Spurs youngsters will learn from Galatasaray defeat, says Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou believes Tottenham’s youngsters will have learned a lot from their 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday.

Yunus Akgun’s stunning opener was cancelled out by 19-year-old Will Lankshear’s first senior goal for Spurs, before Victor Osimhen’s brace put the hosts in control at the break.

Lankshear, however, would be sent off for a second bookable offence on the hour-mark, though Spurs did reduce the deficit through Dominic Solanke with a man less.

Postecoglou named several inexperienced European players in his starting line-up, with 18-year-old’s Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall also starting at Rams Park.

But the Spurs boss believes that his younger players will learn from the experience against Okan Buruk’s side.

“Look, Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team. Obviously, he hasn’t had a lot of experience in senior football, so he would have learnt a lot today,” Postecoglou said.

“The red card, it was a bit of overenthusiasm at that moment to give away a foul, but he’ll learn from that. The same with Lucas. Giving him an understanding of the levels here.

“It is not easy when you are playing away in Europe. You can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it.

“I thought Archie was great. It was a tough game for us defensively at different times, but I think we’ll get so much growth out of him because he’s not playing in his position.

“I guess for three teenagers in the starting line-up, I think they’ll learn a lot from it, and hopefully it helps with their development.”

At 19-years-old and 201 days, Lankshear is now Tottenham’s youngest goalscorer in major European competition since Harry Kane (18-years-old and 140 days) netted against Shamrock Rovers in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League.

However, he became the third-youngest player to both score and be sent off in a Europa League game after Aleksandar Mitrovic for Partizan Belgrade in November 2012 (18-years-old and 67 days) and Federico Chiesa for Fiorentina in December 2016 (19-years-old and 44 days).

19 – Will Lankshear (19y 201d) is Tottenham Hotspur’s youngest goalscorer in major European competition since Harry Kane (18y 140d) netted against Shamrock Rovers in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League. Footsteps. pic.twitter.com/kOl9f2ZBFO

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 7, 2024

Despite the score-ine, Spurs were comfortably second-best against Galatasaray as they suffered their first defeat in the competition this season.

They faced 28 shots from their opponents, their most in a game under Postecoglou.

It is the most efforts faced by an English team in a Europa League group stage match since Everton faced 39 shots against Wolfsburg in November 2014.

And Postecoglou believes his side only had themselves to blame for the defeat, citing a number of mistakes as their undoing in Turkey.

“I just felt it was self-inflicted. We had real simple solutions out there to keep the ball. It wasn’t that hard. We showed it with 10 men,” Postecoglou added.

“We just needed to be stronger on the ball and play the kind of football we play every week.

“Maybe it was a little bit the changes I made and the environment and atmosphere, but the moments that stick out to me was giving the ball away.

“We were playing through them quite easily with 10 men but with 11 men we had nowhere near that conviction and that was disappointing.”