Despite going a man down in just the seventh minute, Tottenham Hotspur picked up their third win on the bounce against Qarabağ FK on Thursday night.
Ange Postecoglou’s side had a rough start to the season this year, with just seven points from a possible 15, but following their win in the Europa League, it looks like they may have just turned things around.
Brennan Johnson has found his goalscoring boots, Guglielmo Vicario is back in fine form, and Dominic Solanke is well and truly off the mark.
However, one of the few negatives to come out of the victory against the Azerbaijani champions is that club captain Son Heung-min was forced off in the 71st minute and, according to the manager, could miss out on the game against Manchester United tomorrow afternoon.
While this is far from ideal, Postecoglou has several options to solve this potential issue.
1 Relocate Dejan Kulusevski
Yes, perhaps one of the more likely solutions the Australian could consider tomorrow afternoon is to start Swedish international Dejan Kulusevski off the left of the front three.
Now, it is true that the former Juventus star is far more accustomed to playing off the right and even in the centre, for that matter, but he has played in Son’s position before.
In fact, he has started there 13 times in his career – including twice at Spurs – scoring twice and providing three assists, equating to a goal involvement on average every 2.6 games.
Moreover, the “special, special player,” as Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir dubbed him, is naturally left-footed, which should at least help with the transition, which, with his immaculate technical ability, should already be rather easy.
It might not be the perfect solution, but moving Kulusevski to the left certainly seems like it would help keep the quality of the starting lineup relatively high.
2 Hand Mikey Moore his first start
Now admittedly, this one might be a tad unlikely, but if the captain is unable to play and Postecoglou wants to keep Kulusevski either on the right or in midfield, then why not give Mikey Moore his first start?
Yes, given it’s United away, it would be an almighty show of faith in the 17-year-old, but as the saying goes, if they’re good enough, they’re old enough, and by all accounts, it looks like he is.
Appearances
24
4
5
Goals
19
1
0
Assists
13
2
0
Goal Involvements per Match
1.33
0.75
0.00
For example, in just 33 appearances for the club’s various youth sides, the youngster whom U23 scout Antonio Mango claimed was “born to play football” has scored 20 goals and provided 15 assists, equating to a mind-blowing average of a goal involvement every 0.94 games.
Moreover, unlike with the first suggestion, the Southwark-born has played plenty of football off the left, meaning he should be able to come into the set-up with minimal fuss and show the league what he is all about.
Ultimately, this would be the bold, perhaps even foolish option, but as Spurs fans will surely attest, to dare is to do.
3 Bring back Timo Werner
The final option, starting Timo Werner, is probably just as likely as the first, if not a little bit more, but we’d hazard a guess about it being the least popular among the fans, and by quite some way at that.
It would be fair to say that since his loan deal was extended for another year, the German international has not impressed in North London.
In his five appearances so far, totalling 131 minutes, the former Chelsea ace hasn’t scored or assisted a goal, and in his one start against Coventry City, he was quite abysmal, picking up a 2/10 match rating from Spurs writer Alasdair Gold for his troubles.
Ultimately, if Son is unable to take part tomorrow afternoon, then Postecoglou is going to have to come up with a solution, and while he might be tempted to bring in Werner for his second start of the campaign, he would be much better off going with Kulusevski, or gambling on Moore.
15x ball lost, 0 key passes: Ange must now boldly drop 5/10 Spurs ace
The experienced international put in an erratic display.
ByJack Salveson HolmesSep 27, 2024