Following Tottenham’s defeat in the hands of AZ Alkmaar, Guglielmo Vicario, one of the few Spurs players to emerge with any credit, attempted to rally the travelling fans—only for it to backfire spectacularly. He has now explained why he did what he did.
Thursday night was not the first time this season that Tottenham Hotspur put in a display lacking spirit, desire or even purpose.
They are currently 13th in the Premier League after 27 games, having lost 14 times. Defeat is nothing new for Spurs fans at this point.
However, with the league campaign all but a dead rubber, the expectation now is for Spurs to put up a strong showing in Europe.
With Tottenham’s path to the Europa League final clearly mapped out, the Lilywhites know that winning the competition would guarantee Champions League football next season.
After eight days of rest and preparation for the first-leg round of 16 tie, Ange Postecoglou’s side produced a display that left much to be desired.
A Lucas Bergvall own goal proved the difference, but it could have been worse had Vicario not denied Troy Parrott in a one-on-one.
Guglielmo Vicario explains why he told Tottenham fans to show more
Following the defeat, the Italian shot-stopper attempted something that did not go as planned with the disappointed travelling support in the Netherlands.
Vicario, one of the few Spurs players to emerge from the game with any credit due to his saves, led the way over to the 950 travelling fans and passionately raised his arms in an attempt to rally them.
The gesture did not go down well, but he has since explained his reasoning. Speaking to football.london, he said: “I can understand the disappointment for the night because we did not play our football. So I can understand the frustration of the fans, but we still have a lot to play for, especially in the second leg.
“It is just a way of trying to stay together because we have the opportunity to go through to the next round.
“They can [be critical]. They have to be, they must be disappointed for the game we played tonight, but we still have another game to play against AZ at our place, so it is the moment to stick together now because we can go through this round.”
Looking ahead to next week’s second leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Spurs still have a chance to turn things around,
Guglielmo Vicario added: “We need [the fans] every game, home and away. We know they are very important for us, and now is a big moment of the season. With them, we can play with one more man on the pitch, so it is so important.
“I can really understand the disappointment they had because we did not show our level of football tonight. It is disappointing for us, but we have to analyse and forget, and be ready for the next round.”
Tottenham’s inconsistency concerns Vicario
Vicario admitted he is baffled by Tottenham’s inconsistency this season. The team has secured big wins but suffered far too many defeats, with 18 across all competitions.
“I do not know. It could be for whichever reason, but we know what we have to do. For us, tonight is very disappointing,” he said. “We take responsibility for what happened, but now we are going to show the real Spurs in the next game.
“The performance was nowhere near the level we should have played this game. We know. It is frustrating. The result, of course, is not great, but we have to play the second leg, so it is on us.
“Now we have to analyse but also forget straight away. We have a big game on Sunday and need to be ready for the second leg next Thursday.
“They created some good chances, but the result is 1-0. So we have to play at our place next Thursday.”
Despite the display in Alkmaar, Vicario still believes Tottenham can go all the way in the Europa League.
“Of course. We have to think game by game, as we thought we had to do in this game, and we did not,” he said. “It is really disappointing from our perspective, and I can understand the fans out there, but now we have to play another game. Everything is still in our hands, and we can reverse the result.”