Richarlison celebrates with Brazil teammates after a goal against Tunisia. (Photo by ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)
Tottenham Hotspur assistant manager Cristian Stellini has confirmed that Richarlison, Dejan Kulusevski and Cristian Romero will play no part for Spurs in their UEFA Champions League clash against Olympique de Marseille.
Speaking ahead of the game at his press conference instead of the banned Antonio Conte, Stellini said (h/t Football.London):
“We don’t have available Kulusevski, Richarlison and Romero as well. Other players are available to play the match.”
A huge hint that the trio wasn’t available for the match came earlier on Monday when they weren’t spotted in the open training session. However, it is good news that at least the rest of the squad is fine.
Deki has been out for a long time now. He was supposed to return in a fair bit of time but now fans will fear if he will be able to play even a single minute for us before the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Romero is arguably our most important central defender alongside Eric Dier when it comes to commanding the backline. Clement Lenglet and Davinson Sanchez have just not been that good individually this season.
Richarlison, meanwhile, is a player who was bang in form before his injury scare against Everton. It’s a shame that both he and Kulusevski have been sidelined at the same time.
This has forced Conte several times to play a 3-5-2 formation, as we did against Bournemouth, and lose a lot of edge up front. Hopefully, with Bryan Gil, Ivan Perisic, and Lucas Moura fit for the tie, we can start a more attacking team against the French outfit.
We need a point to qualify from our group for the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds. Sometimes, such a scenario can make the game trickier than a plain win-or-get-eliminated situation, especially if we start on the backfoot and play for a draw.