It says everything about the severity of Tottenham’s winter injury crisis that they were still missing both starting centre-backs – Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero – as well as their two senior centre-forwards – Dominic Solanke and Richarlison – against United, and yet it felt like the squad was nonetheless in a great place.
With Van de Ven, Romero and Solanke all slated to return in two to three weeks, you feel Spurs will probably miss the striker more than the two defenders in the interim.
This game felt like the start of a new stage of the season for Spurs, marking the end of the worst of their injury crisis (as well as the beginning of United’s).
After a week off for the squad to rest and “reset”, Postecoglou welcomed back no fewer than five players from injury, with Vicario and Maddison going straight into the XI.
Tottenham bounced back from their back-to-back cup exits last week with a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the Premier League, settled by James Maddison’s 13th-minute goal.
