Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou explains shock triple selection decision as mini-revival ends in loss to Man City | OneFootball

The Spurs boss opted to rest some key names - despite an eight-day gap before the next game

Ange Postecoglou left Tottenham’s big-hitters on the bench against Man City

Getty Images

Your matchday briefing on Tottenham, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dan Kilpatrick

Sign up

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Ange Postecoglou defended his team selection after leaving Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Djed Spence on the bench for Wednesday's 1-0 home defeat to Manchester City.

Postecoglou recalled James Maddison and Pedro Porro and handed Wilson Odobert a first start since September in place of Son, Kulusevski and the in-form Spence, despite Spurs having an eight-day break until their next match -- the Europa League last-16 first leg against AZ Alkmaar next Thursday.

The hosts were flat in the first half but rallied after the break, with Odobert, Son and Pape Matar Sarr all going close to a leveller.

"I can't be sitting here bemoaning not having a squad and then not use it [when I do]," Postecoglou said afterwards, when asked about his XI.

"I think that'd be highly hypocritical of me, but we needed Destiny [Udogie], Brennan [Johnson] and and Wilson to play today and get some minutes.

"Deki, Sonny and Djed have played an enormous amount of time, so having them have a little bit of a recovery and a breather, I thought was going to be helpful for us, but more importantly, now I've got three more players who are getting close to, I mean it's 90 minutes for Brennan, that's the first 90 minutes for quite a while.

"We're going to have some real options which we're going to need because we've got Europa and league back to back now and we need as many bodies available for that as possible."

Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and Djed Spence were all introduced in the second half

Getty Images

Odobert was lively on his first start since the League Cup tie at Coventry in September but it was another frustrating outing for January signing Mathys Tel, who struggled to make an impact from centre-forward.

"I thought Wilson was great," Postecoglou said. "It was important tonight that him, Destiny and Brennan got some minutes. Again, it’s one thing to get guys back from injury but we have got to get them up to speed as quick as we possibly can.

"You could see Wilson hasn’t played for a while but you could also see the quality that he has. I think he grew into the game in the second half. I thought he was a big catalyst at the beginning of the second half when he was running at the opposition.

"He is an exciting player and if we can manage him through this period and get him to a really decent level of fitness, I’m sure he will help us finish the season strong.

"Mathys is working really hard and but we're asking him to do a massive job for us at this level and he's probably one that did probably need a rest and probably does need a rest because he's come in and played every game.

"It'll be good to get Dom [Solanke] back in there. When he was playing for us, he was hard to stop and you can see the benefit of them having Erling in their side, so hopefully Dom's not too far away."