Ange Postecoglou may now unleash new Tottenham partnership after resisting Man City temptation
Tottenham's FA Cup ambitions are over for another season after a very late exit at the hands of Man City on Friday evening. Just not doing enough to trouble the visitors in the final third but managing to keep them at bay, it did appear that the sides would be playing out a cup replay in Manchester.
However, Nathan Ake ensured that wasn't to be the case after turning the ball home on the line following a Kevin De Bruyne corner in the 88th minute. Tottenham had called for a foul on Guglielmo Vicario as Ruben Dias contested for the ball with the shot-stopper but the decision was to go the way of the visitors.
Having only registered one shot on goal in a frustrating performance, Ange Postecoglou introduced the returning James Maddison with 18 minutes remaining as they searched for a late winner. The 27-year-old unfortunately couldn't have a say on proceedings after only managing six touches of the ball at a time when Pep Guardiola's side were increasing the pressure on the Lilywhites.
Admitting in his pre-match press conference that Maddison was in a position to start after almost three months out with an ankle issue, Postecoglou elected to resist the temptation of starting the England international and instead opted to ease him back in. Having thrown both Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur into the starting XI ahead of schedule following their speedy returns, that unfortunately wasn't to be the case with the ex-Leicester City star.
«Not really,» said Postecoglou in his post-match press conference when asked if it was a close decision to not have the player starting the game. «I think knowing the nature of the game today, he's trained well this week-and-a-half but he's missed a lot of football.
»We were hoping to get him some
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