Ange Postecoglou said it was all about ‘producing it when it counts’ after Yves Bissouma opened his Spurs goalscoring account with a picturebook strike in our 2-0 friendly win at QPR on Saturday.
The Mali midfielder struck five minutes before half-time, initially stepping away from Lucas Andersen, then playing a one-two with Deki Kulusevski, drifting into the box, side-stepping goalkeeper Paul Nardi and slotting home.
There were chances at both ends in a tough test against the Championship side with Dane Scarlett securing the win when he turned home Mikey Moore’s fine cross with the outside of his right foot with three minutes left.
Ange walked past Yves when he was speaking to SPURSPLAY and smiled, ‘it’s only a friendly game, Biss’, and reiterated that message when we spoke afterwards…
“It is only a friendly, so… I want to see him do it in a game,” said Ange. “He’s capable of it and that’s the challenge for all our guys, we know the capabilities are there, they have to produce it when it counts. He was good today, Biss, he’s been good in pre-season and we have to keep pushing him.”
The performance
Ange: “It was okay, we’ve had a tough week, training, game, travel, so I felt for the boys, we kind of knew we’d be a bit leggy, but I still felt we played some good stuff. We probably weren’t as clinical in front of goal as we were in midweek (5-1 win at Hearts), but that’s probably because we’ve had a hard week. We still created some good chances but, overall, not too bad. Again, everyone got through it, so that’s the main thing.”
Pre-season matches
Ange: “We’re looking to keep progressing our game, keep improving, trying to implement our principles. To be fair to the boys, they’ve come back in good condition, so it’s more about pushing on from last season and the foundation we’ve created, hopefully that’s a springboard to something better.”