The New York Times

When Cristian Romero put his head in his hands, it was perhaps an admission of guilt for the role he had just played in Danny Welbeck’s winning goal for Brighton & Hove Albion against Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday.

As Georginio Rutter powered past Destiny Udogie and Rodrigo Bentancur to loft a cross into the Spurs box, Romero stood still. Welbeck spun into space between Romero and Pedro Porro before jumping unchallenged to head the ball past Guglielmo Vicario. Romero did not look over his shoulder once during the build-up to check on Welbeck’s movement.

When Spurs lost 3-2 at home against Arsenal in April, Romero was the only player to emerge with any credit. The centre-back hit the woodwork twice in the first half, harassed Arsenal’s forwards and scored the goal which briefly brought his team hope of an improbable recovery having been 3-0 down at half-time.

“He was outstanding,” Ange Postecoglou said of Romero in his post-match press conference following that loss. “He’s a World Cup winner and I’ve just got to get some of what’s in him into some of the others.”

Romero added another medal to his collection in the summer as he won the Copa America with Argentina for the second time. He started all but one of their matches, sitting out a 2-0 victory over Peru in the group stage as they had already qualified for the quarter-finals, and made several important contributions.

He is one of Tottenham’s vice-captains and among their most experienced players. The 26-year-old is the oldest member of Postecoglou’s first-choice back four alongside Micky van de Ven (23), Udogie (21) and Porro (25). But that crucial lapse of concentration against Brighton (see below) has left some fans questioning his place in the starting XI.

And that is because it is not an isolated incident.

There have been other occasions this season when Romero could be argued to be at least partly to blame for Spurs conceding. In the opening game against Leicester City, for example, he left Jamie Vardy unmarked at the back post…

In the 2-1 defeat by Newcastle United at St James Park, Romero was caught out of position for both goals. For Harvey Barnes’ 37th-minute strike, Romero chased a clearance from a free kick and then failed to recover in time after Newcastle took a quick throw-in.

For Alexander Isak’s winner, when the rest of the defence dropped in anticipation of Joelinton’s through ball for Jacob Murphy, Romero stepped up. Murphy ran through on goal before setting up Isak for a simple finish. Romero was miles away.

In the 1-0 defeat by Arsenal in September, Gabriel barged past Romero to score the winner from Bukayo Saka’s corner. And the defender’s instant reaction was to turn to the referee to complain about being pushed instead of taking responsibility.

During Romero’s first couple of seasons with Tottenham, after joining from Italian side Atalanta in August 2021, he was often guilty of being erratic. He was sent off on multiple occasions, including in the second leg of a last-16 Champions League tie against AC Milan in March 2023 when Spurs were losing 1-0 on aggregate.

The centre-back seemed to grow and mature with the responsibility of being named vice-captain by Postecoglou last year, although he behaved rashly in the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea, kicking Levi Colwill off the ball before being sent off for a studs-up challenge on Enzo Fernandez. But he was generally far more reliable.

Tottenham conceded 61 goals in the top-flight last season as they adjusted to Postecoglou’s system but Romero forged a promising partnership with Van de Ven. Their skill sets complement each other perfectly. Romero is the aggressor who pushes up to win possession while Van de Ven uses his remarkable recovery speed to sweep up any through balls over the top. Postecoglou’s side won eight of their first 11 games last season and the pair started all of them together.

The graphic below shows that Romero’s “active” defensive actions — which include “true” tackles (ie, tackles attempted plus fouls plus challenges lost) and “true” interceptions (ie, interceptions plus blocked passes) — from last season, 10.1 per 1,000 opponent touches, placed him as the third-most active defender in the Premier League.

Maybe one of the reasons why Romero has underperformed this season is because he did not benefit from an extended break in the summer. Argentina beat Colombia in the final of the Copa America on July 14 and within three weeks he was back at Tottenham’s training ground for pre-season. Would anybody blame him if he felt physically and mentally fatigued?

Romero’s social media accounts provide us with a clue. A couple of days before the 1-1 draw with Leicester, he reposted a video on X of Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti talking about giving holidays to players during the season.

“The players need rest,” Ancelotti said in the clip. “We are thinking about giving in-season breaks, give a week off for a player so he can go and stay with his family — especially international players, who have very little rest because they usually don’t get even a day’s holiday in international breaks.”

Spurs only played 41 games last season as they were not in European competition and were knocked out in the second round of the Carabao Cup and the fourth round of the FA Cup. Their qualification for this season’s expanded version of the Europa League means they will have to cope with a much busier schedule.

Romero will travel with Argentina to Venezuela during the international break before they host Bolivia tonight. Since making his debut for Argentina in June 2021, he has largely been an integral part of Lionel Scaloni’s team. He started the final of the Copa America a month after his debut and helped his team beat Brazil 1-0, then featured in all of their knockout games at the World Cup in 2022, including the final against France. Romero has made 38 appearances for his country in just over three years. And those minutes all add up.

Tottenham spent £25million ($37.m) on Radu Draugsin in January to provide cover for Romero and Van de Ven. The problem is that Postecoglou has used him sparingly. Spurs fought off competition from Bayern Munich to sign Dragusin from Genoa but he has only made 11 appearances in the Premier League for a combined total of 523 minutes, according to Opta.

The 22-year-old performed excellently for Romania at the European Championship and flew out for the second half of Tottenham’s pre-season tour to Japan and South Korea. It might have made more sense for Dragusin to start against Leicester to allow Romero extra time to reach full fitness. The only top-flight game he has started this campaign was against Newcastle when Van de Ven was injured.

Dragusin’s clumsy red card against Qarabag in the seventh minute has not helped his cause. It meant he missed the majority of that game and was suspended for the 3-0 victory over Ferencvaros. The knock-on effect of Dragusin’s dismissal meant that Romero started with Archie Gray at centre-back in Budapest — compounding the original problem.

Tottenham’s first game after the international break is a Saturday lunchtime kick-off against West Ham. It means Romero, and the other players on international duty, will have even less time than normal to recover.

It could be the perfect opportunity to start Dragusin and give Romero a breather. It might be exactly what he needs to rediscover his best form.

Additional reporting: Mark Carey

(Top photo: Sebastian Frej/Getty Images)

My Football Journey: The Road To 2026 is a series following some of the most exciting young footballers in the world through a key stage in their careers.

It will chart the highs, the setbacks and the hard work that they and their clubs are putting in and show how different their journeys are as they dream of making it to the 2026 World Cup. Links to all of those featured can be found here, with this installment being our second interview with young English midfielder Alfie Devine.

Alfie Devine is growing up. The boy who, at 16 years and 163 days, scored for Tottenham Hotspur live on national television in the FA Cup, becoming their youngest-ever goalscorer, turned 20 in August. No longer a boy, he is a young man.

Tottenham have sent Devine on loan for a season in Belgium’s top division with Westerlo. He is yet to establish himself as a first-team presence at his parent club but, since his first conversation in this series, he has made a senior appearance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, also in the FA Cup; one of many firsts he has experienced.

