Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has been talking team news and transfers ahead of Thursday's Premier League contest with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
The Lilywhites will square up to the Champions League-chasing Tricky Trees - thriving under the wing of ex-Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo - on the back of their unforgettable 6-3 loss to Liverpool on Sunday evening.
Having come out on the wrong end of that nine-goal spectacular, their third loss from their last four top-flight matches, Tottenham will be spending Christmas Day in the bottom half of the Premier League rankings in 11th place.
Spurs' slump has coincided with a selection crisis in defence in particular, as well as the absence of Rodrigo Bentancur, who was serving a seven-game suspension for an offensive comment he made over the summer about Son Heung-min and South Koreans.
However, Bentancur completed that lengthy ban in the Liverpool loss and is eligible to make his return on Boxing Day, where Postecoglou also expects Destiny Udogie to earn some minutes after he was an unused substitute at the weekend.
Udogie, Bentancur available for Tottenham's clash with Forest
© Imago
Asked for a team news update in his pre-game press conference, Postecoglou said: "From the game, as far as I'm aware no issues," as quoted by football.london. "Destiny was on the bench but wasn't 100% quite right and should be right. Bentancur is available after his suspension. That's kind of it for now."
Tottenham should therefore be working without Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Richarlison, Wilson Odobert, Mikey Moore, Guglielmo Vicario and Ben Davies once more, leaving Postecoglou down to the bare bones at the back.
Radu Dragusin is Spurs' only fit senior centre-back right now, meaning that 18-year-old Archie Gray has had to deputise in that unfamiliar role in front of backup goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who has come in for criticism recently.
Before shipping six to Liverpool last time out, Forster let in three against Manchester United in Spurs' EFL Cup quarter-final success and was culpable for the Red Devils' first two goals, his footwork letting him down on both occasions.
Spurs had been tipped to sign a new goalkeeper in January before Forster's blunders, with Burnley's James Trafford, Sunderland's Anthony Patterson and Angers' Yahia Fofana all linked with moves to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Postecoglou confirms Spurs will be active in January
© Imago
A separate report has claimed that Tottenham could also target a 'dual benefit deal' for Borussia Dortmund's Julian Brandt, and Postecoglou has confirmed that the club will be active when the window reopens.
"I think, yeah, reinforcement. Like I said a while ago, we've been planning," the Spurs boss added. "A lot of it was going to be around where we're at around this time. Fair to say we're still a little bit short in a couple of areas and we need to reinforce.
"But January's trickier in terms of what sort of players you can bring in. For us, ideal — for any club, I guess — you want to bring in people who are going to make you stronger.
"I think the fact that, obviously, we're still in the Carabao Cup semi-final, still got Europe, FA Cup, we're in all the competitions, it's not like our schedule's going to ease up at any stage. So I think it makes sense. We will try and reinforce where and what number we'll have to wait and see."
Tottenham will be bidding to make it seven straight Premier League wins over Forest in Thursday's fixture, and not since 2003 have the Lilywhites lost a top-flight match on Boxing Day.
Ben Knapton
