Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou on Mathys Tel’s form, Romero and van de Ven fitness and ‘wonderful asset’ Vicario | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou has backed Mathys Tel to prove why Tottenham brought him to the club before the end of the season.

The striker has endured a disappointing start to life at his new club following his initial loan move in January, which includes the option to make it permanent in the summer.

He was taken off at half-time of Spurs’ 1-0 defeat to AZ Alkmaar but Postecoglou insists he could have changed a number of his starters following a poor first half.

“The reason I took him off was I felt we needed a spark, we needed something,” he said.

“It wasn’t about him because I could have taken off anyone of a number of players it’s just I felt like we needed something to change the course of events.”

Tel will show why we signed him

Postecoglou also backed Tel to show what he is capable of before the season ends, continuing: “He came in at a really difficult time for us.

“I think it would be different if he had been playing regularly and jumped in but he’s been trying to build up his fitness and at the same time we’ve been putting him out there regularly because of our lack of options.

“Certainly we’re not in our best moment like last night, where he’s going to get loads of chances.

“It’s fair to say we’ve put a lot on a very young player.

“Lucas (Bergvall) was a similar one at the beginning of the year. He struggled a little bit with certain games especially in Europe he struggled a couple of times but over time we’ve seen him flourish and I’m sure once we get Dom (Solanke) back in and Richarlison, we can use him (Tel) the way we want to.

“We got to a point in the window where there was a decision to be made whether we pass up an opportunity to sign an exciting young player and go without, that was the reality of it, or we commit to bringing another young talented player to the football club.

“He hasn’t made the impact that he probably wanted to but again I think the circumstances of where we’re at, I think it would be unfair to put that on his shoulders.

“I think he’s done as well as he possibly can. I’m sure between now and the end of the year people will realise what a talent he is and our job, my job, is to make sure we protect him through that.”

Latest on van de Ven, Romero and Solanke

Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke all returned to the Spurs squad following long spells out with injury against AZ Alkmaar.

Solanke was the only one to feature, however, but was forced off after coming on when he took a heavy fall after jumping with the goalkeeper.

Postecoglou does not think the injury is a serious one however.

“We’ll see,” Postecoglou said when asked if he could play on Sunday against former club Bournemouth.

“It’s a knock so it depends how it settles down over the next 24 hours and hopefully it’s not too bad.”

The Spurs boss also says Romero and van de Ven could feature on Sunday.

Asked whether they will play in the second leg against AZ Alkmaar, he said: “I would say so for sure, maybe even Sunday. We’ll see how things go.”

Our league position must improve

Postecoglou hinted he would not be resting players ahead of the crucial Europa League round of 16 clash, however.

“The biggest game of the season is Sunday first,” he said.

“Obviously we want to continue in the competition (the Europa League). We want to win it so we have to win on Thursday night or we’re out.

“In that context it’s the only competition left for us to try and win something so it’s definitely the biggest game but I have to make sure that none of them are thinking about that.

“I’m going to make sure today that they are all thinking about Sunday because it’s really important for us.

“We have to improve our league position.”

More reaction on Vicario gesturing to the fans

Postecoglou earlier defended his goalkeeper Vicario’s passion after he was seen gesturing to try and lift the away supporters in Alkmaar following the defeat and has questioned whether people want players to be “robots”.

“I don’t know what people want,” he said.

“Do they just want robots to just sort of stand there and clap and walk off?

“I don’t get this narrative that there is all of a sudden an issue. If anyone doubts Vicario’s commitment to this football club or his passion, watch the bit they did on him coming back from injury. That guy did everything in his power to get back as quickly as possible.

“Why? Because he cares. He cared last night and he cares this morning. He’s a wonderful asset for this football club and if people think that he was doing anything but something that he hopes will help push this football club onwards then I think they’re just trying to find stories for the sake of it.”