Ange Postecoglou shines light on big silver lining for Tottenham vs Bournemouth

While Tottenham’s performance against Bournemouth might have been extremely sloppy at times, Ange Postecoglou admits that the club have one huge positive coming out of that game as they look ahead to the all-important second leg against AZ Alkmaar.

Tottenham fans would have been delighted to see Dominic Solanke’s name in the starting lineup against the Cherries after the striker was forced off with a knock in his first game back at the AFAS Stadium in Alkmaar last week.

Meanwhile, Cristian Romero made his first start for the club since the start of November, with the Argentine playing just over 60 minutes before being replaced by his centre-back partner, Micky van de Ven, who also marked his comeback.

Ange Postecoglou delighted to have injured Tottenham trio back

Spurs’ performance on the day was far from convincing, with some of the same issues continuing to plague the Lilywhites, but the Tottenham supporters would be delighted with the fact that Romero and Van de Ven came through the game unscathed.

The pair are now potentially in line to start what is Spurs’ biggest game of the season against Alkmaar this Thursday, and Postecoglou admits that having the trio back is a huge boost to his side ahead of the second leg.

When asked what he thought of the return of the striker and the two centre-backs, the Tottenham boss responded (via Football.London): “Yeah, that’s the key thing, they got minutes. Romero, just great to get him back out there. He’s such an important player for us but you could see he hasn’t played for a while. I thought he grew into the game and got a lot better as it went on.

“Great for Dom to get 90 minutes today, he’s such a workhorse for us and I’m sure he’ll feel better for that. Brilliant to get Micky out there as well. I think before Thursday night, that was key for us to get some minutes into these guys and thankfully they got through it unscathed.”

Postecoglou makes an admission about Romero’s rustiness

Tottenham’s vice-captain did look a little short of match practice on his return to the side, making several unforced errors at the start of the game.

However, Postecoglou was not surprised to see that, given how long the 26-year-old was sidelined and praised the centre-back for the way he grew into the game.

When asked if he expected Romero’s rustiness at the start, the 59-year-old responded: “Not surprised, he hasn’t played for a very long time. He’s hardly played this year to be fair.

“Cuti will be disappointed with that himself but at the same time what was much more important for me was how grew into his game, his defensive work, his aerial ability.

“I mean he was on the end of almost every cross they put into the box from corners and I think for him he will feel a lot better just having played. The idea was only to play 45 today, but he was keen to stay on for a bit longer and you could see he grew into the game and was really important for us.”

READ MORE: Cristian Romero breaks silence with emotional message after Tottenham return

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