Ange Postecoglou calls on Tottenham fans to help his side ease their nerves in Europe League clash with AZ Alkmaar

Ange Postecoglou urged Tottenham‘s supporters to help his team soothe their nerves as they try to salvage their season against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.

Spurs trail 1-0 after the first leg and their season will boil down to winning the second leg on Thursday but performances have been poor.

Postecoglou’s team were booed off at half time before fighting back from two-down to take a point at home against Bournemouth.

‘I can’t sort of dictate to people how they sort of interact,’ said Postecoglou. ‘But, AZ’s crowd certainly helped them and we need our crowd to get behind the boys on Thursday to make it an atmosphere where maybe we lose some of that nervousness and anxiety within our game.

‘If we start the game strong, it’ll get the place nice and loud, which will help us.’

Tottenham’s anxious, error-strewn start against Bournemouth put the home crowd on edge.

The Tottenham fans displayed this banner calling for change during Sunday’s match 

‘A chaotic game for sure,’ said Postecoglou. ‘We added to the chaos and it was a little bit self-inflicted, especially in the first half. We were really careless with our passing and that allowed the game to played on the terms Bournemouth would like with their transition football.

‘So yeah chaotic but at 2-0 down it would have been very easy, particularly with the atmosphere as it was, for the boys to just let the game get away, but credit to them, they found a way to get back into the game and we got something out of it.’

Heung-min Son scored the equaliser with a penalty in the 84th minute but was not satisfied.

‘I’m still very disappointed,’ said Son. ‘I’m frustrated not getting three points. When you play at home you expect three points. Bournemouth are a really good side, especially this season, outstanding, but I feel like it’s not good enough for us.

‘In the first half we’ve been sloppy. When you’re down and your confidence is a bit down and you’re doing things you wouldn’t normally do. You want to do extra and you make mistakes, it happens.

‘We’ve got to be strong. Confidence makes a huge difference. And especially after Thursday things are bit stressed, but you have to stay calm, do the simple things and we’ll come out of the tunnel.’