AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands) (Home) 24.10.2024

As is now the expectation, a number of changes to the Premier League line-up were made, one forced by Heung-Min Son being rested after suffering after his first match back from injury and the rest were opportunities o give some fringe players more time on the pitch.  Pitching in a 17 year old (Mikey Moore) alongside two 18 year olds (Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray) could have been a risk, but they all acquitted themselves very well and when Mikey Moore moved to the left wing in the second half, they were all filling the left-sided roles.

Such changes would be heavily criticised by the media (and some Tottenham fans), but to gain these wins, in important matches, sometimes in difficult circumstances will only give the player more confidence when they find themselves in sticky situations in the future, so there is much to be positive about the blooding of the younger players in these settings.

The same cannot be said about Timo Werner, who looks bereft of confidence and the cheers that greeted his departure at half-time would not go a long way to help that situation.  Despite what sections of the Spurs fans around me were saying, he obviously is trying, but it is just no clicking for him at the moment.  His scoring opportunity in the first half wasn’t as easy as a lot of the crowd imagined, with the pass to him getting the ball not far enough in front of him, so he couldn’t get a full swing at the ball.  Agreed he might have got it on target, but then that could be said of a lot of our players over the last few matches, none of whom get the same level of abuse for it.  If he is one of the players who thrives on confidence, the jeers and stick he gets is not going to help him and don’t we all want Spurs players to do well ?

Inside the first five minutes, Timo Werner put in a great cross from the left wing, cutting back onto his right foot and picking out Mikey Moore at the far post. The defender marking him did just enough to put the 17 year old off and his header was glanced wide. Having got goal-side of the AZ man, he didn’t get the contact on the ball to direct it on goal.

After trying to keep a ball in, Ruben van Bommel (whose dad Mark scored for Holland against England at White Hart Lane in 2001) stumbled as he went on to the pitch surround and in the seventh minute went down and after treatment, had to be taken off. With reports about him being a speedy winger, it didn’t seem to be the worst news for Tottenham. Of course, this tie pitched former Spurs striker Troy Parrott back against his old team. Looking slimmer and more involved than when he was in a white shirt, he tried to put down a marker when he stood his ground on halfway to a ball played up to him. However, Radu was having none of it and vigorously knocked him over with a barge in the back !

A couple of times Radu Dragusin tried to find Richarlison with straight balls into the area and Maddison did the same before hitting a low shot from a rebound off a defender, but it was straight at the keeper and he made a routine gather. When AZ got some passes together, Kasius put in an inviting cross into the box in the 16th minute, but it flashed across the face of the goal with three players unable to get a finishing touch.

Tottenham were pressing high and won a lot of possession as AZ tried to play the ball out from defence, but their defence got back to prevent that many opportunities being created by Spurs. There was an opening when Bergvall picked out a pass over the defence for Werner to time his run to take the ball into the area but ended up side-footing it straight at Owusu-Odoro.

A corner just before the half-hour for AZ brought a fine save from Fraser Forster. Penetra won a header 10 yards out that might have taken a touch of Ben Davies’ head but Forster read it well and was diving to his right with time to get a big paw on it to slap the ball away from goal. In the next phase of play Penetra was also involved. Dragusin launched a 50 yard pass into the left side of the AZ area, where Maddison did well to get to the ball before the defender and then twisted and turned to get to the line, where Penetra dived into a challenge. It didn’t look like he got any of the ball as James went to ground, but after a VAR check, it was just a corner.  From that Radu did well to win a far post header back into the goalmouth, but the ball was blocked out.

Poku looked like a strong runner with the ball, like Fulham’s Adama Traore, but having nut-megged Rodrigo Bentancur earlier in the match before running up to the area where the move broke down, this time he got to the edge of the area and hit the turf. It didn’t even need a VAR look as everybody just played on. Maikuma let the ball get away from him and Richarlison played it through to his left for Werner, but the ball pushed the German a little too wide and his shot rose over the goal from a difficult angle.

Parrott was dropping deeper to get some possession and from inside his own half, he played a ball through the Spurs defence into space for Kasius to run onto.  Forster read the danger early and rushed out, with his body blocking ball inside his box after the AZ defender got a toe to the ball. Meanwhile at the other end, Dragusin’s long pass into the front edge of the Alkmaar penalty area was claimed by Owusu-Odoro, but he let the ball slip out of his hands and through his legs, being fortunate that it didn’t drop for a Tottenham player to make something of it. The half ended with Bentancur trying to bend a shot into the keeper’s top left hand corner, but missed by a distance.

The second half started with Bergvall pressing hard and AZ fortunate to get a free-kick when Lucas nicked the ball off a defender, then a quick forward ball from the free-kick sent Poku clear, but he went down in the box (again) when blocked by a couple of Spurs defenders. With Werner having made way for Johnson at the break, Mikey Moore had switched to the left and it didn’t take long before he went on a slaloming run from inside his own half past three defenders and passed with the outside of hir right foot to Johnson on the other side of the area. Brennan’s shot was blocked, but it didn’t take too long for Mikey to be in the spotlight again, cutting inside to cross. Richarlison couldn’t get to it, as he was being held and Lucas Bergvall was denied at the far post by the keeper clawing the ball away as it looked as though it would creep in, then colliding with the Swede.

