Ange Postecoglou insisted Tottenham will “go out there to try to win” against Aston Villa on Friday despite suffering more injury woes ahead of Wednesday’s Europa League final.
Tottenham’s season rests on their meeting with Manchester United in Bilbao next week, Spurs having endured a disastrous domestic campaign in which they have suffered 20 defeats in the Premier League.
Victory in the Europa League final would secure Champions League qualification and, having seen Dejan Kulusevski (knee) and Lucas Bergvall (ankle) ruled out for the rest of the season, Postecoglou would be forgiven for making substantial changes to his starting XI for the visit to Villa Park.
But choosing to do so would likely attract scrutiny, given Villa are in the thick of a race for Champions League football and kick-off just 45 minutes before Chelsea’s game with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge gets underway.
Chelsea and Villa are level on points in fifth and sixth in the race for the top five, with only goal difference separating them. They are five points behind Arsenal in second, three adrift of Newcastle United in third and two behind Manchester City in fourth.
Asked about protecting the integrity of the Champions League race, Postecoglou told a pre-match press conference: “We are are certainly going to go out there to try to win the game tomorrow and put out a team that hopefully gets that job done.
“I’m not sure about the integrity. There have been times this year when we have had to field weakened teams because of injury. Does that affect integrity? So, if people are thinking there is some sort of competitive balance that exists or doesn’t exist over the course of a season, I would be very surprised if people were questioning our integrity to try and win a game of football tomorrow.
“I will put a team out that I think will do its best to win a game of football, yes.”
The loss of Kulusevski for the season followed James Maddison being ruled out for the rest of the campaign, robbing Tottenham of two of their chief creative influences.
Get well soon, Deki 🤍 pic.twitter.com/U1PQ2y0lcB
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 14, 2025
“Disappointing news. Initially we kind of thought it wasn’t too serious,” Postecoglou said of Kulusevski’s injury. “The medical team were worried about structurally how the knee was but it seemed good. It kind of blew up the day after and we knew there was an issue there.
“He’s had surgery and it will put him out for at least a few months.
“It’s just reflective and consistent with everything else that has happened this season. We just haven’t had a smooth run of things. Every time we look like we are getting to a place where we are looking in decent shape squad-wise, invariably we have been hit.
“The last few weeks again, it’s just circumstances that have happened probably in the one area of the park.”
One player who will be involved for Spurs is striker Son Heung-min, though Postecoglou suggested he has not decided to what extent.
“He will definitely play tomorrow, whether we start with him or not we will have a look at. But he definitely reacted well to playing the other day [against Crystal Palace],” Postecoglou explained.
“There were no issues with his foot and he has trained well. It makes sense for him to get more match minutes. That could be as a starter but if not he will definitely play at least half a game tomorrow.”
