Postecoglou highlights one area where Spurs have to improve significantly 

Ange Postecoglou feels Tottenham have a lot of room for improvement in the final third, insisting that his side would score a lot more goals if they made the right decisions at the top end of the pitch.

From the outside looking in, most people will feel that Spurs’ issues this season have been in defence, given the volume of goals that the Lilywhites have scored and conceded.

Over the last few games, Tottenham have been guilty of spurning many chances but Postecoglou admitted that we are slowly but surely seeing that start to change, pointing out that the likes of Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson are getting used to their roles.

Spurs attack have a lot of room for improvement

Speaking about his side’s effectiveness in the final third, Postecoglou told Football.London: “We are still well short in that area.

“It’s still the area where we’ve got so much more upside in our front third to score more goals. I really feel like, apart from some areas where we need to keep working on, our front-third stuff we’ve got so much more improvement to get to as a team.

“We’re seeing some of it at the moment. Brennan and Deki Kulusevski are starting to get a bit more familiar with their roles and Gio getting a couple of goals from midfield, but I think it’s an area we can certainly improve.

“But I think it’s great [that teams are scoring more goals]. Ultimately it’s what people love about our game. That release of when a team scores and the more goals you have, the more exciting games get.”

Due to the injuries that Tottenham have had to some key players, including the likes of James Maddison, Postecoglou has experimented with his options, playing Kulusevski as a number ten on a couple of occasions.

The Swede has admitted that he loves playing centrally (TEAMtalk) and Postecolgou remarked that operating as an attacking midfielder is likely to help the winger get a better understanding of his role when he moves back to the flanks.

When asked if Kulusevskiu prefers to play as a number ten, the Tottenham head coach responded: “I don’t give them surveys. He has played there earlier in his career.

“If there are players who can it’s great for them to have a different perspective when they go back out wide, I don’t know if it’s his preferred position or not but it frees them up and they see the game a little bit differently.

“A bit like Sonny going into the central role. I reckon if I put him back on the left wing he would have a different perspective again. I like [Kulusevski] out wide. I think he can be a much bigger goal threat and we’re pushing him really hard in those areas. 

“With his general energy and work-rate and his ability to break lines with his running, he’s probably more suited in my system to out wide but watching him centrally in the last couple of games he’s very effective in there and certainly an option for us.”

Spurs Web Opinion

There are certainly some signs over the last couple of matches that our forwards now have a bit more clarity on what is expected of them in the final third but Ange is spot on when he says that there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of the final pass and finishing.