Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 2-3 defeat to Bayern Munich

Tottenham Hotspur suffered another defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich this evening, once again losing by a one-goal margin to the German giants.

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned:

Harry Kane’s return to Tottenham

I don’t know why Premier League teams have made such a meal of it over the years – keeping Harry Kane off the scoresheet is easy! The Spurs legend only came on for a 15-minute cameo at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but he had plenty of time to get a nice reception from the crowd and see all his old mates come the final whistle.

Even Ange Postecoglou couldn’t stand to see Kane and Son play against each other. As soon as Harry approached the touchline to come on, Ange took Son straight off. It was nice to see Kane doing a little lap of honour to say a proper goodbye to the Spurs fans too – something he didn’t get a chance to do last summer.

Returning players made a difference

The improvements in the second half came as no surprise, with Micky Van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur all coming off the bench. The two defenders in particular settled Tottenham down and allowed us to play out from the back a lot more efficiently.

Ange now has another 9 days to get them up to full fitness in time to start the match against Leicester. A good 45 minutes in the tank for all three today though.

Set pieces are still a problem for Spurs

I know it’s only pre-season but Tottenham really struggled to defend set-pieces once again today, albeit without Romero and Van de Ven on the pitch. Two of Bayern’s goals came from set-pieces, with Spurs often leaving the man at the back post completely unmarked.

Hopefully, that will improve once you swap Dragusin, Davies and Spence for a more cohesive trio of Romero, Van de Ven and Udogie. Either way, something to work on still for Tottenham.

Postecoglou’s favourite youngsters

With the full squad now back in training, there was less room on the bench for academy youngsters today, and even less time for players to actually get minutes on the pitch.

However, it appears that Will Lankshear and Mikey Moore have impressed Postecoglou most over the past month, with both players getting a decent run-out in the second half. That could hint that both will have a role to play this season.

Dejan Kulusevski is a machine

It wasn’t a great performance from Spurs today but it would be remiss not to mention the hard work of Dejan Kulusevski. Starting up front again today, he scored within 30 seconds after reacting faster than anyone to a Brennan Johnson cross. He then slotted another into the Bayern net with a real striker’s run into the box after latching onto Lucas Bergvall’s pass.

Will he play much up front this season now that Solanke has arrived? Probably not. But he has done enough to impress Ange in those central areas and I’m sure will be starting the match against Leicester in some way, shape or form.

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