‘Postecoglou must axe Spence’ at HT in Aston Villa v Tottenham, he’s been awful
Ange Postecoglou has to take Djed Spence off at half-time for Tottenham after a shocking display against Aston Villa on Friday evening.
Spurs go in at the break level with Unai Emery’s side at half time after arguably having the best chances despite fielding a heavily rotated squad.
Chances for Mathys Tel and Son Heung-min have certainly caught the eye, while Antonin Kinsky made a top save to deny Morgan Rogers.
Regardless of a largely positive first half, it would represent a huge risk to leave Spence on the pitch after a torrid first half display.
Spence shocking for Tottenham v Aston Villa
After what has been a largely positive season for the 24-year-old, his form has somewhat dropped since his drop in minutes in recent weeks.
This has seen Pedro Porro take up the first team role once again and largely flourish after the Spaniard’s injury earlier in the campaign.
As a result, the clash at Villa Park represented a perfect opportunity to showcase his ability to Postecoglou ahead of the Europa League final in Bilbao.
It is fair to say that he failed to show any positivity to the Australian after failing to live with John McGinn for the entire half in the Midlands.
This saw the Scot win three duels while being fouled on one occasion [FotMob], limiting Spence’s ability to play his own game.
As a result, the right-back took just nine touches, completing zero per cent of his attempted dribbles, while winning just two duels up against the Villa skipper.
A change to nullify the threat of the 30-year-old could represent a smart move for the away side after such a dreadful showing from Spence.
Tottenham have had chances v Aston Villa
This hasn’t been the performance that many expected from this Lilywhites side, as many chances have fallen the way of the travelling faithful.
Son had a curler so nearly find the top corner and has often gotten the better of Matty Cash down the Villa right in the opening 45 minutes.
| Stat | Aston Villa | Tottenham |
| Possession | 72 | 28 |
| Shots on target | 3 | 1 |
| Big chances | 1 | 1 |
| Accurate passes | 259 | 87 |
This has ultimately made a telling different on the performance for Spurs, despite the best efforts of Marco Asensio for the hosts.
Postecoglou will certainly want more from the likes of Tel, but particularly from Spence, who has been the worst of the bunch.