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Ange Postecoglou believes the Europa League presents Tottenham with a “great opportunity” especially with the return of Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke for Thursday’s tie at AZ Alkmaar.
Spurs resume their European campaign with a last-16 first leg clash in the Netherlands with huge focus on the competition given the club’s domestic struggles this season.
The long-term absences of Van de Ven and Romero have contributed towards a difficult campaign as Tottenham sit 13th in the Premier League and are out of both domestic cup competitions.
While Dejan Kulusevski has become the latest player on the treatment table with a foot issue set to sideline him until April, Van de Ven, Romero and Solanke are all in contention to feature in Alkmaar, where Postecoglou will aim to guide his squad a step closer to a first trophy since 2008.
“Yeah, I think it is fair to say the boys really understand there is a great opportunity for us,” Postecoglou said.
“It’s a competition we obviously want to do well in. We’ve got ourselves in a good position. We’re in the round of 16, we’ve got two tough games against AZ and that’s the first thing to overcome.
“The club hasn’t in recent years done well in this competition, but it’s a major European competition, we’re in the last 16 and for us there’s an opportunity there and we’ll see how far we can go in it.
“With us tomorrow night, we’ve got to make sure whatever happens at the end of the game, we’ve still got an opportunity to go back to Tottenham and win the tie.
“We understand with the home support – I’ve been here with Celtic in a Europa game, so I know the experience of it and they’re a good side – but we’ve got to make sure we play our football and dictate the tempo of the game to make sure we take a result back to Tottenham.”
Postecoglou refused to be drawn into whether any of Van de Ven, Romero or Solanke could start.
Solanke is available again after a six-week absence following a knee injury while Van de Ven has not featured regularly since October after being blighted by hamstring problems, which meant comeback appearances in December and January proved a false dawn.
It is a similar story for Romero, who last played for Tottenham on December 8 against Chelsea before he sustained a fresh groin injury in that match.
Even though Romero has only just returned for Spurs, his inclusion in the Argentina squad for this month’s World Cup qualifiers raised eyebrows, but Postecoglou brushed off the topic.
He added: “At the end of the day, if he’s fit then him getting some games is good for us because he’s missed a lot of football.
“We can’t dictate to players whether they should go with their national teams or not. I never have and that’s been my view my whole career and I won’t stop now.”
January recruit Kevin Danso has impressed in the absence of key figures in defence and senses the hunger in the Tottenham squad to finish the season strongly.
Asked about the possibility of winning this competition, Danso insisted: “100 per cent and I think it’s possible.
“We know what a great team we have so now it’s down to us to prove it in every training session and game and try to make an impact.”
