Postecoglou makes plea to Spurs fans after draw with Bournemouth and discusses returns of Romero and van de Ven | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou has urged Spurs fans to create a noisy atmosphere on Thursday night against AZ Alkmaar after drawing 2-2 with Bournemouth.

Fans’ frustration could be heard at points in the game against Bournemouth with goals from Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson putting the away side 2-0 up.

But Spurs struck back through Pape Sarr before Heung-Min Son won and then converted a late penalty to salvage a point for his side.

And after the game, Postecoglou says it is imperative the Spurs fans get behind their team on Thursday as they look to overturn a one-goal deficit and progress in the Europa League.

“I can’t dictate to people how they sort of interact but AZ’s crowd certainly helped them on Thursday night and we need our crowd to get behind the boys on Thursday to make it an atmosphere where we maybe lose some of that nervousness and anxiety in our game,” he said.

“But the reality is we as a team have to respond irrespective. One may follow the other. If we start the game strong it might get the place louder which will help us.”

The draw with Bournemouth also saw the returns of defenders Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, with the latter replacing the former in the second half.

Romero had some nervy moments during the first half but Postecoglou insists that is to be expected after such a long time out.

“I think Romero, it was great to get him back out there,” he said.

“He’s such an important player for us. You can see he hasn’t played for a while but I thought he grew into the game and got a lot better as it went on.

“It was great for Dom (Solanke) to get 90 minutes today. He’s such a workhorse and I’m sure he’ll feel better for that.

“And great to get Micky out there. I think before Thursday night I was keen for us to get some minutes into these guys and thankfully they got through it unscathed.

“Romero hasn’t played for a very long time and he’s hardly played this year. Cuti will be disappointed with himself for that (mistakes) but at the same time, what was much more important for me was how he grew into his game, his defensive work, his aerial ability.

“He was on the end of just about every cross we put in the box from corners.

“The idea was for him to play 45 today but he was keen to stay on for longer and you could see he grew into the game.”