Ange Postecoglou admits he has to be careful with Son Heung-min as his Tottenham squad is looking thin, especially in wide areas.
Son opened the scoring against Roma in north London on Thursday night, with the Europa League game eventually ending 2-2 thanks to an injury time equaliser for the Italians from Mats Hummels.
Spurs are ninth in the Europa League table, with the top eight automatically qualifying for the knockout stages so they are in a decent spot, but with work to do.
Postecoglou is trying to balance challenges in the Premier League, Carabao Cup and in Europe and he is doing so with a number of injuries.
On the wings, Spurs are missing Richarlison, Mikey Moore and Wilson Odobert, while Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are out in other areas.
The manager says he has to keep picking certain players as his options are limited, but must be careful with them, particularly Son.
‘I don’t know if he’s lacking confidence. Sonny’s had a disrupted year for us, so that doesn’t help,’ said the Australian. ‘Yeah, he had some good chances tonight to get the goal and he’s getting in those areas.
‘Look, he’s got the quality to take those chances and we know he’s done it consistently for almost a decade, but he’s had a disrupted season being in and out.You can see he is getting back to full fitness now, which is the main thing for us.
‘We’re quite thin in those wide areas, so he’s playing and we’ve got to make sure we are careful with him, Brennan [Johnson] and Timo [Werner] because they are the only wingers we’ve got left and will have for the foreseeable future.
‘I thought tonight, it wasn’t just Sonny. There were quite a few really good chances, we hit the post three times as well and a couple cleared off the line. I still felt there were a couple of occasions where a bit more composure would have finished the game off.’
It is a very busy December ahead, starting with a home Premier League clash with Fulham on Sunday and Postecoglou will head into it with a number of injury headaches.
‘It is what it is,’ he said. ‘We’ve been in this situation for quite a while. We are fairly thin in terms of squad depth at the moment. We had four kids on the bench tonight so we couldn’t even fill the quota.
‘It is what it is, we’ve been dealing with this for quite a while and I still think we certainly had enough of the game and enough clear cut chances to win the game.’
Spurs will play nine games in December across the Premier League, Carabao Cup and Europa League, including clashes with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.
‘That’s going to be our schedule and we understand that,’ said the boss. ‘It’s challenging with the absences we have at the moment in terms of the squad, but I think tonight our football was still good but we just lacked a bit, that clinical edge to finish the game off.
‘Overall this whole European competition, we’ve had some challenges within the first five games so we’re in a strong position and that’s the main thing.’
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