Missing defender, Mathys Tel told off.

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Missing defender, Mathys Tel told off and 5 things we noticed in Spurs training
Alasdair Gold
5 – 6 minutes

The Tottenham players took to the Hotspur Way pitches on Wednesday morning ahead of the Europa League round of 16 second leg match against AZ Alkmaar.

Spurs were poor in the first leg in the Netherlands last week and need to overturn a 1-0 deficit in Thursday night’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Ange Postecoglou and his coaches were putting his players through their final paces at the Enfield training complex on Wednesday morning.

Here are five things we noticed from the open early stages of training in which the media were allowed to watch and film proceedings.
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Postecoglou watching Richarlison

The goalkeepers were the first players to emerge from the first team building but one player was already out on the grass.

Richarlison could be seen far across the other side of the pitches, going through runs up and down the grass with a fitness coach. There was no sign of a ball being introduced at this point.

When Postecoglou emerged from the building, he went over to the edge of the first team area, alongside a fence and watched the Brazilian for a while as he continues his rehabilitation from his calf injury.
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Who was missing

The newest absentee was Kevin Danso, with football.london reporting on Tuesday that the centre-back had suffered a muscle injury in the draw with Bournemouth and was set for a spell on the sidelines.

He joined Dejan Kulusevski, long-term absentee Radu Dragusin and Richarlison in missing the session. The unregistered Timo Werner, Antonin Kinsky, Sergio Reguilon and the suspended Rodrigo Bentancur all took part despite being unavailable for Thursday night’s game.
Odd socks

It was immediately noticeable that the players were wearing brightly coloured odd socks while training and the reason for that was to mark World Down Syndrome Day, which takes place on March 21.

James Maddison’s sock choice of yellow and green looked like it might be deliberate with his Norwich connections of the past and it all certainly added some colour to proceedings.
Mathys Tel gently told off

The Tottenham players went through some running drills before splitting into pairs to do pressing and touch exercises and then they all took part in rondos before the media had to head off from proceedings.

One of the fitness coaches noticed during the touch exercises that Mathys Tel was struggling to get the rhythm of the drill and the intensity needed for it. The coach called on him gently to push it harder and then joked a little later to Wilson Odobert, Tel’s partner in the work, “Should I ask in French?”.

The fitness coach then made an example by calling on the group to watch him doing what was meant to be a high intensity drill with Odobert and it certainly did the trick with Tel, who put everything into the next phase of the session.
Good spirits

Confidence might have taken a hit in recent weeks but the Spurs players looked to be in high spirits and enjoying some fun little interactions with each other and between duos that you might not normally expect.

Pape Matar Sarr came out on to the pitches and made a beeline for Cristian Romero before putting his arms around the Argentinean vice-captain in an embrace from the side.

Then later in the session, Mikey Moore starting teasing Micky van de Ven with the ball, not giving it to the Dutchman. When he eventually did he ran around behind the centre-back and latched himself to his back in a big hug.

Tottenham fans will be hoping their players are still in such high spirits once Thursday night’s match against AZ comes to a close.

Spurs’ season-defining game and the big Archie Gray question – click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham.

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