The Tottenham head coach has been chatting about the young Bayern Munich attacker, and he believes big things will come from the teenager.
Ange Postecoglou has stated unequivocally that when Tottenham can properly utilize Mathys Tel, people will realize what a gifted player he is.
The 19-year-old joined Spurs from Bayern Munich during the winter transfer window, with an option to buy the Frenchman for £45.7 million, which Postecoglou confirmed would happen. The early weeks have been challenging for Tel, who has only scored once, as the unavailability of Dominic Solanke and Richarlison has forced the teenager into a central attacking role, which has proven difficult to adjust to the pace and physicality of English football.
Those difficulties continued in continental competition, with his first Europa League game for Tottenham ending in a humiliating 1-0 loss to AZ on Thursday night in the round of 16 first leg in Alkmaar. Tel had to struggle for every crumb of possession with his back to the goal for much of the first half before being replaced by Postecoglou at halftime.
“The reason I took him off is I just thought we needed a spark, we needed something. It wasn’t about him because I could have taken of any one of a number of players. It’s just it felt like I needed something to change the course of events,” said the Australian.
“Mathys came at a really difficult moment for us because it’s different when you haven’t been playing consistently and then jump in, but he’s been trying to build up his fitness. At the same time, we’ve been sending him out there on a regular basis due to a lack of options. He’s still a young man, in a different league, with different demands. Certainly, we are not in our best moment right now, as opposed to last night, when he was given numerous opportunities.
“Again, working with him since he came in, he’s got a really strong head on his shoulders, and last night, as disappointed as he was to come off, it didn’t appear to affect him in terms of his mental capacity to deal with it, go on with it, and try to make an effect in the best way he can.
“It’s fair to say that we’ve invested heavily in a young player and introduced him to our league. I recall Lucas [Bergvall] being a similar one at the start of the year. He struggled a little bit in certain games, especially in Europe. He struggled a handful of times but over time we’ve seen him bloom and I’m confident whenever we can get Dom back in and maybe Richy not too distant in the future, we can use him in the way we want to.”
Spurs had an immediate boost in the winter window with the signing of centre-back Kevin Danso from Lens, and the head coach was informed that the goal of the mid-season window was to bring in players who could make an immediate impact.
“That’s a fair assessment, but at the same time, we had got to a point in that window over whether we pass up an opportunity to sign an exciting player and go without, that was the reality of it, or we commit to bring another talented player to the football club,” Postecoglou recalled.
“[Mathys] hasn’t made the impact that he probably wanted to but the circumstances of where we are at, I think it’s unfair to put that on his shoulders. He has done as well as he possibly can. I’m sure in between now and the end of the year people will see him and realise what a talent he is and my job is to make sure we protect him through that.”
Postecoglou indicated that despite a feeling back in Germany that Tel sees his long term future through the centre of attack, the wing is where the Frenchman can do most damage certainly in the more immediate future.
“Initially my view was that he would probably play in a wide area for us. Once Solanke was back I’m keen to try him out there,” he said. “The first game he played out wide on the left, you can see he’s really comfortable there or out wide on the right. I think he’ll get more opportunities there.”
Postecoglou also made it clear that while people might not understand his decisions with players coming back from injury, they do not have all of the information. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were not used from the bench on Thursday because the Spurs boss was concerned about them returning on a pitch that he did not think was the best.
“Anyone who hasn’t played for the amount of time they have and the position they have, it just didn’t make sense for us, and it wasn’t that kind of game where we needed central defenders, we were trying to score goals, so in my mind there was no point,” he said.
“Look, I get the whole medical thing has obviously been a big issue for us and everyone is questioning every decision I make, but with the greatest respect, everyone here and in the outside world probably has five per cent of the information I do. If people think I am just going out there and making decisions on what I feel or my gut, then I don’t think you understand the position I am in and all the information I have.
“I have all the information and I am sure if I shared all the information, which I can’t for various reasons, you might sit back and say, ‘totally understand that’, but I also understand people will question everything I do at the moment, every decision I make against the prism that I don’t know what I am doing.”
So will Romero and Van de Ven be in a position to feature in the second leg against AZ next week?
“Oh, I would say so, for sure, yeah. Maybe even Sunday, we’ll see how things go,” said the Tottenham boss.