Still a teenager when this season began, Devine is changing physically and emotionally, as well as geographically, as he moves into adulthood. He is, for example, around 6kg (13lb) heavier than a year ago after putting on “good weight”, as he calls it, and is maturing in the fiercely competitive world of the club professional.

Youth teams games are gone; Devine has progressed through Spurs’ under-21s and under-23s to a loan in League One, the third tier of English football, with Port Vale and another in the Championship, the second division, with Plymouth Argyle. He has played, and scored, for England at an Under-20s World Cup. Today he is four games into this loan with Westerlo, who sit sixth in the Belgian Pro League after 10 games.

Devine has seen from the inside of a dressing room post-match what “men’s football” is all about; the desire to win, sometimes the need to win. He speaks of “feeling” and “rhythm” and “experiences, good and bad”. He has scored his first league goal, he has received his first red card. He has seen a first manager dismissed while he is at a club, he has endured his first online abuse.

These are all parts of an education he views with notable objectivity.

Devine has also been on summer pre-season tours with Tottenham, in 2023 and this year and, while playing on both, at the end he has had “honest” chats with head coach Ange Postecoglou about his development. He has willingly gone on loan.

That meant in August last year, as Devine turned 19, a Zoom call with Port Vale coach Andy Crosby and, soon, a 15-minute debut as the club from the English Midlands tried to see out a 1-0 lead against Carlisle United.

Was this significantly different to what he had experienced before?

“Yeah. Yeah, it was,” Devine says. “I was sort of defending for the whole 15 minutes and, just from those minutes, I knew what it meant to get points in the league. When the whistle went, you hear the fans, it’s definitely a different type of feeling. You feel involved, you play a part you haven’t experienced before. Men’s football — it’s intense.”

The relentlessness of League football is an added personal experience.

One week on, Vale were away against Oxford United. The hosts had a man sent off and Vale took the lead six minutes after Devine’s introduction from the bench. Vale sought a second consecutive 1-0 win, then Oxford equalised three minutes into added time.

Devine reacted by passing to Ben Garrity, who was fouled in the Oxford penalty area. Devine was not prepared for what happened next.

“It was a penalty,” he says. “They were down to 10 men and it was 1-1. I was just happy we had a pen and I’d played a part. I didn’t know who the penalty taker was (supposed to be) — I just assumed it was someone who’d been there a long time or one of the strikers.

“It didn’t cross my mind that I’d be anywhere near in contention to take it. I was just stood around and no one was getting the ball. Then the manager shouted for me to take it, and you don’t really have time to process you’re taking a penalty in the last minute.

“From when I put the ball down to taking it, it felt like about 20 minutes. I hadn’t even taken a penalty, not for the 18s or 21s. In nets was James Beadle, who was at the Under-20s World Cup with England, and each day after training we’d practise penalties. So I was thinking to myself, ‘Well, he knows where I go. Do I change or stick?’.

“In the end, I changed; went to the ’keeper’s left — and if he’d gone that way he would have saved it because it wasn’t in the corner. At the end, he came up to me and said, ‘I swear you always go to the other side’.

“I told him, ‘I normally do, but you’ve just given me the reason why I didn’t’.

“It was good — another feeling and experience that I’d not had before. All very new. It’s a memory I’ll always have.”

Life was good, Vale were in an early-season promotion spot and Devine had settled in. But then they started losing and Devine saw another side of professional reality. The situation affected him.

“You can definitely feel a difference,” he says of the older players around him. “It’s right after the game in the changing room, you know more what it means to them when you lose.

“There was a long period where we didn’t get a win. Then I was left out. There were two games where I was brought off after 45 minutes. I was thinking this was going horribly, horribly wrong. It knocks your confidence a lot. Especially in those leagues, you need to get into a rhythm of playing and playing and playing. That’s when you play your best.

“Then we played Cheltenham at home (in late October) and I started and scored. Then (three days later) we had Mansfield (from League Two, a division below Vale) away in the last 16 in the Carabao Cup. I started and scored again. Looking back, that goal against Cheltenham brought the confidence back. From then onwards, I was playing my best stuff. I was in the centre of the pitch, where I am much more comfortable, not out wide cutting in. I was one of the No 8s or deeper and I enjoyed it.

“Even if we went 1-0 down, I was enjoying the feeling of being on the pitch and trying to do something about it, being and feeling confident in my rhythm.”

Devine was focused on staying at Vale for the full season but, come January, Ian Foster, who had been his England coach, was appointed manager of second-tier Plymouth. Devine sent him a good luck text. Just under a fortnight later, Foster returned the contact and, within 24 hours, Devine was on loan at Plymouth.

“It didn’t cross my mind to go there,” he says. “I was very much set on finishing the season at Port Vale. I was now playing every week, and in a position I was enjoying. Then I got a call from ‘Fozzy’ and it happened within a day. I didn’t need a Zoom call. I already knew the manager; how he played; what he wanted, around the building and in training. I’d been with him for almost three years.

“For Tottenham, it was me getting a step up to the Championship.”

It seemed a neat fit, but it went wrong quickly for Foster. On April 1, after a 1-0 home defeat by Bristol City, he was sacked. Devine started that game, but was shown a yellow card and then, 12 minutes from time, a red.

“You feel awful,” he says of his first sending-off. “Many players go through it, but the sort of time Plymouth were in, it was definitely not what they needed. I thought I was playing one of my best games in a while. Then one moment of losing concentration, a bit of frustration… it was a second yellow, but I was going to win the ball.”

Was he in the dressing room on his own?

“Yeah. It was 10 minutes until the game finished. It felt like an hour. You realise what you’ve done, what’s happened and you can still hear the game going on. It’s not a nice feeling.”

Plymouth were by then in a relegation battle. For a club’s players and staff, wages and jobs are on the line. Devine was witnessing professional stress up close. It is not a relaxed environment.

“The mood is going to be like that if you get beat. If a player isn’t like that, then unfortunately the job isn’t for them,” he says. “Losing is not a nice feeling. The good thing is that, in League One and the Championship, if you get beat on the Saturday, you generally have a game on the Tuesday to put it right (clubs in those divisions play 46-match regular seasons compared to 38 in the Premier League). You can be disappointed for a bit, but you can’t be disappointed too long. And you’re not going to win every game.

“But having those bad feelings, you learn 10 times more from them. Don’t get me wrong, you need the good feelings in football, but the earlier you have bad experiences, the better you’ll deal with them.”

On the season’s final day, Plymouth, one place above the relegation zone at kick-off, were at home against a Hull City side trying to make the promotion play-offs. Devine was selected in the starting XI by interim manager Neil Dewsnip. He played 83 minutes of a 1-0 win that kept Plymouth up.

There was joy and relief all around, although Devine describes the day as “weird in a way”.

