Winning Wilson
Phew! Crisis averted—for now, at least.
Spurs Men pulled off the comeback in the Europa League Round of 16 home leg to knock out AZ Alkmaar 3-2 on aggregate. The performance was a stark contrast to the away leg and much closer to the team's full potential.
In this issue: AZ Alkmaar recap | Previewing the weekend matches | News from around the Lane
There's almost a month until the quarter-finals, so focus will shift back to the Premier League for now, with an international break interruption after this weekend's game.
Spurs Women are also back in league action, taking on Brighton in the Women's Super League.
Europa League Round of 16 Home Leg recap | Tottenham 3 - 1 AZ Alkmaar (3-2 on aggregate)
Odobert 26' • 74', Maddison 48' | Koopmeiners 63'
After all that angst before the game, this game actually did play out how you would expect on paper—except for maybe the comical defensive error for Peer Koopmeiners goal. There seems to be some element of farce to every game this season and we just have to do enough to get away with it; three goals did the trick this time.
The other slightly unexpected happening was Wilson Odobert not only scoring his first goal for the club but also his second, one in each half. He had shown so much promise before his unfortunate injury that kept him out for most of the season, and here that promise came to fruition at the most opportune time.
There were a lot of reasons for encouragement that we can get over the recent slump and reaffirm our status as top contenders for the Europa League title. It won't be easy but it's definitely possible.
Starting XI:
With Kevin Danso newly injured, Ange Postecoglou made the bold decision to start both of the newly returned centerbacks, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero. Van de Ven is still having his minutes managed and only played about 60 minutes, but Romero ended up playing the full 90.
The midfield was looking much more robust than against Bournemouth. James Maddison's experience was invaluable alongside the youthful energy of Lucas Bergvall and Pape Sarr.
And without Dejan Kulusevski available, this was probably the ideal trio of forwards. Odobert certainly justified his inclusion, but Son Heung-min and Dominic Solanke both got on the scoresheet with assists—a brace of them for Solanke.
Top three things:
- Improved play out from the back. Even with Van de Ven and Romero arguably being at about 75% of capacity so soon after returning from injury, they still made a huge difference in the team's overall ability to pass out from the defense and free up the midfield for actual midfielding.
- New partnerships (and old). It's always interesting to see a new relationship forming on the pitch, and Solanke already seems to be in tune with Odobert. Solanke's unselfish striker play has long been one of his strongest assets. But then there was also a very familiar linkup between Son and Maddison. Overall the forward play was much more fluid and decisive than it has been in a long time. And the best "Angeball" games are those where everyone gets involved in the attack; see also: Van de Ven making one of his bullet runs through the opposition's midfield.
- Game management, for once. I wouldn't dare to suggest that Postecoglou heard all of us complaining about his game management (or lack thereof) in recent weeks, but this was a rare game in which he was proactive with his substitutions. Sure, the Van de Ven early exit was enforced by the need to ease him back into regular play, but Postecoglou took advantage of the pivotal third goal to give goal-scorers Maddison and Odobert a break. He also didn't take any chances in leaving Bergvall on after he came up with a cramp, giving Ben Davies some valuable minutes after his own injury layoff. Did I love that we were robbed of the chance for an Odobert hat trick? No. But I know it was the smart choice.
SAtP Player of the Match: everyone
I'm just in a generous mood. They all contributed!
Notable & quotable:
• Spurs became the first side in major European competition history to have five players under the age of 21 (Lankshear, Moore, Ajayi, Scarlett, and Odobert) score in a single season. An additional factoid courtesy of the club:
Incredibly, for all of those players, their strikes were also their first-ever goals for the Club and their only goals in our colours to date.
• Postecoglou on the young players:
We've got some exciting young players here and I'll keep saying that with their growth, the whole team will grow.
And on the squad in general:
I have never wavered from the fact that, when we're at our best, we can compete with anyone.
