Dominic Solanke says the Tottenham squad love Ange Postecoglou’s unique style of play and are convinced it can end the club’s trophy drought.

Solanke starred for Spurs in Thursday’s 4-3 win over Manchester United in the Carabao Cup with a brace, but a dramatic finale sparked more debate around Postecoglou’s bold front-foot philosophy and relentless attacking approach.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has repeatedly stated Postecoglou must change and cannot play the same way for 90 minutes, which was echoed by Jamie Redknapp even though injury-hit Tottenham set up a last-four showdown with Liverpool in midweek.

Ahead of a semi-final dress rehearsal with Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday, summer recruit Solanke lauded his head coach.

“Ange is very unique in the way he plays and we love it. The way he plays, it suits us,” Solanke told the PA news agency at Tottenham‘s One Hotspur Junior Christmas party earlier this week.

“It is a great style, especially for me being a striker to play in. Like I said, we haven’t been consistent enough this season. We’ve just come off not the greatest run but I feel we’re building towards that consistency.

“We’re like a family, we all want to achieve the same thing and every day we’re on the training ground working towards our goals. Ultimately we want to win stuff and we’re all on the same wave length.

“We all back each other, all believe in each other, like I said, we’re all on the same page.

“In football there is always times when you are on top and when you have a bit of dip, but it’s about working on the negatives to get that steady flow going. I think it will definitely come.”

Sunday will see Solanke back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the third time this week after he was joined by Son Heung-min, Timo Werner, Richarlison, Pape Sarr, Pedro Porro, Will Lankshear and Alfie Dorrington for Tuesday’s Christmas party with junior Spurs fans, where various festive activities were put on.

While the 27-year-old has only been at the club since August, the £65million forward has quickly developed into an integral player and is eager to become a leader for a young squad which features several of teenagers in Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Mikey Moore and Lankshear.

Solanke added: “We have a lot of young boys and players like me, the more senior players with a bit more experience, definitely need to help the younger ones.

“It’s something you need in football. You need everyone you can to be a leader and help each other. That’s something I definitely want to do more.”

[embedded content]

Across five-and-a-half years at Bournemouth, Solanke developed into a talisman with 21 goals in all competitions during the 2023-24 campaign.

It earned the former Chelsea academy product a big-money move to Spurs and despite being able to improve his goal tally to nine on Thursday, Solanke wants more and is desperate to win his new club a first trophy since 2008.

“I always want more goals no matter how many I score. I would have liked to have a few more by now, but that’s always the mindset, you always want more. I think the main point is trying to get the consistency in the team right now and working towards some trophies,” Solanke insisted.

“I feel like I am where I wanted to be but I feel like I have still got a lot more to give though, so I will keep working and improving. And our main goal here is to win something now.

“The manager speaks about it all the time, we all obviously want to win something as well and that’s the dream of the football club. Like I keep mentioning, that is the wave we are on and hopefully we can achieve it.”

Spurs’ immediate priority is Sunday’s visit of Liverpool where the hosts’ will target a third consecutive victory despite being without eight players.

The fixture will carry extra significance for Solanke after he spent a difficult 18 months at Anfield before he left to join Bournemouth in 2019.

Solanke reflected: “I was still very young and it might have been a bit too young for me going there, but I learned a lot and I was thankful for my time there.

“Every game you want to win and do well. Obviously when it’s an old club, it always means a little bit more because you see familiar faces and want to get the better of them. It will be another tough game but we’ll take that challenge.”

Adblock test (Why?)

Arne Slot has seen his options against Tottenham boosted by injury and suspension returns, creating a welcome selection headache across each department.

The Reds have had to settle for a point in their last two league games and a return to the winner’s board is a must on Sunday afternoon against an inconsistent Spurs outfit.

Slot was able to rest seven starters during the midweek clash at Southampton, a timely boost and a direct contrast to Tottenham who have a day less to prepare and will be without eight players.

So, how could the Reds boss line up his side in north London? Let’s take a look.

[embedded content]

Slot offered a brief update on his squad away of another away game, confirming that he is expecting to be without just two players for the clash:

After making eight changes at Southampton, we can expect a similar number in the capital.

Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Ryan Gravenberch, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah all did not make the trip to Southampton, nor did Robertson.

Seven of the eight will be expected to return to the starting lineup, with Slot needing to make a decision on his midfield combination – which will likely see one of Szoboszlai or Jones start from the bench.

Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo are likely to be retained from midweek after all being withdrawn before the end of the 90 minutes:

• Alisson, Van Dijk and Robertson all return at the back
• Gravenberch joins Szoboszlai and Mac Allister in midfield
• Salah back on the right wing alongside Gakpo and Diaz

That would make for seven changes and see the Reds line up as follows:

Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister; Salah, Gakpo, Diaz

Alternatively, Jones could be given the nod in midfield over Szoboszlai having started all three matches prior to the League Cup fixture in midweek.

And if Slot gets the green light to start Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota following their injury returns, he could be tempted to do so with a pre-planned substitution for the pair in the second half.

