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Tottenham star looked absolutely exhausted in Spurs’ defeat to Leicester and Ange Postecoglou has no replacement

Lucas Arnold

Sun 26 January 2025 18:45, UK

After defeat against Leicester City in north London, many Tottenham Hotspur fans are now finding it impossible to deny that they’re embroiled in a relegation battle.

Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenhamꦑ side managed to take the lead against Leicester, but it was just pain on offer for home supporters in N17 thereafter.

🌺Put simply, nothing was working for Spurs and the usual chasms in the heart of Postecoglou’s midfield were causing serious issues against Leicester, who were taking full advantage given their own desperation for points.

🔜Prior to beating Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, Leicester had only won against Southampton on the road in the league this season.

♔And perhaps what made things feel even worse towards the end of the 1-2 defeat was that Ruud van Nistelrooy’s team looked relatively comfortable holding their lead towards the end.

Dejan Kulusevski tried everything for Tottenham but has played too many minutes

As usual, a lot of creative responsibility rested on Dejan Kulusevski’sꦿ shoulders on the right side of Spurs’ attack – the club’s best player this season.

🗹However, the Swede wasn’t able to deliver his usual level of performance against Leicester, even if he was doing an incredible amount of running.

READ MORE: 💖Jamie O’Hara says whether he thinks Tottenham should sack Ange Postecoglou after losing to Leicester City

𓃲Put bluntly, the winger looked exhausted at times, and that shouldn’t be a surprise given the amount of minutes he’s played this season.

♏In all competitions this season, only Pedro Porro has played more minutes than Kulusevski, who has got through a serious amount of running.

💙Against Leicester, Postecoglou had four attacking options to choose from: Mikey Moore, Damola Ajayi, Min-hyeok Yang and Will Lankshear.

𝐆And although Moore is an excellent talent in particular, it’s clear why Postecoglou can’t afford to rest Kulusevski, even if he might also recognise that the winger is being burned out.

Ange Postecoglou has no option but to start Dejan Kulusevski

𝔉In a perfect world, Tottenham would be rotating Kulusevski with both Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert regularly, but the duo aren’t available – a familiar situation.

ꦛAnd whilst you can only sympathise with Spurs’ predicament – they’re desperate for results and can’t afford to rest the first team options they do have, the situation looks to be having a toll on the players who have stayed fit.

READ MORE: 𓄧Tottenham and West Ham both interested in signing ‘brilliant’ non-league defender

ꦆKulusevski perhaps delivered one of his most frustrating displays of the season against Leicester, a player who seems to have tired legs and perhaps even a tired mind in some respects.

🎃Like Archie Gray, Porro and Johnson, Kulusevski has given everything to turn Tottenham’s situation around this season, and he looks exhausted from the outside looking in.

ꩲPerhaps the midfielder, who cost back in 2023, would protest that he isn’t tired and in need of a rest, but his predicament goes some way to demonstrating a much broader fitness issue at Tottenham right now.