Born in Warrington, between Liverpool and Manchester, in August 2004, he is part of the first generation to have lived their entire childhood in the grip of mobile phones and the intrusion of social media. Even before the red card a month earlier, he had seen some online negativity; following it, criticism increased. Now, in Plymouth’s biggest moment of the season, he was chosen to start.

“I didn’t expect to,” he says. “I hadn’t started since the red card. After it, I played 45 minutes (in the third-last game), then five minutes (in the next). I didn’t think there was a chance I’d be starting.

“But leading up to the game, I’d had a really good training week. Then the manager told me he was going to start me. It was just excitement then.

“But going through those periods, as a footballer going into that Hull game, it’s not just the game. You see what’s happened with (Tottenham colleague) Brennan Johnson recently — he’s taken himself off social media and he’s scored five goals in as many games. He was getting criticism he nowhere-near deserved. Footballers do see stuff, even though you don’t want to. I saw so much and it does knock your confidence.

“The manager trusted me to play. It was the most important game I’d played in. I was playing in the position I wanted to play in and I felt it was the best game I played for Plymouth. After, the main feeling was happiness for the club, fans, team-mates. Plymouth deserved to stay up — I think it’s an amazing club. But, also, there was a bit of, ‘Well, I’ve proved a few people wrong. They said I couldn’t perform like that’.

“It’s another thing you learn. What I’ve realised is that you can have a really good game and there’ll be loads of people (who) say you haven’t. You can have your best game and someone can go online and say (about you), ‘I never want this person to play for the club again.’ You realise you’re in a completely different football world. You’re not in the 21s where, if you have a bad game, people aren’t going to go online and say you should never play for the under-21s again.

“It’s weird — they’re showing how much it means to them, but in the wrong way.

“Unfortunately, every footballer will have to accept it, because it’s not going away, is it? I have an Instagram account. I don’t have a Twitter account (as such) but I still have an account to look at it. You tell yourself you’re not going to look. Unfortunately, you do, because that’s the way we are.”

Devine played his first game for Westerlo, based in the northern Belgian town of that name, a fortnight after his 20th birthday. It was against Anderlecht of Brussels and he was a half-time substitute. Aston Villa loanee Leander Dendoncker was up against him in midfield. In his second game, against Royal Antwerp, former Spurs defender Toby Alderweireld played and scored twice, the second a 90th-minute winner. Devine didn’t think it an occasion to reminisce about Tottenham together.

Last Friday, he had another 90 minutes in an eventful 2-2 draw with Beerschot. There was another Spurs connection — Westerlo’s two late goals were scored by Luka Vuskovic, a 17-year-old defender on loan from Hajduk Split of Croatia; Vuskovic has already agreed to join Tottenham next summer for a reported £12million ($15.7m) fee.

Devine is impressed with Westerlo, both the club and the town of around 25,000 people an hour’s drive east of Antwerp. He has an apartment on his own 10 minutes from the training ground and his family have been over to visit. As he points out, he has lived away from home since he joined Spurs from Wigan Athletic at age 15 and Plymouth, in the far south-west of England, is a six-hour drive from his parents’ house, so independence and travel have been major pieces of his young life already.

Going abroad was in his head this summer. And for Spurs? “For them, it’s all about football, about development. It’s not about living abroad. It’s different: you’re going abroad, but it’s still football. Every decision will always be a football decision.”

There have been no shocks, though one football surprise has been the amount of running in training.

“I knew a bit about the league because it has some big clubs in it, but I didn’t really know how different it is,” Devine says. “Other players said there’s a lot of running and, when I’ve played, I realised the games are end-to-end. When you get your data back, you realise how much you’ve done in terms of mileage.

“There’s loads of tactical stuff as well, a good balance; there’s tactics behind the running. Positionally, it’s similar to when I was at Port Vale, where I was playing as one of three centre mids with a back five, a 5-3-2. Here, without the ball, the midfield goes man-for-man, not just at a goal kick, but in open play. That’s something new for me. It means concentrating.”

He is not anticipating another January transfer intervention, as happened at Vale in this year’s winter window: “No, it’s a season-long loan. I have no intentions of coming back (to Tottenham) in January and going somewhere else. I just want to keep playing and keep improving and, so far, Westerlo are giving me that opportunity.”

Both Dendoncker and Alderweireld weigh almost 80kg and Devine has felt a need to add some bulk, though not to “smash the gym”. He laughed at the recent Bernardo Silva YouTube clip with Manchester City team-mate Ruben Dias.

“You learn more about your body and what you need to perform your best in men’s football,” he adds. “Speaking with Tottenham, from the end of last season I’ve put muscle on, put weight on — good weight — and you feel the impact. Some players don’t need that. Everyone’s different. When I weigh myself here, I’m around 72kg. It’s a mix of gym work and diet. My body fats are similar.

“When I was 66kg, it wasn’t where my body needed to be. It’s natural when you’re playing and training that you’ll put on muscle. I didn’t do it as much at Port Vale and Plymouth. I spoke to Tottenham, I knew it was something I hadn’t kept an eye on. I was just all about playing, playing. I’m not going to go to the gym all the time and get massive — that’s not what I’m thinking. But as you mature and grow up, you understand what your body needs.”

GO DEEPER

Are you entertained? Ange Postecoglou and the contradictory nature of football fandom

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

English football’s refereeing chief Howard Webb says Bruno Fernandes’ incorrect red card against Tottenham Hotspur was not overturned on the day because the video assistant referee (VAR) mistakenly thought the decision did not meet the threshold for an on-field review.

Manchester United captain Fernandes was sent off late in the first half of his side’s 3-0 home defeat against Spurs on September 29, when his team were only 1-0 down, for a challenge on James Maddison, but United successfully appealed the decision and the red card was overturned.

The VAR audio from the fixture has now been released by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), English football’s professional refereeing body, on the Match Officials Mic’d Up show aired on Tuesday by UK broadcasters Sky Sports and TNT Sports.

The audio has an unidentified assistant referee (AR1 in the transcript below) initially informing referee Chris Kavanagh that Fernandes’ challenge is “100 per cent” a red card.

VAR Peter Bankes and assistant VAR Simon Long (AVAR in the transcript) then re-watch the incident from several angles, questioning how high the challenge is, whether Fernandes’ studs were used and whether there was any attempt to win the ball. Their conclusion is to stick with Kavanagh’s on-field decision of a dismissal for serious foul play.

According to PGMOL, fouls fall into the category of “subjective decisions”, meaning there has to be a clear and obvious error for the VAR to take action. But Webb, chief refereeing officer at PGMOL, explained that as Fernandes’ challenge did not involve excessive force and did not endanger Maddison, the on-field call was incorrect and that a pitchside review should have been recommended.

VAR audio transcript

AR1: That’s awful, that’s a red card for me. Red card, 100 per cent.

VAR: So, it’s a high foot, it’s not studs. It’s shin height. Does he rake down? It’s a deliberate act, he’s made no attempt to play the ball. The angle you’ll start seeing on broadcast doesn’t necessarily show it’s with studs.

