Tottenham Hotspur made it two wins from two European games this evening away to Ferencvaros, but they did it in true Tottenham Hotspur fashion.
Let’s take a look at the five things we learned from the match:
Was it vintage Ange-ball? No. Was it sexy? No. Was it uncomfortable to watch? Almost always. It may not have been Tottenham’s finest 90 minutes of football, but the Lilywhites have another three points on the board.
Given how tough the second half of fixtures are in the league phase for Spurs, getting early wins under their belt will do the squad the world of good ahead of games against the likes of Galatasaray, Roma and Rangers.
It is no coincidence that this happens so much in football – and not just to Tottenham. Flying out to another country while making five, six, seven changes to the starting line-up is enough to throw any team off their rhythm. We have seen it time and time again with Spurs in the Europa and Conference League in recent years.
No matter who you are, making changes leads to complacency and sloppiness. On the other hand, failing to make changes leads to severe fatigue. At the end of the day, if you can scrape a few wins together while changing half your team, that’s the name of the game at this stage of the competition.
The Spurs fans have been treated to a glimpse and they want Moore, Moore, Moore! Fans always like to hype up performances when it comes to youngsters on their debuts, but Moore was genuinely the best player on the pitch for the majority of the match for Tottenham.
It was exciting to see him go on some jinking, marauding runs in the first half, but it was perhaps even more exciting to see how at home he looked with the first-team stars in the second. He could have easily had a goal or an assist this evening, and perhaps deserved one too. The fact he lasted 90 minutes while the likes of Timo Werner were taken off is also a good sign that Ange likes what he sees.
Talking of Mikey Moore, he put a chance on an absolute plate for Timo Werner in the second half to make it 2-0 to Spurs. Against Man United, we saw Werner put both his one-on-ones into Onana’s chest. This time, he attempted to take it around the keeper but overran it and left himself with too much of an angle.
You can really see Werner enter panic mode when he goes through on goal, as if he doesn’t quite believe in his own skills. It’s a shame because regularly getting into those positions is a real talent of his, but he needs to calm down and trust his instincts or risk losing his place in Tottenham’s rotated XI, let alone the first-team.
Mikey Moore will take all the headlines from that match, but it should not be forgotten that Will Lankshear also made his full debut for Tottenham tonight. Much more than that, he looked a nuisance at times in and around the opposition penalty area.
The service to him wasn’t great this evening, but he went close to scoring on a couple of occasions. With a few more games under his belt, you would expect him to start tucking some of those away. He looks a real talent.
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