Troy Parrott has been criticised for missing a big chance against Tottenham Hotspur by a journalist, who has made an interesting claim about AZ Alkmaar’s chances of knocking Spurs out of the Europa League.
While Ange Postecoglou would have been disappointed with the performance that his players delivered in Alkmaar on Thursday, he will be pleased that they came out of the game with just a 1-0 deficit.
Things could have been a lot worse for Tottenham, particularly if their former striker, Troy Parrott, had finished off his chance after finding himself one-on-one with Guglielmo Vicario in the second half.
The Spurs number one came up with a crucial save to deny the Republic of Ireland international, and Parrott has admitted that he should have buried the opportunity to put the tie beyond Tottenham.
Tottenham sold Troy Parrott to AZ Alkmaar for £6.7m in the summer of 2024, but have a sell-on clause of 20% for any future transfer away from the club.
Troy Parrott criticised for a lack of killer instinct
Journalist Wim Kieft believes that the Eredivisie side have a ‘serious chance’ of progressing to the final eight at Tottenham’s expense.
He criticised Parrott for failing to extend Alkmaar’s lead and suggested that the 23-year-old lacks the cold-bloodedness in front of goal that one would expect from elite strikers.
Kieft said (via Soccer News): “AZ has a serious chance of reaching the quarter-finals and could have already taken an advance on that if Troy Parrott simply takes advantage of his chances.
“He remains a doubter in the forward position, someone you cannot count on when it comes to finishing. Against Heerenveen, he also missed two huge chances that ultimately cost AZ dearly. Parrott is an industrious player, reasonably good on the ball and reasonable in combination, but lacks cold-bloodedness.”
Ange Postecoglou is confident Tottenham can turn tie around
Even though he saw his side deliver a lacklustre performance in the Netherlands last Thursday, the Tottenham head coach appears quite confident that the Lilywhites can turn the tie around at home.
Postecoglou insisted that Spurs have the firepower to break down a resolute Alkmaar defence in the second leg, despite their struggles to do so at the AFAS Stadium at their first time of asking.
The 59-year-old said after the 1-0 loss: “I don’t have any doubt about our ability to break them down, but obviously we have to play a little bit differently to how we did tonight, not just with the ball but without the ball too.
“We’ve got to be a lot more aggressive than we were tonight. We were just lacking a bit of aggression in everything we did. We were a little bit hesitant with the ball, hesitant in our pressing and we can’t be that way.
“If we address those things I’m sure we’ll be in a position to at least cause them more problems than we did tonight. It’s only 1-0 so I guess that’s a positive in that we didn’t let the game get away from us.”
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