Ange Postecoglou left frustrated with ONE Spurs flop in defeat to Aston Villa as details indicate he may not start Tottenham’s next game at Man City if Lilywhites do not want to get Humiliated by Pep Guardiola.
A bold approach
Ange Postecoglou certainly surprised the vast majority of Tottenham fans when the Spurs team news dropped at 1pm on Sunday afternoon. Without a host of players through injury and suspension anyway, the boss made some big calls with his selection to face Aston Villa as he dropped Eric Dier to the bench despite having a real shortage of centre-backs.
Emerson Royal started in the defender’s place as he joined Ben Davies in the middle of the backline, with Pedro Porro and the returning Destiny Udogie taking up their usual full-back roles. Starting four full-backs, two of whom are very attacking ones, in defence was a bold move and caught many by surprise.
There was to be another shock further up the pitch as Bryan Gil came into the XI for his first Tottenham start since January. As a result of the Spaniard’s inclusion and the need to add some creativity to midfield, Dejan Kulusevski dropped into the No.10 role and operated alongside Rodrigo Bentancur and Giovani Lo Celso.
The Tottenham XI was extremely attacking and it left many rather worried due to Aston Villa’s form and the amount of goals they had plundered in recent weeks. It was Spurs who dominated proceedings, though, and took the game to their opponents as they carved them open time and time again with some rather impressive attacking play.
The attacking approach worked a treat and Spurs really should have had more than the one goal they scored through Lo Celso in the first half. Tottenham weren’t really troubled at the other end of the pitch despite starting with four full-backs in defence and that was because the vast majority of the ball was in and around the Aston Villa area.
Attack really is the best form of defence for Tottenham at present as they have it in their locker to outscore their opponents. The only issue is converting the chances that come their way.
Ange’s message to Davies:
It was frantic as soon as the referee blew his whistle as both sides traded chances early on. Tottenham created two very good openings for themselves inside the first three minutes as Udogie lifted the ball over the crossbar and Kulusevski saw an effort hit the post after some neat footwork in the box.
Postecoglou wanted his team to be on the front foot from the off and he wasn’t best pleased inside the opening couple of minutes with Davies. The Welshman was taking too long on the ball and he wanted it to be moved quicker as they looked to build attacks and cause Villa some real problems.
The Australian made it perfectly clear from the sidelines that the experienced centre-back needed to feed his teammates a lot quicker. It was a message he took on board immediately.
However, the makeshift Centre-back is a lot poor in his distribution and isn’t the quickest player out there, against Manchester City, he should be dropped from Centre-back if Spurs don’t want to get humiliated by a super Pep Guardiola team.
That Cash challenge
Everyone connected with Tottenham will be keeping everything crossed over the next few days as they look to discover the extent of the injury that forced Bentancur off in the first half of the Aston Villa game. The Uruguayan midfielder had a major role to play in Tottenham’s excellent start to proceedings but his time on the pitch was cut short following an awful challenge from Matty Cash.
The Poland international was nowhere near the ball and in the end, he caught Bentancur at full force after the ex-Juventus man had moved past him. It was a tackle that left everyone of a Tottenham persuasion holding their breath given the player had only returned to action last month from an ACL injury.
Going to ground but initially managing to get back to his feet and play on, Bentancur was not impressed at all with the challenge. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue and he duly went down before making way for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
As soon as Bentancur went back to ground a number of Tottenham players immediately went over to Cash to give him a few choice words. Lo Celso was first on the scene and he could be seen having a pop at the right-back, with Emerson Royal soon coming over from defence to join him in doing likewise.
Gil also had his say, although John McGinn had hold of the player at the time as he tried to calm things down. Tottenham players really were seething over the tackle.
Lo Celso and Kulusevski excel
The introduction of Bentancur and Lo Celso to the team and Kulusevski dropping back meant that Postecoglou had a brand new midfield partnership in his XI. With two of those players barely featuring this season through injury and the Swede playing the majority of his football on the right wing, it was very much up in the air as to how they would perform together.
The trio were outstanding from the off and were pivotal to the team’s fast start to the encounter. Lo Celso was heavily involved in all of Spurs’ play going forward as he looked to link up with his teammates and take the game to Villa with driving runs from midfield.
He certainly didn’t look like a player who had only played in four games for Tottenham this season. The Argentine, who has been desperate for a chance in the team, fully deserved his goal after an excellent showing and he will most definitely get plenty more minutes under his belt over the coming weeks as a result.
Kulusevski also looked more like his old self after struggling to recapture the heights he hit immediately after his loan move from Juventus. Extremely unlucky not to open the scoring early on, the versatile attacker caused Unai Emery’s team a whole host of problems with his trickery, creativity and direct running. He just never stopped all game.
It was undoubtedly Kulusevski’s best performance of the season and one that is right up there in terms of his Spurs career. At a time when Tottenham are looking to get back to winning ways after three straight defeats, the Sweden international could prove key if he can replicate this performance.
Vicario’s reaction
Tottenham’s fast start to the game meant that Guglielmo Vicario had very little to do in his goal. Looking set to be busy going on Postecoglou’s bold team selection and Villa’s excellent form, the Italian was a spectator for a large chunk of proceedings.
Having conceded late in the first half from Pau Torres’ powerful header, Villa almost grabbed a second shortly after the restart courtesy of Leon Bailey. The winger tried his luck from the edge of the box and his effort looked set to go in as the ball squirmed through Vicario’s fingers.
Thankfully the ball bounced off the post and then rested against his leg instead of cannoning off it and into the net. Vicario was a very lucky boy and he knew it, thus seeing him kiss the ball in relief when he had it safely in his arms.
As he has done over the course of the season, he frustrated the opponents with very good saves from Lucas Digne and Boubacar Kamara to keep the score down. However, there was nothing he could do about Watkins’ strike as the England international found the bottom corner with a low drive.