Antonin Kinski has brought confidence to his new Tottenham team-mates and freed them up, according to manager Ange Postecoglou, who faces another big challenge in North London against Arsenal on Wednesday night. – He says he is ready to challenge him to the derby.
It has been a whirlwind for the 21-year-old goalkeeper since arriving from Slavia Prague last Sunday. His transfer fee of £12.5 million was one of the most expensive transfers from the Czech league.
With Spurs' regular number one Guglielmo Vicario out with a broken ankle, Postecoglou included Kinski in the line-up for last Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at home to Liverpool. We all knew how Kinski would be portrayed if he made a mistake, but he made some fine saves and contributed to a 1-0 win, and the distribution was almost a certainty.
And in Sunday's other FA Cup match against non-league side Tamworth, Tamworth displayed a lean aerial approach, including long throws at set pieces. Kinski held on for a 3-0 overtime victory, becoming the first Spurs goaltender in over 100 years to keep a clean sheet in his first two games. Postecoglou said he can talk about Kinski's technical ability, but what really impressed him was his mindset.
“It's more about whether you're ready to accept the challenge,” Postecoglou said. “It's not easy to go to a place like Tamworth and they literally throw the ball under the crossbar and there's about 20 bodies around. It's more of a mindset and approach to it. It was a problem and he didn't shy away from it.
“I think it will give some relief to the players around him to see him coping well, which means they can focus on their work and be more alert. When he came and handled and caught the first two, the players around him knew he had this. If he didn't and there was uncertainty, it permeated through the whole team. There is a tendency to
The atmosphere at Tamworth was hostile, with Postecoglou receiving a lot of abuse from fans behind the bench. “What I heard was pretty vile and disgusting and having things thrown at me… it wasn't a great experience,” he said. “It seems like we are expected to be the bigger person, and I wish I had pivoted in that moment and not been the bigger person.”
Kinksey may think the Tamworth experience will prepare him for what Arsenal are looking to do with set-pieces, which is to put players inside the six-yard box. Make him physically anxious. The streak continued with Gabriel Magalhães scoring from a corner kick as Arsenal won 1-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the fourth leg of the Premier League season.
Spurs conceded a goal from a set-piece in their last game (defeat to Newcastle) and were conceded 16 times from set-pieces in the league last season. Only three clubs conceded more goals. However, since Gabriel's goal, they have only conceded four goals from set pieces. As a side note, Spurs have conceded the fewest goals in the away division – nine.
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“This is an evolution of our team,” Coach Postecoglou said. “Last year, when I talked about set-pieces, people had a very simplistic view: I don’t care about set-pieces, I don’t have a set-piece coach, so I didn’t work on set-pieces. We didn't focus on it any more than that. We made some changes to the way we play defense and it's been working really well this season.
“When they played against Arsenal at our place they scored a good goal and that was the difference. They have done that against a lot of teams but for the most part they handled the set pieces well so We'll have to do that again. Declan Rice provides a great corner and they have some big men.”
Postecoglou spoke of how in-form striker Dominic Solanke, who joined last summer, had “exceeded” expectations. But the manager is pleased that Richarlison is ready to return after two-and-a-half months out to ease Solanke's burden. Spurs have fallen to 13th place with one win and five losses in eight league games and are looking for a good result.
