Dejan Kulusevski struggles a concern with Tottenham in need of a James Maddison replacement | OneFootball

The midfielder has struggled to find rhythm since returning from injury

Your matchday briefing on Tottenham, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dan Kilpatrick

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Sure enough, much of this battle between 16th and 17th felt very much like end-of-season stuff — West Ham winding down a similarly miserable Premier League campaign and with nothing to play for domestically, either.

Tottenham landed the first punch, though, reacting smartly and decisively to take full advantage of a rather ugly piece of play from Max Kilman. Mathys Tel collected down the left, squared, and Richarlison opted for a dummy which allowed the ball through to the unmarked Odobert. The finish was confidently passed between Alphonse Areola’s reach.

But although Postecoglou’s brand-new back four kept West Ham at bay for long periods, there were moments when individuals switched off, like when Kevin Danso twice passed to nobody and Archie Gray dribbled into an opposition player. Djed Spence was completely out of position for the equaliser, presenting enough space to Aaron Wan-Bissaka for a slide rule pass into Bowen, who finished past Ben Davies and through the legs of Guglielmo Vicario, who might have done better to guard against that.

Dejan Kulusevki will be need to create a spark on Thursday

Action Images via Reuters

The importance of Thursday’s second leg made for a meandering second half in which Postecoglou only introduced one player — Mikey Moore — from the bench, unwilling to risk any of those who will play leading roles in Norway.

Tel and Odobert were relatively bright, the Frenchman missing a couple of decent opportunities. Pape Matar Sarr put in an underwhelming performance but came close to nicking a winner when his fierce effort from range flew just over the bar.

On an afternoon in which Postecoglou had very little emotional buy-in, the Spurs boss will have been disappointed by the performance of Dejan Kulusevski. The Swede often ran the ball into trouble and looked more than a little lost.

Since returning from a foot injury, he has still not got back up to speed and yet may have to start on Thursday, with James Maddison’s knee injury likely to see him miss the trip to Norway.

The big guns will come back in against Bodo/Glimt: Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur and, if fit, Dominic Solanke and Heung-min Son. Without them all, Tottenham were rather average