As Ange Postecoglou prepares for his next North London Derby on the other side of the ongoing international break, in this article we take a look at his first-ever Tottenham starting XI.
Spurs’ first game under Postecoglou saw them face Brentford away in a local London affair to kick-off their 2023/24 Premier League season. And, in a microcosm, it went on to set the tone for what was to come—an exciting campaign with many ups but also quite a few downs.
Spurs set up in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, whichever tickles your fancy, and took the lead through Cristian Romero in the 13th minute. Brentford, though, manage to come from behind thanks to goals from their forwards Bryan Mbeumo (27′) and Yoane Wissa (36′), only for Spurs to level the proceedings within the first half itself thanks to a goal from Emerson Royal deep into added time. The second half saw no goals.
Brentford 2-2 Tottenham | August 13, 2023
This was a statement call from the new manager, as he installed the new signing in goal right away instead of the stalwart Hugo Lloris. Vicario had a decent outing in this game despite conceding two goals and has since become Spurs’ unequivocal first-choice keeper. Lloris, meanwhile, has moved on to Major League Soccer.
This was Udogie’s first game as well, and he did not disappoint. The 21-year-old has since broken into the Italy senior national team setup and is one of the first names on the Tottenham team sheet.
Another one of the debutants on
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the day, Van de Ven would go on to have a promising first year at Spurs while also breaking into the Netherlands senior national team setup.
Romero was immediately taken off after opening the scoring due to injury, though he recovered in time to become one of Spurs’ most crucial defenders over the course of the season, albeit with a few temperamental hiccups.
He started. He even scored. But this preamble was not Royal getting ready to set the Premier League stage on fire. Good performances remained few and far between, and he has since been moved on to AC Milan after what was one of the transfer sagas of the summer in England.
Another one who failed to impress Postecoglou in the long term. Skipp was hooked off in the second half in this game, which proved to be indicative of how things would turn out for him under Postecoglou. He moved to Leicester City in the summer.
Bissouma had a mostly-decent first game under Postecoglou and would go on to make 28 appearances over the course of the season. Now in this third year at Spurs, however, the Ivorian must be sensing the need to get going properly for Spurs or be deemed “one that didn’t work out” soon enough.
Son took over the captain’s armband after Harry Kane’s departure to Bayern, and even though he was hooked off in this game, he went on to become Spurs’ most important player last season, as one would have hoped and expected him to.
This game set expectations too high for Maddison, who had a man-of-the-match debut as he assisted both of Spurs’ goals on the day, he started the season on fire, but his performances fell off a cliff in the second half.
Kulusevski had a steady outing here, and
“steady” is the word one would also use for how his season turned out. He was also
occasionally tried in the centre by Postecoglou, hinting at a possible position shift in the coming months.
One can only commend Richarlison for his bravery for coming out and talking about his mental health struggles in the later months last season and Postecoglou for supporting him through a hard time. When you keep that in mind, the numbers the Brazil international managed to post demonstrate the coach’s man-management ability, though one also has to admit that the numbers were underwhelming from an objective standpoint, leaving a lot to be desired of the 27-year-old now that he has vied to earn that starting spot at the club.
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