Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat to AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League
Tottenham Hotspur will be taking a one-goal deficit back to North London in the second leg of their Europa League Round of 16 tie against AZ Alkmaar after losing 1-0 in the Netherlands.
Let’s take a look at the five things we learned from the match:
Tottenham should be out of Europe
AZ Alkmaar should be out of sight in this tie, make no mistake about that. Tottenham Hotspur handed the Dutch side chance after chance after chance in the first 45. Had Troy Parrott converted his one-v-one and AZ Alkmaar managed to scramble that ball over the goal line, it could have easily ended 3-0 to the home side. It would be hard to argue they weren’t good value for it either. Spurs were lifeless in attack, sloppy in defence, and devoid of ideas in midfield. The fact they still have a chance to qualify is a minor miracle in itself.
No drive from the Tottenham midfield
This is a problem we have seen all season long from Tottenham, with or without injuries. On the one hand, Spurs are way too easy to play through. On the other hand, they seem to struggle so much to break the lines in midfield. I wouldn’t mind so much if the wingers could take anyone on, but they just recycle the ball backwards and the cycle continues.
When you think about the best Spurs teams of yesteryear, we had midfield destroyers like Victor Wanyama to break up the play, then monsters like Mousa Dembele to break the lines. Those kinds of players don’t grow on trees, but Tottenham don’t have a single player with the required defensive awareness in that pivot role, nor a player who consistently carries the ball up the pitch or finds cute passes. Lucas Bergvall is the closest example of that latter, but he is still so raw.
If Spurs go big in the transfer market this summer, a world-class holding midfielder would be my top choice to get this team ticking. Tottenham are in talks with Rodrigo Bentancur over a new contract, but the Uruguayan is showing no evidence as to why so far this season.
Micky Van de Ven and Cristian Romero are not ready
They may have travelled with the squad, but Van de Ven and Romero clearly aren’t ready to play yet. You would have thought that Ange Postecoglou would want to get them onto the pitch for 20 minutes or so, having taken them all the way to the Netherlands. Perhaps the fact that Tottenham were chasing the game scuppered those plans.
Either way, it seems unlikely the pair will start against Bournemouth if they couldn’t even feature this evening. The smart thing to do would be to get them fit and ready for the second leg next week.
Is Dominic Solanke injured again?
Not even 30 minutes back on the pitch and Dominic Solanke looks to be injured again. After going up to compete for a header in the box, the Spurs striker was sandwiched between centre-back and keeper, taking a whack on the back and landing awkwardly in the process. While Ange Postecoglou and co will be praying it was an impact injury and nothing more, Solanke could barely even walk off the pitch at the end. Perhaps a slipped disc in his back? Whatever the case, I doubt we will see him for a little while again.
Djed Spence is a better left-back than a right-back
It is becoming weirdly obvious that Djed Spence is better on the left than he is on the right. That is no dig at Spence at all. It just seems that his skillset lends itself better to driving up the pitch on his stronger foot in Postecoglou’s inverted system. On the right side, he always seems to be crowded out by the opposition. On the left, he drags Spurs up the pitch kicking and screaming at times.
Perhaps Tottenham need to sign a new right-back this summer to compete with Pedro Porro and leave Spence to fight Destiny Udogie on the left.
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