View: Rarely-seen 90% Tottenham player becomes key after what happened v Aston Villa

Ange Postecoglou has become more reliant than ever on Radu Dragusin after what happened in Tottenham v Aston Villa on Sunday.

The Lilywhites’ 4-1 victory on 3 November came at a cost, with both Richarlison and Cristian Romero suffering second-half injuries to prevent them from seeing out the rest of the match.

While Richarlison’s replacement James Maddison came on to round off the scoring, Postecoglou now faces the prospect of being without both his first-choice centre-halves Romero and Micky van de Ven.

Dragusin started in the latter’s place following Van de Ven’s hamstring injury against Manchester City and was rock-solid at the back as Spurs staged a second-half comeback.

Radu Dragusin proves an able deputy in defence for Tottenham

Despite making just two previous Premier League appearances for Spurs this season at a total of 99 minutes [Soccerway], Dragusin didn’t look out of place at the back despite Villa taking a first-half lead.

The Romanian international played the full 90 minutes alongside Romero and then Ben Davies in the second half, having 67 touches in total and completing 90 per cent of his 59 passes [SofaScore].

Of those passes from Dragusin, four entered the final third for Spurs, and despite only finding a man with one of his four long ball attempts, the 22-year-old wasn’t dispossessed on a single occasion.

At the back, Dragusin was imperious, recovering possession twice and putting in three defensive actions in the form of a block, clearance and interception apiece [FotMob].

Successful with his only ground duel, Dragusin was only able to win one of three battles in the air (33 per cent), and that’s something Postecoglou will be keen to improve with Romero and Van de Ven both potentially out.

Dragusin will – barring miraculous recoveries from his first-choice duo – be relied on by Postecoglou for the coming weeks, and his performance against Villa showed he’s more than up for the task.

In other Tottenham news, Bryan King wasn’t happy with one player’s reaction to being substituted in the second half of Spurs v Villa.

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