Ange Postecoglou can ill-afford further slip-ups with Tottenham season hanging in the balance | OneFootball

Season could still end with glorious finish - but Thursday night offered worrying signs

Ange Postecoglou is under pressure to deliver at Tottenham

Mike Egerton/PA Wire

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The problem for Ange Postecoglou was not so much Tottenham’s defeat in Alkmaar on Thursday night, which can still be overturned in next week's second leg, but the manner of his side's performance.

For months, Postecoglou has been insisting that Spurs would dramatically improve when their injured players returned and the schedule eased up.

Yet after another clear week of preparation and with surely the strongest bench he has ever had at Spurs, his side served up one of the flattest performances of the Postecoglou era, when the stakes for their season could scarcely have been any higher.

Spurs were still missing four of their most important players from the XI, with Dejan Kulusevski injured and Dominic Solanke, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero among the subs. Of the returning trio, only Solanke made it back on the pitch on 72 minutes but was forced off again in stoppage-time with a back injury.

Spurs, though, had more than enough quality to beat an AZ Alkmaar side who had failed to win in 12 previous meetings with English clubs and were missing key players of their own, including losing midfielder Mayckel Lahdo and his replacement Denso Kasius to injuries during the match.

Postecoglou's side mustered a solitary shot on target and had goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to thank for keeping them in the tie with saves from Troy Parrott and Ernest Poku.

The defeat now leaves Spurs' season and, possibly Postecoglou's entire project, on the brink, the manager a little like a tennis player facing a match-point in the early round of a tournament.

The situation can still be salvaged and a successful, even glorious outcome is still possible.

But he can no longer afford further slip ups.

Tottenham were abject against AZ Alkmaar earlier this week

Action Images via Reuters

The stakes for Sunday's visit of Bournemouth in the Premier League are nowhere near as high but an improved performance is essential to back up Djed Spence's claim that the dressing room still has total belief in Postecoglou's approach.

It was alarming how easily Alkmaar were able to smother Spurs’ forwards, while there were holes throughout the visitors' midfield and defence.

It felt like a performance when all the good elements of Ange-ball -- the slick passing football, the brave transitions, the lightning attacks -- had been stripped away, leaving only incoherent patterns in the final third and wide open spaces across the midfield.

Postecoglou questioned his players "mindset" after the game and certainly far too many of his senior stars -- notably captain Heung-min Son and James Maddison -- failed to deliver a performance when it mattered again.

When almost every individual is playing within themselves, however, it has to come back to the manager and his system, leaving Postecoglou under pressure to find answers.

A meeting with the Cherries, who beat Spurs 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium in early December, promises to provide some uncomfortable contrasts for the Australian.

While Spurs are visibly less than the sum of their talented parts, high-flying Bournemouth are the opposite, testament to Andoni Iraola's excellent work on the south coast.

No wonder the Spaniard would inevitably feature high up the list of mooted successors for Postgecoglou should he leave Spurs.

Iraola's side have also tended to excel against the league's bigger clubs, including Spurs, who typically try to dominate matches with the ball.

Bournemouth have also beaten Manchester City, Arsenal and Man United and drawn with Chelsea this term (while losing to Leicester, Wolves and Brighton) and they will be happy to let Spurs have the lion's share of the ball on Sunday, particularly after watching their sterile possession in Alkmaar.

The returns of van de Ven and Romero to the back line would be an enormous boost for Postecoglou, who says AZ's pitch deterred him from playing them in Holland, and should improve Spurs at both ends.

Postecoglou's side have desperately missed Romero's line-breaking passes and van de Ven's ability to carry the ball out of defence during their long injury absences.

Then there is Solanke, who will be desperate to face his former club but has to be considered a major doubt after becoming the latest Spurs player to return to the pitch and immediately get injured again.

Given Mathys Tel's struggles to make an impact at centre-forward, Spurs' chances in the decider against AZ would be significantly dented if Solanke is facing another spell on the sidelines. But the time when Postecoglou could credibly point to injuries to explain poor results is over.