AVAR: There is a slip but then there’s an action that makes contact with the shin.

VAR: I think ref’s call.

AVAR: Yeah.

VAR: Kav (addressing referee Kavanagh), I’m confirming the on-field decision of red card, serious foul play. Check complete.

“Yes, it was (a mistake on the day),” Webb tells the show’s host, former England striker Michael Owen. “The red card was correctly overturned on appeal. We hear on the audio the assistant referee coming with the information around this being, from his position, a red-card offence and the referee takes his advice and issues the red.

“When you look back on the footage, you see that the contact is high and Bruno Fernandes slips first and puts his foot out to stop Maddison. It’s not an attempt for the ball, from the assistant referee’s position — he’s got a good view, a nice open view, a better viewing angle than what the referee has got — (it) looks like there are studs there going into the shin, and if there is it would be a red card, but it’s just a slight misread.

“When the VAR checks it, he forms the opinion that the ‘referee’s call’ is not clearly wrong because he sees the action with the high contact, no attempt to play the ball, with some force and therefore decides in his professional judgment that the ‘referee’s call’ is not clearly wrong.

“I think it is (wrong). I think, because it’s (with) the side of the foot, there’s absolutely no studs, there’s no driving the foot into the opponent, it’s more of a tripping action. There’s no excessive force, there’s no endangering the safety of Maddison.

“When you have the benefit of seeing this in the way we can here, we think this should have been an intervention. The VAR supported the on-field call — the referee’s call — and shouldn’t have done, and should have sent the referee to the screen to see this angle.”

Webb continues: “We’ve debriefed this, I’ve spoken to the VAR (Bankes). He accepts the referee’s call in this case was clearly wrong. In the moment he formed the opinion, it wasn’t at that threshold. This one was an error and the learning is taken from it. The key thing here is the contact doesn’t have excessive force and it doesn’t endanger the safety of the opponent, even though I understand why the on-field officials thought, in real time, it was.”

PGMOL guidelines state the VAR will intervene “if the evidence readily available from the broadcast footage shows that the referee’s on-field call is clearly and obviously wrong”.

Fernandes had his three-game suspension lifted after the Football Association (FA) upheld United’s claim of “wrongful dismissal”.

The FA handbook says a player is guilty of serious foul play if he “uses excessive force or brutality against an opponent when challenging for the ball when it is in play” or “a tackle that endangers the safety of an opponent must be sanctioned as serious foul play”.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Ryan Mason is in talks with Anderlecht about their vacant manager’s position.

Mason is a contender to take over at the Belgian club, who dismissed Danish manager Brian Riemer last month.

The 33-year-old has been coaching at Tottenham since April 2018, soon after he was forced to retire from playing early following a head injury.

He has had two separate spells in interim charge of the first team. Firstly at the end of the 2020-21 season following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho, a spell that included the 2021 League Cup final.

Mason took the reigns again at the end of the 2022-23 season, taking over from Cristian Stellini, having taken the team alongside Stellini following Antonio Conte’s dismissal.

Since the arrival of Ange Postecoglou in the summer of 2023, Mason has been part of his coaching staff, given responsibility by Postecoglou for taking training sessions.

If Mason takes the job it would be the latest change in Spurs’ coaching staff following the departure of Chris Davies for Birmingham City last summer, and the arrival of Nick Montgomery and Sergio Raimundo.

Mason started his playing career at Tottenham and was a first-team regular under Mauricio Pochettino before leaving for Hull City in 2016.

GO DEEPER

Are you entertained? Ange Postecoglou and the contradictory nature of football fandom

(Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s Premier League football.

This was the weekend when Arsenal and Manchester City recovered from early scares to seal important wins, Leicester got their first victory of the season, Manchester United and Aston Villa served up one of the most boring games you’ll ever watch and Brentford blitzed Wolves.

Here we will ask whether Arne Slot’s Liverpool can win the title despite their lack of spending, what conclusions can be drawn about a deeply confusing Tottenham and salute the staying power of Michail Antonio.

Have Liverpool got enough to challenge City?

In the summer of 2016, when Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City, they spent something in the region of £135million ($177m at current rates) on new players which included Nolito, Ilkay Gundogan and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.

The same summer Liverpool shelled out a little under £70million, signing Sadio Mane and Gini Wijnaldum among others, to complement the appointment of Jurgen Klopp during the previous season.

Again in 2016 (a busy year in both the managerial and transfer market), Chelsea helped Antonio Conte settle in by spending a little under £120million, £32million of which went on N’Golo Kante.

We could go on, way back through the years, but these are the last three managers to win the Premier League, and it illustrates well enough that when managers take big jobs, it’s usually accompanied with their club spending quite a lot of money, which more often than not will include recruiting players very much suited to the new boss’s style.

That wasn’t the case this summer at Liverpool. Arne Slot’s task in succeeding their most transformational manager since Bill Shankly was always going to be pretty tough, but after barely spending anything, and not bringing in at least one player key to the manager’s approach, it looked even tougher. Their only senior signing was Federico Chiesa, in the closing stages of the window, and that was an opportunistic move rather than part of a grand plan.

But Slot is seven Premier League games in and, aside from the one hiccup against Nottingham Forest, it could barely have gone better. The win over Crystal Palace this weekend won’t go down as one of the great Liverpool performances, but the victory leaves them with 18 points and top of the table at the second international break.

The caveat is that their fixture list has been kind (their highest-placed opponent so far has been tenth-placed Forest) but Slot has exceeded expectations, and will inevitably lead us to ask whether they are true title contenders in what was supposed to be a transitional season.

They could well be, given the possible fragility of Manchester City. Granted, suggesting Guardiola’s side look vulnerable is a dangerous game, as they have a tendency to make prophets of doom look extremely silly, but with the absence of Rodri, the points they’ve dropped so far, plus the pressure of Arsenal and Liverpool, is this finally the season they slip?

Can anyone be certain about Tottenham?

It’s easy to think, especially if you spend too much time on the internet, that everyone is absolutely certain of everything these days. Opinions are strident, takes are white hot, the fear of not having a clear position on something can often be interpreted as some sort of weakness.

But if anyone can draw together a definitive, clear, certain opinion about Tottenham Hotspur, then hats off, you have my admiration. Because they seem to be a deeply, deeply confusing football team.

The game against Brighton was exhibit A in this theatre of uncertainty. In the first half, they were fluid, clinical, certain and full of purpose. They scored one goal and had another disallowed for a narrow offside. Brighton were floundering.

In the second, everything flipped. From the moment Yankuba Minteh scored Brighton’s first you essentially knew how the next half an hour or so would go. It was 3-2 in quick time, and from that point it never really looked like Spurs would come back.

On Sky Sports after the game, former Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov speculated that they became complacent at half-time, assuming the game was won, which explains their mental as much as tactical collapse. In his post-match interview, Ange Postecoglou didn’t do much to dispel that theory.

