The Tottenham Hotspur boss has provided an encouraging update on Rodrigo Bentancur
Tottenham Hotspur are in preparation mode ahead of their 2024/25 Premier League season opener against newly promoted Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Monday evening.
Head coach Ange Postecoglou, who enjoyed a positive debut season in north London and only narrowly missed out on a spot in the Champions League, has given an update on how his team is shaping up ahead of the game at Leicester City. Fulfilling the media duties ahead of the game, he also touched on the fitness levels of Rodrigo Bentancur.
When asked about how excited he is to work with the “real version” of Rodrigo Bentancur, who has had a tough time off the field in the last 12-15 months, Ange Postecoglou stated in his pre-match press conference (h/t Football London):
“Yeah, Rodri last year was very much, a bit like our season, it was very much stop-start at times. At times he looked really good, got some rhythm and then something would happen whether it was an injury or another disruption.
“For him and the other guys, he went away with Uruguay and got game time there. In terms of his mindset, he is in a much better place of knowing that from an injury perspective he is free of that. He is 12 months down the track after a significant injury, which always takes a bit of time and it’s been great to have him back part of the group.
“He came on in the second half last week and I thought he looked really good, has looked good in training, so hopefully that is where some of our improvement comes from. Guys who last year for one reason or another couldn’t get to the levels we know they can and if we can do that with guys like him and the ones who had good seasons last year, if we can improve them as well, that improvement I am looking for will be there.”
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Bentancur returned from an eight-month lay-off in November 2023 because of a serious knee injury but he suffered a setback in his first game back in action. The central midfielder picked up another ankle injury, which sidelined him for a few more weeks.
A setback after returning from a long injury layoff is extremely difficult for a player to take as he has worked day and night to get back on the pitch. Bentancur was praised for being a ‘positive guy’ by Postecoglou after that injury setback against Aston Villa.
When the Uruguay international, who earns £75,000 per week at the club, recovered fully and made his comeback, he lacked rhythm and failed to dish out consistent performances during the second half of the 2023/24 season. The 27-year-old looked a pale shadow of his former self, which is very much fathomable due to a serious ACL injury he suffered in February 2023.
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Bentancur doing well at the Copa America and returning to the club injury-free should give him a lot of confidence heading into the new season. We need the Uruguay international at his best to start controlling games more from the middle of the park, and going by his positive outing off the bench against Bayern Munich in our final pre-season friendly last week, he looks prepared to challenge for a spot in Postecoglou’s first XI in the coming weeks.
Our gaffer’s latest update on Bentancur will certainly please the fans who are all craving to see the best version of him after the horrendous injury more than a year back.
