Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League match against AZ Alkmaar was a real opportunity to make a statement now that Spurs have a rested and (mostly) healthy squad. That didn’t happen today. Tottenham played one of their worst matches of the season, conceding a first half own goal from Lucas Bergvall, and could only muster one shot on target despite 61% possession and fell to AZ by the final score of 1-0.
It was real bad.
Tottenham welcomed three injured players back to the matchday squad, if not to the starting lineup. Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, and Dominic Solanke all started the match on the bench, with Ange Postecoglou preferring Mathys Tel up top alongside Brennan Johnson and Son Heung-Min, while fielding a back line of Djed Spence, Kevin Danso, Archie Gray, and Destiny Udogie. Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Bergvall, Rodrigo Bentancur, and James Maddison started in midfield, with Guglielmo Vicario in goal.
It’s always tough to cover a 12:45 p.m. ET kickoff on a work day, but here are some basic notes from my viewing of the match.
Match Reactions
- Final xG: 1.58 — 0.35. Spurs had 7 shots, one on target. Is that bad? (Answer: yes, yes it is.)
- I feel for Bergvall, who had an awful start to the match. First he loses the ball and inadvertently injures an AZ player who needed to be subbed off, then he shanks a clearance and scores an own goal. Had a few wild moments in midfield, too — a comment from Carty Free chat was “Someone keeps unplugging Bergvall’s controller.”
- At first I thought Vicario had dope-slapped Lucas after the goal, but on replay it was more just a light manhandling, i.e. “shake it off, bro.”
- Not a great day for the young Tottenham stars-to-be. Archie Gray had a real ‘mare out there; Parrott and the rest of AZ’s forwards turned him around repeatedly and he was loose with his passing. Mathys Tel also looked ineffectual and young, and he was rightfully hooked for Odobert at halftime. Look, this is normal — if you play talented 19 year olds, you’re going to have games where they play like they’re 19. Just a shame they all decided to revert to teenage form at the same time.
- But the adults in the squad were equally bad. Danso, Udogie, Maddison, Son, and Johnson all had sub-par performances. The kids are going to play like kids sometimes, but the adults need to pick up the slack and they 100% did not tonight.
- At least Djed ruled.
- That was one of the worst games I’ve seen Spurs play all year, and I think a lot of it came down to how Postecoglou set up the team. AZ are vulnerable to direct play and guys who can dribble, and Spurs played the opening 45 minutes without anyone who can fill that role. The midfield also looked completely out of shape and like they didn’t have a good plan on how to transition the ball forward.
- Gotta say, it was nice to see Dom Solanke and his insane pressing energy back out there today. I’ve missed him, even when he’s not scoring.
- What I think we learned here, apart from anything else, is that Dejan Kulusevski is our best player and when he’s not available we’re just going to struggle. Hurry back, Deki — we need you.
- Look, getting outplayed and out-muscled by a Dutch team is pretty awful, but all things considered leaving a European away match with only a one goal hole and no away goals rule is an ok situation to be in. You have to like Spurs’ chances to pick up a 2-0 win at home, but they’ll have to play MUCH better next week than they did tonight.