“We got carried away,” Postecoglou said. “In the second half, we kind of accepted our fate, which is quite hard to understand because we haven’t done that since I’ve got here. When you do that, you pay the price.

“It’s a terrible loss for us, as bad as it gets, and that’s my responsibility.”

So which one is the real Tottenham? The incisive, alpha dogs of the first 45 minutes, or the shuffling, blind puppies of the second? Maybe it’s both, and the reason why it’s difficult to come up with a definitive conclusion about Postecoglou’s Tottenham is that there isn’t one. Two things can be true at once — in broad brushstrokes, they can be brilliant and they can be utterly awful — which is good news for the amateur philosophers among us, but not so great for Tottenham.

Had they even managed to pair their first-half excellence with some second-half basic competence, they would be skipping into the international break in sixth place, just a point off the top four. As it is they are ninth, level on points with Nottingham Forest and have left their fans and manager stewing, the consequences of this defeat sticking with them like a nasty headache.

Why is Antonio still West Ham’s most reliable striker?

The world was a very different place when Michail Antonio signed for West Ham United in the summer of 2015.

But some things have stayed the same. Such as the Hammers’ perennial centre-forward problem.

This had been going since before Antonio arrived. Since they were promoted back to the Premier League in 2012, their inability to find — and hold onto — a reliable No 9 has been remarkable. Diafra Sakho scored 10 league goals in 2014-15 but then only managed eight over the following three seasons, and Marko Arnautovic got 11 and 10 in 2017-18 and 2018-19 before catching whiff of the riches of the Chinese Super League. Beyond that, their most reliable sources of goals have been either midfielders or repurposed wingers.

In the nine years since Antonio arrived, West Ham have signed 13 genuine strikers. They are Nikica Jelavic, Simone Zaza, Ashley Fletcher, Jonathan Calleri, Andre Ayew, Jordan Hugill, Arnautovic, Javier Hernandez, Lucas Perez, Sebastian Haller, Danny Ings, Gianluca Scamacca and Niclas Fullkrug.

Perhaps you can quibble with some of the categorisations in that list, and it doesn’t include players like Jarrod Bowen, sometimes used as a striker but a winger by trade.

But none of those 13 players have stuck — according to Transfermarkt, they have cost in the region of £175million — and between them scored 68 Premier League goals.

Number of Premier League goals scored by Antonio, after his opener against Ipswich on Saturday? 68.

It’s a neat statistical coincidence, but it illustrates his powers of longevity, determination and adaptability, and is also an indictment of West Ham’s transfer policy. Perhaps Fullkrug will come good, but once again this season it feels like West Ham will be looking around for a No 9, find that the cupboard is bare and return to old faithful, Michail Antonio, who will continue scoring goals.

Coming up

It’s easy to think of the men’s international break as a complete footballing wasteland, and it does perhaps represent a good time to take a deep breath, have some time off from the game and participate in some other pursuits. But if you insist on sticking with it, there is still plenty to hold your attention:

This game promised goals — and it delivered.

Leading 2-0 at half-time, Tottenham Hotspur suffered a terrible start to the second half as Brighton surged into a 3-2 lead by the 66th minute.

Both teams’ use of a high defensive line was highlighted before kick-off and there were early chances at both ends before Brennan Johnson continued his remarkable form by scoring in a sixth consecutive match in all competitions — the first Spurs player to do so since Harry Kane.

James Maddison then doubled Spurs’ lead after more impressive link-up play from Dominic Solanke before Yankuba Minteh took advantage of a Destiny Udogie error to begin the comeback. Further goals from Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck completed the turnaround.

Jack Pitt-Brooke and Anantaajith Raghuraman break down the action from the Amex Stadium.

How did Spurs let the lead slip?

At half-time, it might have looked to some as if the game was over and Spurs were on their way to a sixth straight win.

The problem is that Tottenham played the second half as if the work was already done and their minds could already drift to their forthcoming international duties. Because the second half here was one of the worst collapses from a winning team you will ever see. Spurs had been warned about Kaoru Mitoma in the first half but did nothing to stop him in the second.

The failure of Micky van de Ven or Destiny Udogie to cut out the cross led to Minteh’s opener. Then Rutter was free to receive Mitoma’s pass and run through on goal with no opposition. Worst of all was the third when Udogie failed to stop Rutter’s cross from the right, then Welbeck jumped above Cristian Romero in the box.

It was a complete failure of defensive responsibility from the Spurs players.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Where was Spurs’ defence caught out?

In our preview for this match, we said that Spurs’ defenders can often be caught on their heels when asked to defend runs to their blindside — an issue that leaves them vulnerable to cutbacks, underlaps and overlaps. Spurs faced that predicament against Brighton too but this time, the runs caught out the heart of their defence.

Pedro Porro struggled at times to defend the combination play between Mitoma and Ferdi Kadioglu for much of the first half. In the 32nd minute, this led to Brighton’s most clear-cut chance of the half as an innovative outside-of-the-boot cross from Mitoma saw Welbeck sneak in behind Romero to slide in, but the ball dribbled wide of the far post.

Eight minutes later, Mitoma found Kadioglu who crossed into the box. Once again, Welbeck made a run behind Romero before leaping to meet the ball, with the header dribbling wide of the post after briefly worrying a diving Vicario.

Midway through the second half, Spurs paid for not heeding those warnings. Rutter showed great perseverance to knock the ball past multiple Spurs defenders before diving close to the byline to float a cross in.

Incredibly, neither Van de Ven nor Romero, both of whose eyes were glued to the ball, noticed Welbeck run into the gap between them and nod home with ease to complete Brighton’s comeback.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

Does this undo the recent upturn in form?

If Tottenham had held on for the win here — as they looked certain to do at half-time — then this would have been their sixth straight win in all competitions, the first time they had achieved this since 2018. Had they done that then people would have argued that Ange Postecoglou had turned Spurs’ season around after a wobbly start.

But collapsing like this in the second half, throwing the game away, will now change the narrative. Especially going into a two-week international break.

People will ask whether the progress of this season so far is real or illusory, especially given that so much of this season’s apparent progress had been Spurs’ defensive solidity.

They were finally looking like they were robust and hard to play against. And then they did this. It will bring back questions about whether Angeball is inherently defensively frail. Now maybe today was just down to players switching off and making bad decisions, rather than anything tactical. Maybe the improvements of this season are still genuine.

But this is now the debate that will play out before West Ham come to Tottenham after the break.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

How is Solanke’s role developing?

When Dominic Solanke joined Tottenham in the summer, he had to handle the responsibility of trying to replace Harry Kane. It was a role that Richarlison never looked fully comfortable with, but in Spurs’ positive first half, you could see an aspect of his game reminiscent of Kane: Solanke’s ability to drop into deep areas (see his first-half touch map below) and play forward passes that hurt the opposition.

Both of Spurs’ first-half goals came from Solanke in that space. Firstly when he took a pass from James Maddison and then threaded a perfect ball to Brennan Johnson, attacking the space behind Brighton’s defence (very similar to the goal Johnson scored against Qarabag).

