Ange Postecoglou may be preparing to unleash a magnificent ace player on Chelsea who has the ability to alter….
Ange Postecoglou may decide to switch things up in terms of his Tottenham team for next Monday’s Premier League home clash against Chelsea, with a big change to a key area of the side.
Having faced two Premier League games in the space of five days last week, Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham players are going to have to bide their time for their next fixture to come around. Not involved in the midweek action due to their Carabao Cup exit at the end of August, Spurs have plenty of time on their side to prepare for the visit of Chelsea next Monday.
Not only will the game see Mauricio Pochettino return to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time since his dismissal as head coach four years ago, but it will also give the Lilywhites the opportunity to maintain their place at the top of the Premier League table. Victorious in their last fixture after securing a hard-fought 2-1 win away at Crystal Palace, summer addition Brennan Johnson played a pivotal role at Selhurst Park after making an instant impact from the bench.
Replacing Richarlison in the 66th minute, the 22-year-old was key to Son Heung-min doubling the lead two minutes later as he teed him up for a simple finish. Firstly heading Pape Matar Sarr’s long ball into James Maddison’s path, Johnson received the ball back from the England international before squaring to Son to fire home.
The Tottenham captain certainly valued the winger’s contribution as he could be seen pointing at him immediately after scoring before the pair then linked up arms and ran towards the jubilant away end. Seeing very little of the Wales international so far due to the hamstring injury he sustained on his full debut at Arsenal, the ex-Nottingham Forest man gave everyone in south London a glimpse of what he can offer Postecoglou’s team in a very bright 26-minute cameo appearance.Speaking to football.london after the game, Postecoglou hailed the impact of Johnson and his fellow substitutes for their performances off the bench in the win at Selhurst Park.
“Yeah Brennan was great. He’s had to be patient as he’s had a couple of setbacks obviously so we haven’t really seen him in any consistent game time or training time but the last couple of weeks he’s worked hard at training,” he said.
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“I thought all the subs who came on… I thought Pierre helped us get control of midfield, I thought Emerson at left-back was outstanding. Those kind of things are helping us at the moment, the guys coming on and helping us see out games.”
After playing such a big part in the win against the Eagles, Johnson’s next target will be to force his way into Postecoglou’s thinking in terms of his starting XI for the Chelsea match. Having already given the Australian something to think about in his game time in the win at Palace, a strong week on the training pitch could work in his favour and leave one of Richarlison or Dejan Kulusevski facing the prospect of missing out on the team to face the Blues.
Tottenham have really made people stand up and take notice this season thanks to Postecoglou’s football philosophy but there is still so much more to come from them. Things just haven’t quite clicked in the final third just yet despite scoring 22 goals in ten league games, with the head coach revealing in his press conference ahead of the Crystal Palace encounter that the “biggest growth” to come for them will be in the attacking side of their game.
“All of it. We still have to grow in every area,” he said when asked what Tottenham still need to improve on. “There are areas where we are already very good, particularly around the defensive side of the game. I think we’ve been excellent there – really consistent.
“I said after the game on Monday night that that’s what won us the game. To work really hard and press the opposition and be really disciplined and committed to forcing oppositions into mistakes. That’s been really good and really pleasing for me.
“I still think our main growth will come in the attacking side of the game. I still think particularly in the front third, a lot of our movements are still not natural and fluent like we want them to be, which isn’t surprising. But what is getting us the goals is that we have great quality up there, which is contributing to that. But I still think the biggest growth for us will be in our attacking side of the game.”
