The Tottenham player close to two Premier League suspensions to hand Ange Postecoglou major issue

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As if it hasn't been a bad enough couple of days at Tottenham Hotspur for Ange Postecoglou, he could soon be without two of his best players.

Spurs' inconsistent season continued as they followed up impressive wins against Manchester City and Aston Villa with dismal defeats to Galatasaray and Ipswich Town. With the latter defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium they passed up the chance to climb into third place in the Premier League table for the international break.

Rodrigo Bentancur scored his first goal of the season in the second half with a powerful header into the net from Pedro Porro's corner. The 27-year-old did also pick up a yellow card in the 78th minute for an angry moment of displeasure towards the referee after being penalised for a foul.

That was the Uruguay international's fourth yellow card of the Premier League season and means he is now one booking away from picking up a one-game suspension. That would be even more problematic for Bentancur because he currently has the threat of a lengthy ban hanging over his head after being charged in September by the FA over his comments regarding Son Heung-min in a controversial interview this summer.

After speaking to the FA at the time, football.london reported that match-based sanctions of six to 12 games are recommended to regulatory commissions for almost all 'aggravated breaches' of the FA Rule E3 Bentancur was charged under, that are a first offence by individual participants.

That means, if the charge is upheld, then Bentancur could find any additional one-game suspension for picking up five yellow cards added on top to take his potential maximum absence to 13 games.

Bentancur has been more careful in recent months with his discipline as one of Postecoglou's key players. He picked up bookings in the first three games of the season, but then went almost two months without collecting another in the Premier League before his late moment of anger on Sunday afternoon.

Yellow cards are not wiped out until after the 19th game in the competition, meaning Bentancur has another eight games to go in the competition without picking up a fifth booking. If the verdict comes in on his current FA charge sooner rather than later and it's proven, then he might make it the 19-game mark without playing anyway.

It's not just Bentancur on the naughty list though as Micky van de Ven is also sitting on four yellow cards. That means that when the 23-year-old Dutchman, an important defender for Postecoglou, returns from his current hamstring injury, he could soon miss another game after picking up four bookings in the six Premier League games before his injury. Dejan Kulusevski is next on the discipline list with three yellow cards in his 11 matches so far.

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