And then with the second when Solanke released Timo Werner, who passed to Maddison, who made it 2-0. When you have fast wide forwards running in behind, you need a deep striker to play those passes, and Solanke can be as adept at it as Kane used to be.

The problem was that when Spurs lost control in the second half, Solanke struggled to impose himself on the game or even to get on the ball at all, and all of the hard work of the first half was thrown away.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

The Tottenham head coach said after the game: “We didn’t do what you need to do at this level, it’s non-negotiable. We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t win our duels, we lacked intensity, we didn’t deliver the things you need to at this level, the basics of the game, and paid the price for it.”

“It’s unacceptable at the end of the day. You can understand that you’re not going to win every game. But there’s the manner you lose games. And that’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve lost the game in that manner. Unacceptable.“

“All of it it’s disappointing. There are certain elements of this team that have been pretty consistent throughout my tenure, and that is one, even on our not-so-good days we’ve always fought and been competitive. I think that’s been a non-negotiable.

“Today’s the first day I felt like we didn’t deliver in those areas. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s with the ball. Sport is as much about competition as it is about anything else. And if you don’t compete, you allow the opponent to overrun you in that manner, you’re not going to get anything out of it.”

What next for Tottenham?

Saturday, October 19: West Ham United (H), Premier League, 12.30pm UK, 7.30am ET

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(Top photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

High on the list of this weekend’s must-watch matches is Sunday’s Premier League clash between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur at the Amex Stadium.

Both teams have aspirations of qualifying for European football but are sitting just outside the Conference League spots — Spurs are eighth with 10 points and Brighton are a point behind in ninth. However, this is also one of the season’s most intriguing tactical match-ups, with two of the league’s highest defensive lines meeting in what promises to be an entertaining encounter.

But what are the strengths and weaknesses of the defensive setups?

Brighton’s high line: Effective but self-destructive

One of the most noticeable changes at Brighton under new head coach Fabian Hurzeler is how their defence has been pushed up the pitch (see graphic below).

Hurzeler has been opting for a back four, rather than the back three he regularly picked at St Pauli last season. Jan Paul van Hecke and Lewis Dunk have been his preferred centre-back pairing, with Joel Veltman at right-back and James Milner or Pervis Estupinan at left-back. Their young midfield has successfully man-marked the opposition’s creative outlets, allowing Brighton’s defence to position itself close to the halfway line.

As a result, teams are forced to try to beat Brighton from out wide. Only 25 per cent of their opponents’ attacking touches have come in the middle of the pitch this season, the fourth-lowest mark in the league. Their wingers’ work rate has helped them defend wide areas well. They have allowed a league-low 6.2 crosses per game this season at an accuracy of just 27 per cent.

Brighton have also caught teams offside 4.8 times per match, the highest in the league. However, their vulnerabilities with this high line have come from through balls to find well-timed forward runs or quick switches of play that stretch out their defence. Only Ipswich Town (22) have allowed more through balls than Brighton’s 20 this season and their 17 switches conceded is the fourth-highest mark in the league.

Brighton’s press from the front has looked disjointed. Although they boast the league’s second-best passes per defensive action (PPDA, a measure of how intensely a team presses), with 8.8 — only Sunday’s opponents Tottenham rank better (7.7) — they have won just 25 possessions in the attacking third (half of Spurs’ 50). When teams bypass Brighton’s press using a through ball or a switch, their back line is compromised due to a lack of cover. Opposing forwards have either pulled one of the defenders with them by dropping deep, or made a well-timed run into the gaps between Brighton defenders to create opportunities.

Forest and Chelsea exploited these weaknesses well, as seen below, where a single pass takes out multiple Brighton players. Chelsea drew plenty of joy down their left flank, with Van Hecke and Veltman missing through injury while their replacements, Adam Webster and Ferdi Kadioglu, a left-back by trade, struggled.

This, along with Brighton’s attempts to defend the ball rather than space, has also meant Brighton have looked vulnerable on the counter. They have allowed the second-most expected goals (xG, which measures the quality of a goalscoring chance) from fast breaks at 0.3 per 90 minutes.

Worryingly, on Sunday, they will be up against the team who have created the most xG from fast breaks (0.4 per 90). Spurs have also been trapped offside just 1.5 times per game and have attempted 2.1 through balls per match this season (fourth highest in the league).

Brighton’s biggest concerns will be James Maddison — who has attempted five through balls this season, the second-highest figure in the league — and Dejan Kulusevski, fresh off a superb performance against Manchester United. Spurs’ twin attacking midfielders are excellent at line-breaking passes and if they feed the in-form duo of Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke, or the pacy Timo Werner, from central areas, they could really exploit Brighton’s high line. It’s worth noting, though, that Hurzeler said he would “discuss” plans with his players when asked after the Chelsea match if playing a high line is non-negotiable.

Spurs’ high line: Large spaces to cover but well-oiled from front to back

Since Ange Postecoglou’s arrival last summer, Spurs boast the best PPDA in the Premier League (8.6) and have averaged 6.8 possessions won in the attacking third per match, behind only Manchester City (7.3). Solanke’s relentless pressing has added to their off-the-ball efficiency up top.

This has complemented an industrious midfield and a defensive line that has also moved up the pitch this season.

Spurs’ off-the-ball defending has also improved thanks to Rodrigo Bentancur’s improved form after making just 13 Premier League starts due to knee and ankle injuries last term. Tottenham still press with a focus on winning the ball rather than minimising space for opponents to exploit, but Bentancur has covered well when a defensive team-mate has stepped forward to press or win the ball.

This was most evident in the build-up to Micky van de Ven’s assist for Brennan Johnson against Manchester United and in the example below against Brentford. Bentancur first fills in for Van de Ven and then for Destiny Udogie to give the latter the chance to get back.

However, if Bentancur fails to cover up this space in time, it can lead to the centre-backs being overworked.

Defending wide areas is where Spurs have struggled. With both their full-backs ‘inverting’ into midfield and pushing up to close down opponents once they get past the first press, Van de Ven and Cristian Romero are often left to protect wider and central areas.

The effect of this is two-fold.

First, as they enjoy plenty of possession, Spurs have allowed only 8.7 crosses from open play per game (fourth fewest in the league). However, 36 per cent of those have been accurate on average, the highest in the league, often due to an unsettled Spurs defence.

Additionally, given how Spurs’ players spread out when in possession, they are vulnerable when they give the ball away high up the pitch or if teams play through their press as they have larger spaces to cover, allowing for blindside runs (and in the example above against Brentford). Postecoglou’s recent move to play two attack-minded midfielders, Maddison and Kulusevski, also means less protection for their defence when opponents work through the press or win the ball high up the pitch.

