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Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou is hopeful captain Son Heung-min and James Maddison will be fit for Saturday\u2019s \u201cgreat test\u201d against Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Son and Maddison were forced off late on during last weekend\u2019s 2-2 draw at Arsenal after not being \u201c100 per cent\u201d for the derby, according to the Spurs boss.<\/p>\n
The influential duo both trained on Friday and Postecoglou remains confident they will feature against Jurgen Klopp\u2019s team, but Brennan Johnson will be absent.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cFrom last week, Brennan will miss out. It\u2019s nothing too serious but he won\u2019t be right for this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMadders and Sonny trained today, just finished the session and seemed to get through it not too bad.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ll just have to see how they pull up as it\u2019s fair to say they were a bit sore after last week and had a bit of an interrupted week training, so just a matter of seeing how they pull up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maddison and Son combined twice at the Emirates to earn Tottenham a 2-2 draw and maintain their unbeaten start to life under Postecoglou in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Summer recruit Maddison suggested post-match the club were beginning to shed their \u2018Spursy\u2019 tag after they showed plenty of grit to peg back Arsenal on two occasions last Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t heard exactly what Madders said but he is obviously new to the club and is going on what he is feeling at the moment,\u201d Postecoglou reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fair to say the lads have shown a fair bit of resilience this year and we\u2019ve had to adjust to the nature of the way the games have gone. We have had a lot of things in the context of a football game that haven\u2019t gone our way.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes these things can become a little bit overblown because opposition supporters are obviously looking for any kind of sore point that a football club may have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis club has been up at the top of the table for quite a while now and got close to having the ultimate success in the Champions League, so it is far from being a club that has fallen on bad times for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there is a crucial bit missing there and every group of players, myself included, have the opportunity to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool boss Klopp had been full of praise for Postecoglou during his press conference earlier on Friday and the Australian returned the favour.<\/p>\n
Postecoglou added: \u201cThey probably bring something different from any other team in the league in the way they play and the manner they go about things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a really good test for us to try to impose our football on a team that\u2019s fairly unique in the way they play the game.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJurgen is an outstanding manager, he\u2019s one of the managers I think it\u2019s fair to say who has made an impact on the competition, not just his club.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause when he came in, with the way Liverpool went about things, he challenged quite a few of the conventions about the Premier League and introduced a new style of play that others have followed. It\u2019s a great test for where we are at the moment in terms of our development.\u201d<\/p>\n