th, one place and two points behind United, who appointed Ruben Amorim in November after sacking Erik ten Hag. But Postecoglou has reasons for optimism ahead of United’s visit to north London.

For the first time in 2025, Tottenham don’t have a midweek fixture, giving their players a much-needed rest and more time for Postecoglou to work with them on the training ground. Not only that, three of his defenders – Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogieare – are set to return to training.

Outlining his plan for the week, Postecoglou explained: “I’m just going to keep working like I have. We’ve got to give them some time off in the early part of the week. The boys who are coming back we have got an opportunity to give them a full week of training which is great.

“Come Tuesday, we should have three or four who have been missing. We can give them a full week of training rather than just throwing them in. By the time we get to the end of the week we will have something resembling a squad of players to prepare for a big game.

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“That folds into the following week because again we have got seven days to prepare for the next game. That gives us a good opportunity to get some work into the guys who have been out for a while and give some rest of the guys who have been going at it. By the time we get back to Europe and midweek games, we will be in much better shape.”

Centre-back duo Van de Ven and Romero and left-back Udogie would all be in Postecoglou’s first-choice XI but the trio haven’t played together since Spurs’ 4-3 defeat to Chelsea on December 8. Before then, Romero hadn’t played for a month and Van de Ven had been out since October.

Neither of the pair completed 90 minutes that day, so Postecoglou will be mindful of rushing them back against Amorim’s United.

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