Ange Postecoglou has made it clear that people will realise what a talent Mathys Tel is when Tottenham can use the teenager properly.

The 19-year-old arrived in the winter window from Bayern Munich with an option for Spurs to buy the Frenchman for £45.7million, which Postecoglou said will happen. The early weeks have been tough for Tel, who has scored just once, with the absence of Dominic Solanke and Richarlison meaning the youngster has been thrown into a central attacking role which has proved a difficult transition into the pace and physicality of the English game.

Those tough times continued in continental competition with his first Europa League game for Tottenham with the disappointing 1-0 defeat at AZ on Thursday night in the round of 16 first leg clash in Alkmaar. Tel had to fight for any scraps of possession with his back to goal for much of the first half and was taken off at the break by Postecoglou.

"The reason I took him off is I just thought we needed a spark, we needed something. It wasn't about him because I could have taken of any one of a number of players. It's just it felt like I needed something to change the course of events," said the Australian.

"Mathys came in a really tricky time for us in that it's different if you haven't been playing regularly and then jump in but he's kind of been trying to build up his fitness. At the same time we've been putting him out there pretty regularly because of our lack of options. He's still a young man, it's a different league and there are different demands. Certainly at the moment we are not in our best moment like last night when he is going to get loads of chances.

"Again, working with him since he came in, he's got a really strong head on his shoulders and last night, as disappointed as he was to come off, it didn't seem to affect him in terms of his mental aptitude to deal with it and get on with it and try and make an impact in the best way he can.

"It's fair to say we've put a lot on a very young player and introduced him to our league. I remember Lucas [Bergvall] was a similar one at the beginning of the year. He struggled a little bit in certain games, especially in Europe. He struggled a couple of times but over time we've seen him flourish and I'm sure once we can get Dom back in and hopefully Richy not too far in the future, we can use him in the way we want to."

Spurs did get a immediate boost in the winter window with the arrival of centre-back Kevin Danso from Lens and it was put to the head coach that the point of the mid-season window was to bring in players who can make an immediate impact.

"That's a fair assessment, but at the same time, we had got to a point in that window over whether we pass up an opportunity to sign an exciting player and go without, that was the reality of it, or we commit to bring another talented player to the football club," said Postecoglou.

"[Mathys] hasn't made the impact that he probably wanted to but the circumstances of where we are at, I think it's unfair to put that on his shoulders. He has done as well as he possibly can. I'm sure in between now and the end of the year people will see him and realise what a talent he is and my job is to make sure we protect him through that."

Postecoglou indicated that despite a feeling back in Germany that Tel sees his long term future through the centre of attack, the wing is where the Frenchman can do most damage certainly in the more immediate future.

"Initially my view was that he would probably play in a wide area for us. Once Solanke was back I'm keen to try him out there," he said. "The first game he played out wide on the left, you can see he's really comfortable there or out wide on the right. I think he'll get more opportunities there."

Postecoglou also made it clear that while people might not understand his decisions with players coming back from injury, they do not have all of the information. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were not used from the bench on Thursday because the Spurs boss was concerned about them returning on a pitch that he did not think was the best.

"Anyone who hasn’t played for the amount of time they have and the position they have, it just didn’t make sense for us, and it wasn’t that kind of game where we needed central defenders, we were trying to score goals, so in my mind there was no point," he said.

"Look, I get the whole medical thing has obviously been a big issue for us and everyone is questioning every decision I make, but with the greatest respect, everyone here and in the outside world probably has five per cent of the information I do. If people think I am just going out there and making decisions on what I feel or my gut, then I don’t think you understand the position I am in and all the information I have.

"I have all the information and I am sure if I shared all the information, which I can’t for various reasons, you might sit back and say, ‘totally understand that’, but I also understand people will question everything I do at the moment, every decision I make against the prism that I don’t know what I am doing."

So will Romero and Van de Ven be in a position to feature in the second leg against AZ next week?

"Oh, I would say so, for sure, yeah. Maybe even Sunday, we’ll see how things go," said the Tottenham boss.

Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham.

Want breaking and top Tottenham stories sent straight to you? Join our Spurs WhatsApp community by clicking this link! If you're curious you can check out our privacy policy here.