Owen Hargreaves believes that the pressure has once again turned up on Ange Postecoglou, insisting that something fundamental was lacking from Spurs in their performance away at AZ Alkmaar. He even hinted that Tottenham could learn a lesson from their old Harry Kane tactics.
Alkmaar were good value for their 1-0 win against Tottenham at the AFAS Stadium, with the Eredivisie side continuing from where they left off against Galatasaray in the playoff round.
The result sets up a fascinating return leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Spurs needing a big performance to remain in the Europa League and keep their season alive.
Owen Hargreaves questions Tottenham’s approach
Owen Hargreaves believes that Ange Postecoglou’s men never actually went for it on Thursday and failed to throw the kitchen sink at the Dutch side in search of an equaliser.
He pointed out that things do not get any easier for the Lilywhites, who have some tough fixtures coming up over the next few weeks.
The former Man Utd man told TNT Sports 3 (6/3/25 – 20:05) when asked if there is pressure on Postecoglou: “There is pressure. They have got Bournemouth at the weekend which is a tough game and then they have got Fulham and Chelsea away, so all the games are massive but again I just think they need to approach the games differently. They didn’t really go for that [against AZ Alkmaar] today.”
Hargreaves suggested that the issue was not so much Postecoglou’s tactics, but rather a lack of intent and aggression from the Spurs players.
When asked what Tottenham need to do differently in the second leg, the pundit added: “People go on about tactics and philosophy but you just need to be aggressive and win challenges.
“You need to play the ball forward and get it into the box. Get it wide and cross it, even last night we saw some of the goals in the Champions League where they get it wide and cross it, at least Tottenham did that for Harry Kane.
“I didn’t see any crosses until the 88th minute. You have to play with more urgency and that is with the ball and without it. The teams you play against, you have to press and I didn’t see that. In that stadium with these players, they should be able to punish AZ. With the way they approached the game today, they cannot win that game so they need to be careful.”
Ange Postecoglou admits Spurs were ‘nowhere near’ good enough
Postecoglou stated after the full-time whistle that Spurs did not play well enough against Alkmaar, admitting that they struggled to take the game to the opposition.
The Australian also acknowledged the point made by Hargreaves about the lack of aggression from his side, but he did suggest that the state of the pitch at the AFAS Stadium contributed to their struggles.
When asked for the reason behind Tottenham’s lacklustre showing, Postecoglou said: “Look, it is a combination of things, but we will analyse it and have a look at the areas where we struggled, but it is fair to say, yeah, it was nowhere near the level it needed to be.
“It was not great from us tonight. Pretty much all facets of the game. We did not really get to grips with any part of the game. We struggled to gain any momentum with the ball, we were not as aggressive as we needed to be without it. The surface was tricky, but we knew that from yesterday, and we just did not tackle the challenges we had out there in a real positive way.”
READ MORE: Tottenham star will miss huge Europa League second leg through suspension