These are aspects that Brighton will hope Kaoru Mitoma and Georginio Rutter, who started on the right wing against Chelsea, can exploit. Mitoma has attempted 22 open-play crosses across the first six league games of the season, ranking third in the Premier League, and will likely be required to help Estupinan defend Johnson. Meanwhile, Spurs’ tendency to concede chances from the left side of their defence means Rutter, if he starts out wide again, will receive opportunities to cause damage.

Tottenham Hotspur became the first English team to beat Ferencvaros in Hungary in 55 years on Thursday evening as they won 2-1 in the Europa League.

Goals from Pape Matar Sarr and Brennan Johnson mean Spurs have won their last five games in all competitions, including their first two in the league phase of the Europa League. Yet Ange Postecoglou’s much-changed side were still pushed all the way in Budapest.

Guglielmo Vicario made a couple of excellent saves at key moments, while Barnabas Varga had a goal disallowed for a tight offside when the contest was still goalless.

Yet the visitors still found a way to prevail, with academy stars Mikey Moore and Will Lankshear impressing on their first competitive starts.

Jay Harris dissects the main talking points from Hungary.

Did the eight changes to the starting line-up pay off?

Postecoglou made seven changes to the team that tore apart Manchester United on Sunday afternoon and named four teenagers in the starting XI in a European competition for the first time since February 2009.

With the rain lashing down and the home fans creating a raucous atmosphere, it was no surprise this young side initially found it difficult to settle. Pedro Porro and Yves Bissouma, two of the more experienced members of the group, both gave the ball away cheaply on the edge of their own box as Ferencvaros started aggressively.

They were lucky Varga’s header was ruled out for offside, while Vicario was forced into a point-blank save from the striker a couple of minutes later. Sarr’s goal at least allowed Tottenham to feel a bit more confident. Ben Davies had a great chance to score from a corner while Porro hit the post. “I thought they handled it really, really well,” said Postecoglou.

Yet, with those opportunities spurned and the hosts threatening a second-half revival, the Tottenham manager eventually threw on his senior players, including James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke and Johnson with the game too open for comfort. Johnson’s assured left-footed strike duly sealed the victory — even if Varga’s late effort made things awkward.

Johnson has scored in his last five games in all competitions. It turned out to be a challenging evening, but Spurs will have learned a lot.

Did Mikey Moore impress on his first start?

This was the moment Tottenham’s fanbase have been waiting for since Moore became the youngest player to represent them in the Premier League when he came off the bench in their 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in May. Moore was finally given a chance to show everybody what he is capable of from the start — and he did not disappoint.

The 17-year-old winger’s first involvement was to win a free kick and Ferencvaros’ defence found him elusive throughout — Eldar Civic eventually located him and was booked for a foul. The England Under-17 international is so confident driving at opponents and he played a huge part in Sarr’s goal.

Moore moved inside from the right wing and breezed past a couple of players before attempting to chip the ball into space for Lankshear. The ball bounced around in the box before falling kindly to Sarr, who had a simple finish from a few yards out.

Moore should have registered an assist in the second half when he played a brilliant ball for Timo Werner on the counter. Werner found himself one-on-one with Denes Dibusz and poked the ball past him, but the angle was too tight and he hit the side netting.

“I thought he was outstanding,” said Postecoglou in his post-match press conference. “It’s brilliant for a 17-year-old to play 90-plus minutes in a European away tie. He just handled it superbly; I kind of knew he would and I think it’ll help his growth as a footballer once you get through a sort of experience like that.

“He’ll grow and evolve and I didn’t feel like I needed to take him off. He still looked strong at the end and was still contributing.

“His ability to just deal with pressure and keep the ball in really tight areas and make really good clean decisions for such a young boy… it’s not easy out there when defenders fly in and he took one within the first 30 seconds, but he drives on. He’s got so much growth and he wants to learn.

“I couldn’t be happier with him and I’m very pleased that he’s part of our football club.”

This was worth the wait.

What is Archie Gray’s best position?

Archie Gray, who was making his second appearance at this level, started at left-sided centre-back even though he prefers to play in central midfield or at right-back. He had a large amount of space to cover with Davies pushing forward to join attacks and was left exposed for Barnabas Varga’s disallowed goal.

Gray followed Varga into Ferencvaros’ half only for the striker to flick the ball over his head for Adama Traore to chase. Civic then whipped a cross at the back post for Varga to head past Vicario, but the forward had strayed offside by a couple of centimetres in the build-up.

Gray switched with Davies at half-time and moved to left-back. He was exceptional on the ball and, at one point, ran the entire length of the pitch before being tackled on the edge of the box.

On the hour mark, it looked like he was trapped by the corner flag, but he pulled off a brilliant backheeled flick that launched a Spurs counter-attack. It was his pass that set up Johnson to strike the bar 11 minutes from time. “I thought Archie was brilliant today,” said Postecoglou. “We asked him to play two different positions and he just adapts and handles it.”

The 18-year-old’s stock keeps growing with every appearance and it is exciting to think what he might be capable of when offered the chance to play in his favourite position.

Did Lucas Bergvall take his chance?

After being sacrificed for Destiny Udogie in last week’s 3-0 victory over Qarabag following Radu Dragusin’s red card, Lucas Bergvall was presented with a second chance to impress. The 18-year-old has looked silky when he has come off the bench in the Premier League, but this threatened to be a better opportunity to see how he fits into this team.

Bergvall was tasked with being the playmaker, with Sarr and Bissouma alongside him in midfield. He showed a few slick touches but struggled to make a significant impact.

Towards the end of the first half, Porro fired a pass into Bergvall’s feet, but he dummied it assuming Moore was running in behind. Yet Moore had not moved and the ball went out of play. Porro complained while Bergvall tried to explain himself. That incident, and an unfortunate slip in the second half which led to a Ferencvaros counter-attack, summed up his evening.

There will be lots more chances for Bergvall to impress and it is easy to forget that he is still a young and inexperienced player.

What next for Tottenham?

Sunday, October 6: Brighton (A), Premier League, 4.30pm UK, 11.30am ET

A tricky trip to the south coast where Spurs were beaten 4-2 last December. But they will travel to the Amex stadium bolstered by five wins in a row in all competitions.

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(Top photo: David Balogh/Getty Images)

Tottenham Hotspur striker Dominic Solanke has been called up to the England squad for the first time in seven years.

Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers, though, has not been included in the senior side and will again be part of the Under-21 squad.

Manchester United defender Harry Maguire is also among those left out by interim head coach Lee Carsley, as are Solanke’s Spurs team-mate James Maddison and West Ham United forward Jarrod Bowen. Chelsea defender Levi Colwill has been selected after featuring in both of England’s Nations League games last month.

Solanke, 27, has scored three goals in six games for Tottenham since completing a £65million ($83m) move from Bournemouth over the summer.

He netted 21 times in 42 games for Bournemouth last season but was not included in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the European Championship, with Harry Kane, Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins selected ahead of him.

Solanke’s only senior England appearance came while he was at Liverpool in November 2017, when he featured as a substitute in a friendly against Brazil.

