so this was the Charlton B team and it felt like a pre season match except for two incidents that drew blood (!) - danso and vdv - talk about freak accidents, was a shoulder fracture last time, what next /
for the most part that match looked quite equal - spurs getting a lot of time on the ball and not pressured much during build up play and it was good to see dezerbiball starting to click... and some glimpses of the attack finally getting its chance to properly transition into full fledged attack mode, something i'd not seen for a long long time from a spurs team !
however until moore's well taken solo goal, everything kinda hit a defensive brick wall - so it looked like we'd improved but hit our next wall. the changes after actually shifted the performance to the next level - vdv and danzo actually was the solid base to build more quickly from defence, gray, fernandez and luca playing higher added a lot more tempo to the middle, and of course savinho added that creative individual genius that we've not seen since Son.
a pity we could not keep a clean sheet - but i think it will be sorted once the starting CBs are sorted.
- moore's goal looked good but he needs a loan to further improve. even with charlton B he was failing to get any crosses through. he is 19 while savio is 22 so has time on his side, and that is a tangible target for him to work towards.
- tel is looking better with 1v1s and has better penetration and crossing than moore. also very good defensively coming back deeper and holding up the ball.
- solanke's half turns and fake turns was excellent, richy must have seen that and hated it knowing that he spurned his chances of staking a claim in the starting run up
- bergvall and gray looked comfortable - and great for their age - but i can't help but feel they need to develop a super-power to elevate them to the next level soon
- bentancur, porro, fernandez, savio - all ballers and they just know when to speed up or pass a ball with pace to initiate an attack or just attack space. there's something about "owning' the tempo of the game that is so satisfying to watch. fernandez and savio are very expensive but justified as we can aford it i guess.
- luca has very good movement, awareness and is fast. i personally feel he has a higher floor than moore already, and also higher ceiling. too bad he didn't have a chance to show off his dribbling but him and fernandez pressing together added some presence and pressure to force charlton to play quickly. i believe he is too young for a loan but i hope rdz keeps him in the men's team for direct development and integration
also kudos to rdz for getting the young ones a lot and managing the introductions of senior players. hopefully we will see a stronger starting line up this weekend - we will need it as Saudi Sportswashing Machine is already 100% fit and playing some very fast football already.
