Kevin Danso has provided an honest response to Tottenham's limp showing against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League. Despite having eight days to prepare for the last-16 first leg, while the Dutch side played twice in that period, Spurs were miles off the pace and were fortunate to only lose 1-0.
A Lucas Bergvall own goal put AZ in front early on with Guglielmo Vicario required to make several saves to keep the score down. In the attacking third, Wilson Odobert was the only played to manage a shot on target with Ange Postecoglou's verdict after the game telling of the performance.
"Yeah, it wasn’t great from us tonight," he admitted in a press conference. "Pretty much all facets of the game. We didn’t really get to grips with any part of the game. We struggled to gain any momentum with the ball, we weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be without the ball.
"It was a tricky surface but having said that we kind of knew that from yesterday and yeah we just didn’t tackle the challenges we had out there in a real positive way. That allowed AZ to get into a rhythm, which when you’re playing away from home, it is difficult to stem the tide."
Ahead of the game, Tottenham were handed a triple injury boost with Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke all making the squad. The latter was the only one to actually feature off the bench, but he was forced off with a new issue making it a far worse night for Spurs.
As has been the case for the last few months, the likes of Djed Spence, Archie Gray and Bergvall, despite his own goal, cannot really be criticised with the senior players once again failing to step forward. January arrival Danso can arguably be considered in the same category as the aforementioned trio based on his recent displays.
The Austria international was far from his best in the Netherlands, but he does not shy away from taking responsibility with that evidenced by his defiant message on Instagram. Alongside seven action shots, he wrote: "Not at our best tonight.
"We will work hard to fight back on Sunday and correct this next week. Thanks for the traveling fans for their continuous support [one hundred and flexed arm emoji]."
As Danso references, before the second leg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Thursday Spurs welcome Bournemouth to North London for a Premier League clash on Sunday. Mass rotation is likely for that game with focus on their Europa League knockout tie.
Considering the pain he was in, Solanke featuring against his former club does not look likely while Van de Ven or Romero starting is also hard to imagine given the fact they did not feature on Thursday. However, a strong performance in that game will be needed ahead of a season-defining clash.
Two poor performances in the next six days could, however, spell the end of Postecoglou's tenure at the club with Spurs facing the possibility of being out of all cup competitions while nearly sitting closer to the relegation zone than the top four.
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