The ball was being fed to Moore, who either went around players or won corners, as the crowd got to their feet every time he got possession. But it wasn’t Mikey who was involved in the lead up to the Tottenham goal. After Poku he put the ball out for a throw when the keeper made a poor punch to a Tottenham corner, the pass from Bentancur was lofted to the edge of the area and Maddison ran onto it, couldn’t control it., but it ran in front of Bergvall, who looked to shoot, but had his legs taken from under him from behind by Dekker. The referee pointed straight to the spot and after some discussion between Richarlison, who had the ball and James Maddison the captain who wanted to take it, it was handed to the Brazilian by the skipper, in a show of unison with his striker, who was just back from injury. All Richi had to do now was to stick the spot-kick away, which he did with a stuttering run and side-footed a gentle loft down the middle of the goal when Owusu-Odoro had dived to his right. 53 minutes gone and 1-0 to Spurs.

Almost straight away Spurs could have doubled their lead, as Bergvall played a straight ball through the AZ defence and Johnson was in acres of space on the left, but his pass that was slid across the box just lacked enough pace to beat the keeper, who dived out low to claim the ball with Richarlison looking to sneak in behind him.  When Bergvall won the ball in the centre circle, Maddison looked to break away, but was spun around by Moller-Wolfe, who picked up a yellow card.

Bentancur played a poor pass to Dragusin as Spurs were outside their own box, with the Romanian double-teamed by AZ players and Poku took the ball on into the area, only for Rodrigo to redeem his mistake with a great block to take the ball out for a corner.

Mikey Moore was tearing up the left and he jinked past two defenders to fire a low cross right across the face of goal with no Spurs player reading the play. With Mikey playing well and Maddison dominating midfield, the referee had to speak to Jordy Clasie, the former South Coast Big Club midfielder, who had two nibbles at the Spurs skipper without being able to foul him.

When AZ did make forward moves, Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin were there to mop things up, with Forster flopping easily behind a shot from outside the area by Kasius on the hour. When Richarlison went down with cramp, Solanke was already waiting to come on in his place. AZ did have a little period of attacking possession, with the ball staying around the Tottenham area that ended with Dragusin winning a header from a cross and the ball hit Mijnans at close range before going off for a goal-kick.  With Bergvall suffering cramp, Dejan Kulusevski came off the bench for him and Pape Matar Sarr replaced James Maddison.  A high bouncing ball just inside the Spurs half saw Davies bounced off the ball when he went for a header, allowing Parrott to play substitute Lahdo through, but his shot was low and straight at Fraser, who made a good stop.

Moore came in off the left to shoot at goal, but it went straight into the keeper’s arms, then, when Sarr broke up an AZ move on the edge of our box and moved forward with the ball into midfield, Dekker jumped in two footed and might have won the ball, but his trailing leg planted a set of blades into Pape’s foot. Kulusevski repeated Moore’s previous shot from the other side, but it failed to trouble the keeper. With five minutes left, Moller-Wolfe, who was sent off after 10 minutes in a Dutch league match on Saturday, got his second yellow card when he went down the back of Johnson’s heel from behind. Considering it was near the halfway line, to say that it lacked any purpose might be under-selling the senselessness of the challenge.

Johnson was sent into space by Kulusevski, but his cross was too high for those in the middle, but the ball was recycled and there was almost a goal like Bissouma’s against West Ham United London on Saturday, with Kulusevski being played in behind to cut back. His pass back for substitute Wilson Odobert, who had come on for Moore, produced a shot for the winger that was blocked at point-blank range.

The yellow cards were adding up for AZ with sub Kwakman going under Johnson with a reckless challenge and Clasie didn’t live up to his name with a booking for dissent.  Kwakman then slid into another tackle that was deemed a foul but he got away without a booking this time.  Some neat interplay on the other side saw Odobert play the ball inside to Udogie, who passed to Kulusevski on his right inside the area and his cushioned pass was into Wilson’s run. He was slightly put off balance by a defender’s presence, but toe-poked a shot at goal that went just beyond the far post, but it looked as thought he keeper caught him after the ball had gone. VAR looked at it and decided it wasn’t a penalty, but on seeing videos of it later, it should probably have been another spot-kick to Tottenham.

Maddison showed a lot more responsibility as captain and played a very good game, along with Radu Dragusin, who was strong and aggressive without being too physical.  And it was that physicality that might have been the difference between the two sides, as AZ were technically proficient, but lacked a cutting edge and were often eased off the ball without too much resistance.  Spurs swarmed all over the Dutch side and gave them little opportunity to build play, making the 1-0 score-line a dangerous one, but also one which doesn’t totally reflect the way the game went.

Ange’s decision to switch Mikey Moore to the left wing paid dividends, with some words of encouragement to attack the right back no doubt.  The winger showed a glimpse of what he is capable of and it gives great hope for the future, although Maddison’s post-match claim that he was like Neymar might be over the top and hopefully, he will be even more of a player than the Brazilian, who often put his own needs above those of the team.

Preserving the club’s 100% record in the competition ahead of a difficult trip to Galatasaray was an important step in the team’s re-integration into European competition.  When the fans realise that the Europa League team will be a mix of younger and fringe players, with the regulars there to come on if needed, the sooner they will settle and develop as the competition progresses.

Stan Chun

• Tottenham’s goal was the club’s 321st goal in the UEFA Cup/Europa League making them the highest scorers in the tournament’s history