Ange Postecoglou sets sights on Europa League top eight for Spurs

Ange Postecgolou feels his team’s performances in the Europa League have been positive as they continue to aim high.

Roma are Tottenham’s hardest opponents according to UEFA

Tottenham Hotspur hosts AS Roma in the Europa League with the match being Spurs’ first ‘Pot 1’ opponent of the league phase. Roma are the team in the Europa League with the highest UEFA Coefficient ranking.

Spurs are in a strong position in the Europa League with 3 wins and 1 loss, currently placing them in 7th in the table and still amongst the automatic round of 16 qualification spots.

Guglielmo Vicario’s ankle injury, adding him to the plethora of unavailable players, including Will Lankshear with his one-match suspension, will test Tottenham’s squad depth.

Ange Postecoglou praises Europa League position after overcoming challenges

Commenting on the Europa League table and Tottenham’s goal of reaching the top 8 and skipping the tournament’s extra round, Postecoglou said (FootballLondon): “Yeah, I think that certainly needs to be the aim.

“Look, our European form, obviously the Galatasaray game was a disappointing one for us, but in general it’s been really good.

“And again, not in easy circumstances. We had a red card after five minutes of the first game. We played a lot of young players through it, and we’ve given a lot of players game time, which has been really good because I think the benefit of Europe for us, apart from we’re in a good position, is that guys like Radu and Ben can come in at the weekend and do a good job because they’ve played significant games.

“We didn’t have that last year with our European football. Guys like Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, all these guys are getting game time. Obviously, Mikey, before he picked up the illness. So, through us still making some significant changes, we’ve maintained some decent form and we want to continue that.

“I think the quicker you can guarantee that top eight spot, that leaves you that little bit of latitude, obviously, for two less games in the second half of the year, I think that certainly has to be our aim.”

Tottenham need to use home advantage to stabilise their position in the table

With wins secured in their first three Europa League fixtures and the next two matches in Europa being trips to Rangers and Hoffenheim, Spurs need to utilise Roma being a home fixture to secure their position in the table.

The game against Rangers takes place in December as Tottenham will attempt to handle key absences during a challenging run of fixtures. However, the Hoffenheim and Elfsborg matches will take place towards the end of January. By that time, some of Tottenham’s injured players may have returned and January window reinforcements may have been secured.

In addition to providing squad players with minutes (in particular Fraser Forster who is set for a dramatic increase in match time), succeeding against Roma greatly strengthens Spurs’ position to qualify for the Europa League knockout phase.

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