Chadder View: Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou found perfect formula in Newcastle victory
Matthew Chadder is a lifelong Tottenham fan who grew up just down the road from his beloved club in North London. He’s now putting his passion for Spurs into words with a daily fan view for Tottenham News…
After a few weeks of trials and tribulations, Ange Postecoglou finally found the perfect Tottenham solution to cope with the absence of James Maddison.
Maddison has been one of the most influential players of the Postecoglou era in north London so far, and a pure joy for us supporters to watch while sitting in the stands at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Every touch of the ball he makes oozes a bit of magic, and I always feel as if he can pick a defence-splitting pass at any moment.
Not since the days of Christian Eriksen have we had a creative player with this level of influence on a game. He is a star and I do not doubt that as soon as he returns to action, we will rediscover the consistency we displayed at the beginning of the season.
For now, Postecoglou must find a solution to playing without his star midfielder, and I believe that he finally did that against Newcastle on Sunday.
Against Wolves, he opted to play with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in midfield while against Aston Villa and Manchester City, he used Bryan Gil on the wing.
During the defeat to West Ham, Dejan Kulusevski featured on the wing, and it was clear to see that Postecoglou was trialling different ways of playing and using his attacking players in different positions. Against Newcastle, he finally hit the nail on the head with his team selection.
While dropping Giovani Lo Celso seemed like an incredibly harsh decision before the match and one which certainly took me by surprise, it proved to be the correct one.
Kulusevski thrived as an advanced midfielder, and it is arguably a position where I feel the Swede is most comfortable. His passing range and cute touches on the ball make him a perfect fit to play behind the front three.
As for the front three itself, it was firing on all cylinders on Sunday afternoon. Son-Heung min, who has been brilliant at number nine this season, looked full of life on the left and provided a constant threat from the wide areas, leaving Kieran Trippier with his head spinning by full-time.
Meanwhile, both Brennan Johnson and Richarlison had their best displays in a Spurs shirt to date. While I would like to see Son take his spot up front once Maddison returns to the team, for now, I think he is best suited to playing on the left and giving some full-backs a few bad nights of sleep over the coming weeks.
The key thing with Postecoglou’s lineup on Sunday afternoon is that it provided a balance in the team which has been missing in recent weeks and proved to be very effective. I am hoping that this spells the end of Postecoglou’s shuffling and switching around and he will name this same team again when we travel to Nottingham Forest on Friday.
A settled starting 11 is key to producing a consistent run of results, and hopefully, now that the boss seems to have found this, we can start to pick up some points again and keep pace with the top four.
In other Tottenham news, Fabrizio Romano has provided a welcome Monday morning update for Spurs supporters.