Ange Posctecoglou says Tottenham Hotspur had ‘lot of positives’ in pre-season West Ham loss
Ange Postecoglou seemed pleased with Tottenham Hotspur’s first pre-season game this summer despite a 3-2 loss against West Ham United.
Our tour of Australia began in a rather negative manner as we slumped to a defeat against our London rivals at the Optus Stadium. The game didn’t seem like a friendly, but one that had a lot at stake.
Maybe it did for some players. Manor Solomon, James Maddison and Guglielmo Vicario all started the game albeit being taken off later on. West Ham scored two headed goals in the first quarter of the game.
The first one came from Sergio Reguilon’s poor marking at the far post while for the second, Divin Mubama was left unmarked after a corner kick.
A decent outing for Spurs
Spurs fought back with a goal from Giovani Lo Celso before Destiny Udogie levelled matters. But shoddy defending and pushing up the line when not needed allowed Gianluca Scamacca to score the winner in the 78th minute after being put clean through on goal.
Despite the loss, our new head coach was upbeat about the result. In his interview after the game, the former Celtic manager told Spurs Play:
“There were a lot of positives to take, we implemented some of the things we’ve been working hard in training on and that was good to see.”
There were a number of positives. Our new signings got playing time while Udogie had a big confidence booster with that goal. There weren’t any injuries and Lo Celso also reminded fans that he is still very much here and can be a solution in central midfield.
It has also become clear that Ange could start with a four-man backline in the season opener and build on that. That has become a rare sight at Spurs given Antonio Conte’s tactical preferences. It also became evident that we need another world-class central defender.
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Our next friendly comes against Leicester City on 23 July at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok. It is imperative we continue handing playing time not only to first-team stars but majorly to those on the fringes and those who have just joined us to make full use of this time.