As Diaz was able to put his feet up during the week, he will be favoured for the left-wing role ahead of Gakpo after the Dutchman featured for 63 minutes.

• Tsimikas selected over Robertson after injury return
• Jones in the advanced midfield role over Szoboszlai
• Jota to make first start since October 22

Those tweaks look like this:

Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Gravenberch, Jones, Mac Allister; Salah, Diaz, Jota

Having been stretched at times in recent weeks due to various injuries, Slot will welcome the selection dilemmas and the options he has off the bench to change the game if needed.

The Reds head to Tottenham in good shape and they need to take advantage of a Spurs side missing key players and susceptible to conceding goals.

Adblock test (Why?)

Liverpool has been handed a possible transfer boost after it was reported that Manchester City is not considering moving for Martin Zubimendi during the January transfer window.

It had been claimed in recent weeks that City was considering Zubimendi as a possible winter addition to help the team deal with the absence of Rodri, but City sources have indicated to a number of journalists who report on the club that a move for Zubimendi in January is currently not on the cards.

City do have money to spend during the winter window but Pep Guardiola spoke of the difficulties of buying in January during a press conference on Friday.

"It is not easy to do that. Teams don’t sell, maybe it has to be players who don’t play. They don’t want to sell and they are so expensive," Guardiola said of the January window.

"It depends on the market and we’ll see. It’s simple: get players back. Except Rodri. We have the squad there and after that maybe we’ll have the team that we were. We were not able to solve it.

"We’ve spoken about doing something and if it’s in winter it’s if we really we need it or if we can really find something. Not for just four or five months. In the winter it is more difficult to do. We’ll see.

"I don’t know how many times we’ve got into the winter (market) – maybe just Aymeric Laporte seven years ago. We’re not a big fan of that but the circumstances of this season have been special.

"We have to see if something is possible and if not we will wait until the summer time – how we finish the season, how the players perform, knowing we’ve got short holidays. We’ll talk and see what is possible in the market."

Adblock test (Why?)

Tottenham could welcome back Destiny Udogie and Timo Werner for Sunday's match against Liverpool but Ange Postecoglou remains without a host of first-team players against the league leaders.

Udogie was forced off during Spurs' win against Southampton last weekend but the problem clearly wasn't serious, while Werner was absent for the League Cup win against Manchester United through illness.

"Timo was unwell yesterday so we've got 48 hours or so before the game and hopefully he will recover [in time to face Liverpool]," Postecoglou said. "The plan is Destiny should be ok."

Both of Spurs' first-choice center-backs, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, will miss the match with muscle injuries, as will first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who is a long-term absentee with an ankle injury.

Richarlison, Ben Davies and Wilson Odobert are all also sidelined, while Rodrigo Bentancur is currently serving a seven-match suspension.

Meanwhile, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot defended Ange Postecoglou's style of play after the Australian came in for criticism for his all-or-nothing approach in recent weeks.

Spurs have recorded some excellent results this season but have been wildly inconsistent, letting two-goal leads slip on multiple occasions and losing the joint-highest amount of league matches outside of the Premier League's bottom four.

Still, Slot is an admirer of Postecoglou and willed him to win some silverware in North London: “They’ve always been a certain brand of football for me and have a certain identity. I think Ange ­Postecoglou gives them that identity back completely. Ange is doing great work over there. I hope this is seen a bit more. I also hope, hope, hope that he wins a trophy – not the League Cup.

“I’m completely a fan of his team for the Europa League because people always talk about trophies and that it’s so important. For his brand of football and his style, it is so much more important and if he can combine that with winning something that would be so good for football in general because people can stop talking about it’s too attacking or ­whatever. How on earth can you play too [much] attacking football?”

Adblock test (Why?)

Liverpool's injury crisis has eased in recent weeks and the Reds will be without just two first-team players versus Tottenham on Sunday.

Up until fairly recently, Liverpool had several times that amount of players sidelined, but the recent returns of Alisson, Diogo Jota, Federico Chiesa, Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas have improved the situation.

Now, the Reds are just waiting on Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley to return after the pair sustained injuries during the 2-0 win over Real Madrid at the end of November.

Konate limped off with a knee problem during stoppage time after a coming-together with Virgil van Dijk and Endrick, while Bradley pulled up with hamstring discomfort during the second half.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Spurs, Arne Slot gave an update on the pair's recoveries: “If I’m correct, I think it’s only two players in the red [zone] at the moment and that means only two injuries left – and a few of them are coming back from injuries.

“I think we only miss two players (Konate and Bradley) on the training ground today, which is a positive thing. These are the two who are still in red so they don’t train with us at the moment. They are on their way back, but they don’t train with the team yet.”

When asked about possible return dates for the duo, Slot responded: “That is quite difficult. I thought Jota would have been back a bit earlier already, but sometimes the end stage of rehab takes a bit longer.

“Let’s wait and see, but we have very good rehab personnel over here and they have done some good work already with Alisson and some others.

“The main thing is if they come back, they are ready to come back. We must not focus on one, two or three days, it’s more important for the long term that they stay fit afterwards.”

Adblock test (Why?)