An ugly scoreline, but ultimately a relatively comfortable performance. Tottenham Hotspur consolidated their position at the top of the Europa League standings with a 1-0 home victory over Eredevise rivals AZ Alkmaar
A heavily rotated Spurs XI battled against the outgunned and overwhelmed Dutch side, who often provided nothing in response but still had chances to land a sucker punch, until a second-half boost saw Tottenham ease to three points. It was Tottenham’s seventh win in eight games.
There was a lot to speak about in the match, including Fraser Forster’s strong performance and Troy Parrot’s (in)famous return, but this is my piece, so you get my takeaways. Nobody will read them, so feel free.
There is such a thing as excessive rotation.
We’re all aware of the busy football schedule, and with Tottenham in Europe, there are plenty of games and minutes to go around. That involves rotating players to keep things interesting, spread playing time among the squad, and avoid injury. Up to this time, however, Ange Postecoglou has found it difficult to strike the ideal balance.
His greatest achievement in this regard was likely against Ferencvaros, who had a nice combination of young, squad, and experienced players; yet, today’s team battled for flow and coherence until adjustments were made. There were regular poor passes, mistimed runs, and a couple times in the back where a stronger
In this writer’s opinion (and to be clear, this is just my opinion), an ideal balance is as follows: three changes in the back six – four at most, but only if two of those are in the backline; one of the two attacking eights (both are fine if the six has remained consistent); and two of the front three. Maybe that’s being conservative, but providing defensive coordination and safeguarding your younger players while preserving a level of experience and starting-level competence helps to ease the transition between the starting XI and a rotating side.
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