It felt like a move to future Spurs tonight (although note - when Poch has an opportunity to say exactly that in the post match after being teed up, he didn’t say it. He continues to defend the group as a group. He’s still being the leader, protecting all the egos until the point that through his actions he removes them.)
But just really nice to see. Every player on the pitch has a reason to be there. Aurier wanted to leave, but it’s not like he’s ever had real success here, and it’s not like he’d go to anywhere near a better club than us, so there’s still a lot in it for him to try to succeed here. Jan has never felt like Toby, it’s always felt more likely he could get an extention. Great seeing Davies and Sanchez back instead of Rose and Toby. And the rest of the team, great to see them performing well. All motivated, all want to be here. Eriksen on the bench and Lamela showing we don’t need him on to play some nice football.
Yes it was only Red Star, but we’ve quite easily turned in terrible performances against worse teams, so this is a positive. It doesn’t feel like a group that has given up, but it does feel like a group that is more fully committed to being here long term. Even the players he wanted to make sure had minutes are ones I expect he counts on their loyalty for the long term. It felt like something of a shift tonight; and it will be interesting to see if and how he includes Toby, Rose and Eriksen going forward.