He also shared some insight into who has been mentoring Bergvall and helping him improve his physicality:
Everyone has worked with him, the coaches have worked with him, he's worked on it. I don't think he's left Deki's side since he's been here and Deki is in the gym all the time. He's a great role model for him and I think if nothing else, Deki has forced him to get in there and work hard on his game.
• We will face Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-final, with the home leg first on April 10 and the away leg on April 17.
Previewing PL Matchday 29 — Fulham
Fulham are having a better season than us largely because they've managed to convert more of their narrow results into draws than losses; they've only won on more game than us. But in recent weeks, their league results have been dominated by 2-1 wins. Their last game was a reverse, a 2-1 loss at Brighton.
Their top scorer, Raúl Jiménez, has been fairly sporadic in his production, besides a stretch at the turn of the year when he scored four goals in three games. He did find the back of the net in the Brighton game, so fingers crossed his usual trend holds and he blanks against us.
Antonee Robinson is another player to watch for Fulham. He leads the Cottagers in assists and will be a challenging matchup for whoever lines up at right fullback for Spurs.
The injury situation hasn't changed for Spurs, with Dejan Kulusevski, Kevin Danso, and Richarlison still sidelined. Fulham have a few players who are either out or doubtful (Harry Wilson, Kenny Tete, Reiss Nelson, and Adama Traoré) while Saša Lukić is suspended.
We're sadly at the point where qualifying for Europe through the table is all but impossible, but we still need to start picking up some wins for morale's sake. These league games ahead of the Europa League quarter-final will be important opportunities for Ange Postecoglou to continue building partnerships on the pitch and keep the entire squad involved (and fit).
Previewing WSL Matchday 16 — Brighton & Hove Albion
Finally, Spurs Women are back! I was surprised to find myself missing them after spending most of the season dreading the games, but we'd shown so much improvement in the Manchester City game that I was eager to see what they could do against Brighton.
Brighton are just a couple of points ahead of us in the table, which is a positive change after they got off to such a hot start. The positivity has all but dried up for the Seagulls, who are without a league win since November 16; their only other wins have come in the cup competitions, though they've now been knocked out of both just like Spurs.
They will have taken some encouragement from holding Chelsea to a draw in their last WSL game, however.
Nikita Parris is the player to keep an eye on. She has five goals and three assists so far in her first season with Brighton.
Unfortunately, our top scorer has been ruled out for this matchup. Bethany England picked up a quad injury and the club has not yet shared her timeline for return, only noting that she will be unavailable for selection against Brighton. Charli Grant is also out with a concussion. The good news is that Martha Thomas' ankle injury in the previous game was not serious and she'll be in contention to play (and likely start, considering that England is out). Clare Hunt is also back in the squad after serving her one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation.
For Brighton, they also have a player returning from suspension, Maisie Symonds. Jocelyn Carabali and Bruna Vilamala are likely misses.
Much like on the Men's side, the Women's team doesn't have a ton to play for in the league besides making small gains in the table and improving the patterns of play. The closer we can get back to something resembling an actual team identity, the better.
News from around the Lane
• In his most recent press conference, Robert Vilahamn provided the reasoning around loaning Becky Spencer to Chelsea. I am going to present the quote without comment...
If you think about it more, you’re helping Chelsea to beat the teams around us so we’re actually helping ourselves. In one way, we will not finish higher than Chelsea in the table, but if they are strong and beating the teams around us, we get a better chance to be higher in the table. We’re basically helping ourselves and helping Becky to have some silverware, perhaps. I think it’s a win-win, to be honest... I have enormous respect that the fans don’t want us to support the top teams, but, right now, they are a top team and we are a mid-table team that need to push higher. It’s a different story than on the men’s side.
• Since Spurs Men progressed to the Europa League quarter-final, the Premier League fixture against Wolves has been rescheduled to Sunday, April 13 at 2 pm UK time.
• And a fun update from the Men's Academy: Mikey Moore joined up with the U21s to get some much-needed game time and scored a goal. Jaden Williams stole the show, however, with his hat trick in the 4-0 win over Blackburn Rovers.
That's all for today! Happy NWSL opening weekend to everyone celebrating.
COYS
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