GO DEEPER

The real Dominic Solanke - resilient, rebuilt and ready to star for Tottenham

Rogers has emerged as a key player for Unai Emery’s Villa side this season and has started all eight of their matches in the Premier League and Champions League, contributing two assists and one goal.

Maguire, meanwhile, played well for England last month but misses out after the emergence of Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs De Ligt as Erik ten Hag’s first-choice centre-backs. The 31-year-old was also absent from the United team that lost 3-0 at home to Tottenham on Sunday with a dead calf muscle injury but has been included in their travelling party to face Porto in the Europa League on Thursday. He is not expected to start, however, and the international break will give him time to get back to full fitness.

Maddison has not been included in an England squad since being cut from the preliminary selection ahead of the Euros. The 27-year-old has two assists and one goal in seven games for Spurs this season.

GO DEEPER

Rogers caught Guardiola's and Arteta's eye early - now Emery is offering a chance to shine

England host Greece at Wembley Stadium on Thursday before travelling to Finland on Sunday for their Nations League B Group 2 fixtures. They began the group stage with wins over the Republic of Ireland and Finland last month.

‘A more rounded player than some of his potential rivals’

Analysis by Tottenham correspondent Jay Harris

After suffering an ankle injury on his debut for Tottenham, Solanke has been in great form since he returned in September and has deservedly been called up to an England squad for the first time in seven years.

Solanke was a prolific goalscorer for England’s youth teams, winning the Under-17 European Championship and Under-20 World Cup, but has only been capped once up to now.

The centre-forward joined Spurs from Bournemouth at the beginning of August for a club-record fee of £65million. He has scored in his last three games in all competitions and set up Brennan Johnson’s goal in last week’s 3-0 victory over Qarabag in the Europa League.

Solanke has exceptional movement in the box but his ability to drop deep to link-up play along with his relentless pressing make him a more rounded player than some of his rivals upfront.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

To watch Tottenham recently has been to get a glimpse of a future. It is not a future many Spurs fans wanted to consider, but the evidence of September is that it may not be so bad.

We are coming to the end of the era of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min at Tottenham. For eight years — from Son’s arrival in 2015 to Kane’s departure in 2023 — these two world-class forwards carried Spurs. No matter what problems Spurs had during that time — bad recruitment, bad management and the rest — they could rely on having two of the best attacking players in Europe to bail them out.

When Kane was sold to Bayern Munich last summer it left a huge hole, not just his goals but his creativity, his hold-up play, and his leadership on and off the pitch. Son became the captain (replacing Hugo Lloris) and senior player, and had a better season than the one before, scoring 17 Premier League goals.

But even Son will not go on forever. This is the last season of his contract, although Spurs intend to trigger an option which will see him contracted for next season too. But he is 32 years old and time will catch up with him eventually. He is already showing signs of slowing down: so far this season he is averaging 1.4 shots per 90 in the league, his lowest number during his time at Spurs, and 0.28 expected goals per 90, his joint-lowest at Spurs.

With Kane in Germany and Son arguably past his peak, Tottenham will have to rely on less established firepower. That might be daunting. It will certainly be more difficult. Spurs will have to work harder for goals and cannot just get the ball to someone on the edge of the box and trust it will end up in the bottom corner. Just two weeks ago, this might have prompted some to wonder if Spurs were in trouble. With Son not scoring every game, where would the goals come from?

But it is time for the next generation of Spurs forwards to step up and fill the gap. Two years ago they spent an initial £50million on bringing Richarlison in from Everton. Even though he was better last season, he has still only scored 12 Premier League goals since then. After paying so much money for not much of a return, Tottenham need their next big signings to start scoring fast.

Spurs spent £47.5m on Brennan Johnson last summer and he did well enough last season, with five goals and 10 assists in 26 Premier League starts, but it always felt like there was more to come. This summer they bought Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth for a fee that could end up at £65m. With more than £100m invested in their new-look front line the pressure was on.

Solanke and Johnson started together at Leicester City on the opening day, and Spurs dominated possession, but neither man scored and Spurs drew 1-1. Solanke picked up a knock and when he returned against Arsenal on September 15 neither he nor Johnson had much impact. Spurs lost 1-0. Fans grew anxious. (Johnson got so much abuse on social media he deleted his accounts.) If neither could score goals then Tottenham would have a frustrating season.

But when Spurs went to Coventry City in the League Cup things started to change. Solanke worked hard all night, and when Johnson came on he scored a brilliant winning goal deep in stoppage time, racing onto Rodrigo Bentancur’s pass and dinking a perfect finish. It was his first goal since April, and his season was finally underway.

It always felt with Johnson that if he just had one good moment, one big goal, then his confidence would return and he would never look back. So it has proved: Johnson started against Brentford, Qarabag and Manchester United, scoring in all three games. Seeing his delight at turning in Micky van de Ven’s cross at Old Trafford — making that classic run attacking the far post that he does so well — was to see a player transformed from how he looked at the start of the season.

GO DEEPER

How Spurs tore apart Manchester United in 45 minutes

But Johnson cannot do it all by himself. The other story of the last few weeks has been the arrival of Solanke as a Tottenham player. He was signed in part for his penalty-box instincts, and the way that he swept in rebounds against Brentford and Qarabag showed off his killer instinct. So did the way he attacked Pape Matar Sarr’s flick from Lucas Bergvall’s corner at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Solanke offers more than that too: a relentlessness in pressing the opposition which sets the tone for the whole team, as well as an awareness in linking with team-mates to create chances for them. Just watch the way he won the ball back against Qarabag and played in Johnson, to get a sense of how his value to the team will be bigger even than the goals that he scores.

Since Johnson came on at Coventry, he has scored four and Solanke three, and between them you can get a glimpse of how Spurs might attack in the future. When Tottenham went to Old Trafford on Sunday they did so without Son, and racked up Spurs’ biggest xG tally since records began: 4.59.

If you go back through the data and see Spurs’ other best xG hauls — none of them exceeding four — they are almost exclusively games in which Kane and Son both played and both scored. (The 4-0 win against Everton in January 2018; the 5-0 win against Swansea the season before; the 2-0 win against Arsenal in April 2017; the 5-1 win against Stoke in December 2017; the 5-0 win at Norwich in May 2022.) The one exception is the 4-1 defeat of Newcastle United last season, by which point Kane had left.

Of course we are not in the post-Son era yet. He has started seasons slowly before and then clicked into gear. He scored twice against Everton on 24 August. While he has not scored since, there is no doubt he will continue to be first choice out on the left when he gets back to fitness. In this system, playing this way, there will be plenty of goals on offer for him too.

But the point here is that for years Tottenham’s attacking play has been painfully dependent on two men. One of them has left, and Son can no longer do it all himself. At some point Tottenham will have to find a way to score goals without relying on an all-time great to do it all for them. And for the first time now you can see an outline of what that future might look like.

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(Top photo: Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke; by Alex Pantling via Getty Images)