Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou’s future in North London remains in question, but James Maddison, in and out of the team recently, thinks the side can produce some magic between now and the end of the season
James Maddison celebrated the return of ‘Angeball’ and insisted Tottenham were eyeing Europa League glory.
Although he missed the boat when Thomas Tuchel named his first England squad, Maddison was back to his best against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night, pulling the strings in midfield and scoring his 11th goal of the season.
Spurs now face a tricky quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt, who won the competition in 2022, and the dream all-English final against Manchester United is still on.
But defensive big gun Micky Van de Ven’s comeback, and Dominic Solanke’s return to the front line following an injury-blighted winter, has restored some backbone and swagger to Tottenham’s outlook. Under-pressure head coach Ange Postecoglou will now survive at least until Easter after unfurling a snapshot of the ‘Angeball’ which took Tottenham to the top of the league after 10 games last season.
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Wilson Odobert’s second goal against Alkmaar, which moved to be the winner on aggregate, was a sweeping move the length of the pitch decorated by Maddison’s filthy dip of the shoulder.
Maddison said: ‘Do we believe we can win it? Of course – it would be naive to say no. I could give you a cliché answer and say we’re focused on the next game, but it has to be there, there has to be that drive.
“The quarter-final is the next stage and we’ll focus on that, but the gaffer always talks about having a special season and this is one way we can have a special season.
“There are lots of good teams in it, but listen we’re a good team, so the belief is definitely there.”
Maddison called the tune against Alkmaar on Thursday night and he admitted: “I really enjoyed it. The beauty of Europe and it being knock-out stages, you know what you’ve got to do.
“In the Premier League sometimes when you are drawing, you don’t want to lose but when you get to knockout of competitions, you know the job you need to do and being behind, it made it even clearer that we had to take the game to them, win convincingly and we did that.
“As a team goal, I can’t even really remember (a better one). There was literally a carbon copy of that move against AZ Alkmaar in the group stage here that didn’t lead to a goal.
“This time we worked on Djed (Spence) going low and me supporting really low in the build-up because their midfield has a lot of distance to cover.
“I checked over my shoulder and the defender was rushing to press me – sometimes the best touch you can have is actually not to touch it at all, so I almost faked and a little drop of the shoulder, let it run across me.
Then I have the power runners like Djed and Sonny (Son Heung-min), so I let them go because they are a little bit quicker than me.
“We work on the overlaps and the winger being in at the back stick. How many times have you saw Brennan Johnson score that goal at the back stick and today it was Wilson. It’s something we work on and I think they’ll be pleased with that.
