No Lucas
Antonio Conte's Tottenham team were back out on the training pitch at Hotspur Way on Monday to prepare for their Champions League clash vs Sporting CP. However, there was once again no sign of Lucas Moura alongside his teammates.
Last involved in Conte's Spurs squad against Wolves midway through August, the Brazilian has missed the team's last five games in all competitions through injury. Out with inflammation in his tendon at present, the Tottenham head coach did state on the eve of last Tuesday's European clash vs Marseille that his player was set to return to training on the pitch the following day
"Moura is not available, not still available," he said. "I think tomorrow he starts to have a training session on the pitch. He has this inflammation in his tendon and I hope to recover him very soon because especially up front we need him."
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Question marks continue to surround when exactly Lucas will return, especially after Conte said last week that he would be back on the training pitch on Wednesday. If he is indeed absent against Sporting CP and Leicester City this week, he will have a further two weeks to work his way back to fitness over the international break before they resume league action away at Arsenal at the start of October.
Lack of youngsters
Academy players involved in Tottenham first-team training was a common sight last season due to a lack of numbers. Harvey White and Dane Scarlett were very much seen as part of the first-team squad by Conte and more often than not included in the matchday squad, but the young duo were joined by others from the academy fairly regularly.
Matthew Craig, Jamie Bowden and Marcel Lavinier were some of the players called up for first-team training, with Charlie Sayers getting the nod ahead of May's North London Derby. Today it is a rather different story, mainly because of the club's summer transfer activity after they added six new players to the squad for the 2022/23 campaign.
In Monday's training session at Hotspur Way, White was the only youngster to come from the academy who was involved in training. Missing out on the matchday squad against Marseille one week ago, the 20-year-old will be hoping he gets the nod in the competition at some point during the group phase with teams allowed to name 12 substitutes.
Son all smiles
Son Heung-min has endured a rather frustrating start to the 2022/23 campaign going on his incredibly high standards. Scoring for fun at the end of last season as he won the Premier League Golden Boot, the South Korean has yet to score in the first seven games for Tottenham this term.
Going into the Marseille encounter off the back of an impressive display against Fulham, Son struggled against the French side and didn't look close to scoring at all. Admitting after the game that his current barren run will only make him stronger, his form doesn't appear to be playing on his mind too much if Monday's training footage is anything to go by.
The 30-year-old was all smiles during the training session and he looked to be having a laugh and a joke with Ben Davies and Yves Bissouma when coming out for training, before doing likewise with Fraser Forster during the rondo. All will have their fingers crossed he nets against Sporting CP as it could potentially spark a purple patch in front of goal as a result.
Why Romero and Bentancur were applauded
Starting Monday's training session with a light jog, Tottenham duo Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur were not there to begin with. Turning up a few seconds later, both were applauded as they made their way across to join the rest of their teammates.
Richarlison, Son and Emerson Royal were just some of the players applauding the duo, with Romero himself clapping as he linked up with the rest of the squad. It was then straight down to business for the pair as they got into their warm-up.
Romero trains how he plays
There was certainly no let up from Romero once the session got going. Following the light jog to ease themselves in, the players took part in a rondo as they looked to make 20 passes without those in the middle winning the ball.
On one occasion Romero was in the middle of the circle and quite clearly keen to get out of there as soon as possible. Following Brandon Austin's pass to Bissouma, the Argentina international slide right in like it was a match situation to win the ball ahead of his teammate to get himself out of the middle in the process.
While some players may not replicate match intensity in training, Romero most definitely trains how he plays.
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