Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 5-1 pre-season win over Hearts
Tottenham Hotspur were finally back in action this evening as they took on Hearts in their first pre-season friendly of the summer, putting five past the Scottish Premier League side in a 5-1 win.
Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:
Centre-backs? You can’t handle the centre-backs!
Believe it or not, Ange Postecoglou started with a back four of Pedro Porro, Archie Gray, Oliver Skipp and Jamie Donley – a right-back, two centre-mids, and a forward.
With Cristian Romero, Micky Van de Ven and Radu Dragusin all on international duty this summer, Ben Davies nowhere to be seen, and Ashley Phillips on the bench, there were no centre-backs available to start. A bit of a freak incident but it does show that Spurs maybe need one more.
Missing players for Spurs
Of course, we were expecting the likes of Micky Van de Ven and Cristian Romero, as well as the other Euros and Copa America players, to be missing today.
However, it appears Spurs are still without Destiny Udogie, Fraser Forster, Richarlison and Ben Davies, all of whom missed out on the matchday squad altogether against Hearts. Hopefully, Spurs can get them back fit in time for the new season.
Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall debuts
Not professional debuts, but on-screen debuts nonetheless. Archie Gray started the match at centre-back to cover for the missing Spurs players and actually looked really solid – to the point that one of his tackles actually punctured the ball. You can see how comfortable on the ball he is and that he is more than willing to get stuck in. He may be young, but I have a feeling he could break into the starting XI this season.
Bergvall came on at half-time and ran the midfield for Spurs in the second 45, picking the ball up in all kinds of positions. His cross to create the fifth goal was perhaps the highlight, but he also assisted Mikey Moore with a delightful through ball too. The future looks very exciting!
Jamie Donley as an inverted left-back
You could definitely see that there were a bunch of square pegs in round holes out there today, including Skipp and Gray at centre-back, but the case of Jamie Donley was an interesting one. Donley started the behind-closed-doors friendly against Cambridge at left-back too, in the absence of Udogie and Davies.
Being left-footed and extremely skilful in those inverted midfield positions, there is certainly method to the madness, and Donley actually looked really impressive this evening against Hearts. This could be something to look out for.
Sharp in attack for Spurs
Postecoglou started with a front line of Heung-min Son, Brennan Johnson and Manor Solomon, with Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison both occupying number ten positions at times. I know it is only pre-season and against lesser opposition, but the lads look sharp already!
There were so many instances in which a few one-touch triangles got Tottenham from the edge of the final third into the opposition box, including for Johnson’s opening goal. Kulusevski in particular was full of flicks and tricks to open up the Hearts defence. That can only be a positive sign as Spurs build toward the start of the season.
The funny thing was that the youngsters looked even more impressive in the second half than the Tottenham first team, with Moore, Bergvall, Lankshear and even Djed Spence starring.
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