Ange Postecoglou may have just dropped fresh Tottenham masterplan hint with Ipswich decision

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Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham team selection at Ipswich Town was always going to be interesting with a host of players recently returning to fitness. Seeing Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert and Brennan Johnson all make their comeback the previous week against Manchester United, Destiny Udogie was an unused substitute for the 1-0 victory in the capital.

Postecoglou went to Suffolk on Saturday having the option to rotate his team and give those who have just returned an increase in pitch time. For the second weekend in a row, Tottenham had the luxury of a full week to get ready for their match rather than having limited time with games tending to come every three or four days in 2024/25.

Even with a good amount of time to prepare for the trip to Portman Road, it was always going to be about manging minutes ahead of Wednesday's game against Manchester City. That's why players such as Archie Gray, Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr, Udogie and Johnson who did not start against Manchester United were always candidates to get the nod at Ipswich.

Gray, Udogie and Johnson did come into the team, with Bissouma and Sarr remaining on the substitutes' bench. Despite Rodrigo Bentancur playing a lot of football of late, Postecoglou elected to start with the Uruguayan once again rather than give him a breather ahead of the Manchester City match.

Lucas Bergvall also kept his place in the team, a decision which was fully justified after an excellent showing against the Tractor Boys. Since seeing his minutes in the Premier League really increase from the middle of December onwards due to a lack of available players, Bergvall has demonstrated exactly why he was brought to Tottenham in the first place.

The Swede has started six of Tottenham's last seven Premier League matches, with the only game he didn't start coming in the 2-0 win at Brentford. However, his importance to the team could be seen by the fact that he was introduced by Postecoglou at the break as Tottenham tried to hold on to their 1-0 lead, which they later doubled in the closing stages through Sarr.

Just like Gray, Bergvall has taken his game to a whole new level since his introduction to the team towards the end of last year and he has more than made his case for a permanent place in the starting XI. Bentancur is one player who is seen as an undroppable in Postecoglou's Tottenham XI.

The 27-year-old's season has been stop-start due to his seven-match domestic ban and injury but virtually all of his playing time has come from the off. Bissouma, on the other hand, has found himself in and out of the team and has clearly lost his previously undroppable status.

Even in a game against a side in the bottom three where Postecoglou had the option to rotate and rest key players, Bissouma started on the bench and was only introduced with five minutes to go as the boss quite clearly wanted to go with his preferred midfield to maintain their current momentum. Sarr was an unused substitute in the 4-1 win, with football.london reporting that the Senegal ace did look stiff and was struggling to move freely when he came back from one late warm-up with Bissouma.

Right now, it does look like Bentancur and Bergvall are two of Postecoglou's three first-choice midfielders, with one of Maddison or Dejan Kulusevski joining them to make up Tottenham's triumvirate. However, the increasing options in attack could result in both Maddison and Kulusevski starting in midfield again as was the case earlier in the season.

All will become clear in the weeks ahead but it would appear that Bissouma and Sarr have work to do in order to reclaim their place in Spurs' Premier League XI.

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